Off Main
Covid obviously caused seismic shifts in our lives over the past year. For me, it changed the landscape both figuratively and literally. Because of my age and extreme caution, I traveled little and never more than a few hours from home. My renewed passion in photography, touched on in my bio and earlier blog, had pushed me to seek and present the beauty of nature’s grandeur: Arizona, Washington, Maine, our beautiful NC coast. Landscape photography by the greats is what first attracted me to my recently born again pleasure some fifty plus years ago. And, until recently, was a chosen path for expression. To keep the drive alive, I searched for beauty closer to home. Nearby towns, needy for attention, welcomed me into their inner circles. My forages into these photogenic gems took a turn, from Main Street to alleys and back ways. I found my new landscapes.
Shooting
A short discourse on my technique is in order. I use a digital camera. That means the number of images that can be captured is limited only by battery life and storage space. A blessing or curse? Well, can be both. Of late, I have tried to be more caring with the subjects that do speak to me. I walk around the subject moving by only inches at a time, continuing to “see” and feel, “zoom with my feet”, check the frame all around for interlopers, compose and recompose, then shoot. Does that provide better results than shooting 40 images of the same subject and hoping one works? For me, yes. More often now, after spending a few minutes, I determine that I cannot visualize an image that will be satisfying to me and others, and so move on. That entails consideration on site of all that is possible with both exposure and processing. And with digital, that is a lot. Do I miss some effective images this way? Yeah, probably so. And so, occasionally I will shoot anyway because I can. Mostly, though, I am picky. A personal preference, of course. But my photography was suffering from spending too much time trying to bring a poor image to life in editing. And very importantly, a fatally botched composition cannot be brought to life, but can be prevented. Seeing also must have a practical side.
From a technical standpoint, I almost always expose to the right (ETTR.) That means exposing more than necessary for the highlights, but not so that they are blown out—that is, devoid of any detail. This allows for more detail in the shadows, and the highlights can be pulled back in processing. This observes the basic law of physics that you cannot recover an image if there was not enough light to record it. So, ETTR allows for more detail in the shadows, and preserved detail in the highlights if one is careful. And, not knowing what lies in wait, I always shoot in raw mode to allow as much processing potential as I can.
Walking
Okay, technical proficiency is important. But determining what to shoot is paramount. My photographer’s sense is always active, mentally processing potential images as I spy vistas, close objects, shapes, colors, tonal contrasts. Traveling on foot yields a richer harvest than does driving. Walking allows for peeking into alleys, peering over walls and noticing things in slow motion. A recent hour and a half walk in a small VA town revealed opportunities for photos that I had deemed nonexistent on a previous drive along the same route.
Meandering down the service alley of a street of store fronts is like peeking around a movie set façade. In this case, however, both sides are real, but only one is dressed for company. Peeling, colorful paint reveals original old brick or stone foundations. Random pipes and wires, apparently no longer necessary, abruptly end. Shapes and colors float around in the mind, seeking a place to settle in a composition. Available light plays games. An intense sun creates brilliance and black shadows on a clear sunny day. Clouds, shade, or mist mask the sun and saturate the fading, neglected colors. Walking along back streets reveals the unattended to graffiti and the unfinished shapes of renovation. What a rewarding challenge awaits the wanderer.
And when a camera swings from my shoulder, that sense is magnified. It becomes real. When an image appears and a visualization of the final presentation swirls in my head, it is put up or shut up time. Visualize, shoot, process and see if I was right. No more just creating “masterpieces” in my mind, which, by comparison, is easy to do.
Seeing
Venturing down a new path is an adventure. Revisits along the same way can also yield surprises with changed lighting or time of day. Seeing, as most photographers understand, is far different than looking. First, I look as I walk along, seeking objects that reach out to me, almost asking to be interpreted. Then we must see what we are looking at. This involves more than just the function of the optic nerve. It is also perceiving on an emotional or feeling level. A subject is great to me if it will look and feel good in its ultimate presentation. Ansel Adams referred to it as visualization: imagining how the final image would look in print before even taking the shot. Observe one of his great works Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite (my favorite for example) and check your reaction. You may not be able to explain it, but I’ll bet it is a deeper level than just a visual response to a print or screen image. Adams is one of the landscape photography greats that lured me into photography in 1970, but only recently did I begin to understand how deeply his work draws me in. Even now, a full verbal explanation of how eludes me. So, often I see subjects that others may not deem worthy. Now, that does not mean I am special; but it does mean that to me, the subjects I choose are. And that is what matters.
On a visit to a small tourist town in NC, a couple of detours away from the shops resulted in subjects ranging from beautiful color contrasts, neat shadows and stark graffiti. Walking along was almost unimpeded, only dodging one or two service vehicles. It was freeing to not know what to expect. No planned camera angle, perspective, shutter speed, ISO, or even whether I would be rendering any catches in color or B&W. All that lay in mystery until the object appeared in front of my lens.
The first path off Main Street, taking each right turn, ended at a high wall and building, with me in full shade and the building washed by a bright November sun. As do some, I do not shy away from full daylight photography with its sharp contrasts and high dynamic range. Backtracking and heading along another narrow alley led me to what has become one of my favorite recent photos. Deep blue paint peeled back to provide texture and its thinning surface revealed the faint outlines of underlying brick. A small, curiously placed rusted window framed by angling, disconnected pipes, provided the perfect geometric counterparts. Almost full shade cooled and saturated the nearly complementary colors. A slight edge of sunlight highlighted the pipes and kissed the grasses. No way to have planned such an encounter. What a gift that alley offered.
A favorite B&W photo featuring shapes and dynamic contrast presented itself after looking at the alley from the Main Street side, an uninspiring and poorly lit scene. A walk around the corner and along the back side of the building yielded an alley that reminded me of images of arched walkways in Europe, only here in southern VA. And another whose narrow walkway and deep shadows created a creepy, dark setting.
And so it went with walks through other nearby towns, often finding treasures on the second or even third visit. Vines created intricate patterns with their encroachment, rust adorned metal doors and decay ate at wooden ones. Weather-ravaged, sun bleached, water-damaged, walls, buildings, gates, doors and windows standing their ground. Abandoned structures bravely battling against nature and man to retain some dignity. Doors still dutifully locked even though what lies behind is often trash or adjacent walls, decayed and fragile. Once fully paned windows, now gaping like mouths with missing teeth, allow free entry. As Vachel Lindsey wrote: “Factory windows are always broken, someone’s always throwing bricks.”
Will the improving Covid situation free me to travel to distant destinations to photograph wonders of nature? I certainly hope so. I am hooked now, however, on seeking beauty in the out of the way places that lie off Main Street. I will not stop exploring my “new landscapes.”