When we go on long road trips my wife insists on driving. If I’m not sleeping I tend to try to take pictures. It’s an interesting challenge. Much of the time we’re on the highway moving along at 70mph and that makes it a bit like reverse sports photography. You have to see the thing far enough ahead of time to take the shot. I spend a lot of time pivoting rapidly trying to get something in focus that I only just caught a glance of.
On this trip we went through far Western VA on our way to Alabama. That’s new territory for me. As a result of that (and tons of traffic) we spent more time off the highway which slowed things down. I was also shooting with the Canon 28-300. That kind of range is pretty great for this type photography. I can zoom out for the long shots I often wanted to make but missed with 70-200 but could pull out super-wide for things that snuck up on me. Often I’d shoot those without even getting things framed. This lens is also kind of different as it’s a push/pull zoom (like a trombone slider) rather than the normal twist zoom. I have to be careful not to extend it right into the window when zooming in. I’ve gotten used to it but it’s definitely a different feeling. If you’re in the lens market, this is a good solid lens but I wouldn’t recommend it if you do much video. The zoom tends to stick just a bit at the far end of both ranges. It may eventually break in but that’d be deal breaker for video. I do like it and it’s a reasonable price in the scheme of how insanely expensive these things are.
This trip I took somewhere around 1500 or 2000 pictures. That kind of sounds like a lot but given it was about 18 hours of driving and I easily take 3000 photos during a football game . . . it’s really not much at all. I deleted all but 300 or so. Many of the keepers were less about the quality of the photograph than the fact that I liked how it captured something. Many of them were not quite in focus or framed quite how I wanted.
I like the decay of buildings. This particular shot feels almost like a watercolor to me.
Here’s a good example of a blurry photo that I kept because of the strangeness of the subject. I don’t know what’s going on with these rhinos but I like it.
Alternately, here’s a decent landscape photo. I love the light and terrain in this area. I should have cropped out the power line but let’s say it’s a comment on human intrusion on the landscape.
I took a lot of pictures of churches. It could be a whole photo book. This one was particularly interesting because of the shadows and I was able to get it in focus and straight on.
I like cows. I like decay. Not quite in focus.
I also tend to try to capture the non-standard things. I like handmade signs and non-chain stores. I capture them when I can. Now we’ll see if Jim Groom buys this sign and ships it to Italy.
This falls in the non-standard sign category. I’ve actually watched this one decay over the 20+ years I’ve been making the VA to AL drive.
I can’t decide if I like the flagpole or not but I love the letters.
You can’t beat cursive spray paint for a business.
Another photobook option topic are the car memorials that I see every so often. This one was incredible. The dog. The cigarette. Learn more about Melvin here.
This is another place I’ve shot many times over the years. It’s a gigantic industrial area covered in graffiti. Someday I’ll stop.
Out of focus but I end up keeping it. I wonder a lot about hitchhikers. Anyone walking on the roads is interesting to me.
Nice set of photos, Tom. I’m also drawn to decay, interesting signs, and roadside oddities. And 1500 images doesn’t sound a lot for a trip like this. Rolling down the road means a lot of bursts.
Thanks Tim. I’ve been enjoying your photos.
Agreed regarding the numbers. It was far less than I thought. I might have been being overly-cautious because I didn’t want to end up with thousands of photos for post.