“The camera makes you forget you’re there. It’s not like you are hiding but you forget, you are just looking so much.” – Annie Leibovitz.
The mornings this past week have been unusually warm and the snow that covered everything last week is now mostly gone and the path through the wooded acres across the street from my home has dried enough for me to go for a walk without slipping on ice or getting stuck in the mud.
I grabbed my little Fuji camera, mounted the 55-200mm lens on it and walked across the road to see what I could find. I have wandered in that woodland thousands of times since I built my home in Pritchard forty plus years ago. Nevertheless, I always enjoy the quiet walks looking for new ways of photographing that familiar place.
A few years after I moved there, I noticed some young men crashing some beat up cars through those woods. Eventually, when they had destroyed the motors, they abandoned them and every time I visited them that summer, I saw those parts and eventually the engines disappeared.
A new family moved in down the road for a month or so and they owned a big five-ton truck that had a large push blade on the front. Soon after on my next visit to the little clearing where the two derelict trucks resided, I saw that they must have used that big truck for a demolition derby. Gosh that must have been fun.
Now those wrecks have become creative art sculptures to photograph.
On this stroll to the “sculptures” the long 55-200mm telephoto was perfect fun. I have photographed those demolished cars with all sorts of cameras and more than once had Jo’s children posed in and on top of them. However, this time I wanted to isolate features. I could have used a macro lens, but the Fuji zoom let me stand back to view my selection.
I suppose I could have jumped in my car and drove somewhere to find more interesting subjects, or waited till summer for more exotic locations, but those over-photographed wrecks are always waiting…summer, winter, rain, or shine. This time it was a door resting in the snow.
“I walk, I look, I see, I stop, I photograph.”– Leon Levinstein. I found this fun quote and it did fit my mood that day. Levinstein (1910–1988) was an American street photographer known for his photography of 1950s New York City street life.
Stay safe and be creative. These are my thoughts for this week. Contact me at www.enmanscamera.com or emcam@telus.net.
