Free-styling

Sometimes inspiration eludes me. Sometimes when the weather turns in climate and you just can’t be bothered to come up with specific places to go and things to shoot, there is a rut that develops that can be dangerous. So, to help continue those creative juices flowing, you just get in your favorite mode of transport and you drive aimlessly…but with a purpose. Follow me in and I’ll show you!

So I got together with a buddy and we took our gear to a junkyard in our town. The Manager of the place had no problem with us going in a shooting photos. Now, we had a plan of going to this place, but since neither one of us had been there before, I consider it a free-style shoot as we had no idea what was on the other side of the fence or if any of what was there was even worth shooting, or thoughts of composition. Well, we found some cool stuff to shoot and compose, the skies were overcast and added some drama to the black and white shots that we took. Didn’t even have to leave the city limits.

Now, that same buddy and I set-out to go into Oregon and shoot a couple of train bridges. I won’t go into those details as they’re not relevant to this weeks theme. But after we had completed those pre-planned shoots, we went rogue for the rest of our time shooting. This truck to the right we found in the town of Hillsboro, Oregon at the entrance to a winery. Never would have found it if we hadn’t purposely gotten lost and taken all these back roads to be lucky enough to happenstance upon this scene.

The awesome scene to the left is from Boyd, Oregon. Boyd is tiny town just South of The Dalles, Oregon. Not allot to see, to tell you the truth, but driving a wee bit aimlessly led us to this spot, which in my eyes, makes it a successful sojourn. Every time I go on a free-style…I’m never disappointed. I always come to something worthy of capture.

The photo to the right illustrates another variation of free-styling. Armed only with my cell phone, my wife and I walked to get a coffee and the clouds began to part and, well, even though it’s a crappy cell phone shot, still pretty good for not expecting to see something cool like that. I don’t know about anyone else, but stuff like this makes me…well, a little giddy.

I know I sound like my needle’s skippin’, but going and getting lost with a purpose is so much fun and you’re bound to get at least a shot of something that’s interesting. Let the explorer in you out and give them their reign! Go and experience places you have never been to, within your area, and learn some cool things about where it is that you live. You will not be disappointed. As always, leave a comment on anything within these pages, I’d love to hear from you! Go, be and do! Have fun with your explorations in travel.

Until the next time, take care of yourselves and each other…be and travel well!