Rusty Goodness
Welcome back in…Happy 2023 to you all! I’ve got some awesome plans for shoots to go on in 2023 but, until we get closer to those times, right now I’d like to talk about opportunities one might encounter while free styling and taking those roads less traveled. Check it out!
Thankfully we had people, throughout the generations, make loads of stuff…big and small, out of iron and steel. And, as we all know, those two types of metal, when exposed over a long period of time, collect rust. Beautiful rust. If you want to detail life back in the day, you might want to find old cars, machinery, older farm structures…even art. I like to photograph these subjects to demonstrate some of the history that lies all around us. What was once highly regarded, in its time, to being cast aside and given over to the elements.
You can find rusty goodness almost anywhere and you don’t have to travel to countryside to find it. Plymouth, Massachusetts, where Plymouth Rock lives, is a sea faring town and, thusly, you can find rusty items without too much trouble. This anchor and chain where sitting right on a dock in Plymouth. Rusty goodness…rusty coolness! If you wanted to illustrate what sea faring life would have been like, back in the day, one could easily find the words to caption such a story using photographs of rusty goodness.
This shot to the left is one of my favorite in my rusty goodness collection. It has everything I could want from it. A very rare, and rusty, automobile, blue sky, old dilapidated barn and flowers to indicate Spring. I drove approximately 15-20 minutes from my home and found this scene. The owner, who was at the front of his house on a riding lawn mower, was very kind and allowed me unfettered access to come on his property and take as many photographs as I needed. All I had to do was ask! I sent him a copy of this shot and he couldn’t have been happier with it! Just as a thanks…kindness begets kindness. Always appreciate the help, or allowances, that folks bestow upon you…you never know what you can make of it!
I delight in taking many photographs of bridges. Especially if there are more than one unique angle in which to capture them by. This lovely, rusty subject is smack dab between the East and West bound lanes of Interstate-84 in the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon. I spent a good couple of hours, and some change, doing everything from wide angle shots to macro. There were so many rusty parts, I even went underneath and shot up through the railroad ties. There were buckets, some spilled over, of rusty rail spikes and I got in some interesting depth of field shots with those. If you allow yourself the ability to explore the area, there’s no telling what you might find to aid in the story you want to tell. I even did some fancy sun-burst shots pointing straight up to the sun and included the left, slanted girder, and the tanks chained to the side of the handrail. There are some, “Retired,” train bridges that ave been turned into pedestrian walk/trail ways so that they can still be enjoyed and not have the possibility of certain injury by train.
I mentioned art earlier. Well a prime example is this rusty killer whale, on Orcas Island, located within the San Juan Islands in Washington State. I have found 3, so far, outdoor galleries in Washington. One in Belligham, one in Olympia and one near Mt. Rainier. There was enough rust in 2, out of the 3, to keep me snapping until I passed out or after all of my camera batteries expired. I have 10 batteries for my d850 and all, fully charged. My point, as always, is to go and explore. Google Maps is one of the best resources to use in finding your next adventure. Look up a county, in your state, that’s 2 hours in any direction. Go to one of them and wander. Get mindfully lost and have your favorite image capturing device in tow. At the very least, you will learn something about that county you’ve never been through before, but if I was a wagering man, I believe that you will find at least ONE subject to photograph. Probably more if you explore areas for longer periods. I have yet to get skunked! Google Maps just about ensures that you won’t. The closer you zoom into an area, the more stuff will pop up that might interest you.
That about does it for me! I enjoyed bringing you some rusty goodness and I hope you enjoyed reading about it. I have gone to the extent of making lists for my adventures. For instance, I have made a list of ALL the counties in Washington State and the towns within those counties that hold, in their possession, subjects I want to capture with my cameras. Now allot, if not most of these counties, will require at least an overnight, if not two. Ghost towns, old train tunnels, barns and other structures that I need to go and see. So, some of those will be getting done in this new year and I have a big trip coming up in the fall…more on that in later blogs! I hope that you all have big, and small, adventures planned for 2023 and you get yourselves out and enjoy this rock we all live on! Until the next time, take care of yourselves and each other, be and travel well!
