When business is slow it is time to hit the road…

Finding subjects to photograph is not easy at times. There are times I feel like there is nothing of interest to photograph anywhere near me. There is always something to be found not far though I have found to be very true. Most of the subjects I find are within twenty miles of my home. I have driven miles and miles of dirt roads looking for interesting focus points, sometimes at the end of the road there is a majestic southern plantation home other times it is simply a dead end and I then have to back out. On more than one occasion at the end of the road I found what seems to be a private junkyard or dump… It has definitely been very surprising to me how many dirt roads there are in the area, coming from Southern California where there are very few dirt roads to the Lowcountry of South Carolina where I think there are just as many dirt roads as paved roads.

I try not to trespass, but my curiosity gets the best of me at times and I just have to see what is at the end of the road. I look for “Keep Out” or “No Trespassing” signs if there are none present it is free game to me!!! I have found some friendly and some not so friendly people on these roads. Just after we moved here I was checking things out on a dirt road, I had stopped on what little side of the road there was there, got out of my truck and was looking at a small pond to see if I could compose a photograph of it. Soon an older guy drove up and asked what I was doing, I told him sightseeing, he then told me to get off of his land. So I did… a couple of weeks later I went back to go down that dirt road again and it was blocked with a fallen tree… I guess he really did not want anyone to sightsee… Another time I had wondered on to a dirt road and found an awesome grand old Live Oak tree to photograph, as was finishing up putting my gear back into my truck an older gentleman drove up and also asked me what I was doing, I told him I was taking photographs of the giant old Live Oak… He asked me if I liked it I told him of course, he then replied if you like that one get in (his truck) I have more you can photograph… We drove around his five or so thousand acres for a while stopping along the way to take some photos of some of his property. A few weeks later we got together and he took me on a tour of the area and showed me some sights that had I wondered like I do may have taken me years to find by myself…

I once received a phone call, the person on the other end asked if I had taken the photograph on the cover of the local phonebook, I told them I did, quickly there after the person stated that, that was their driveway, followed with a short pause and then a it really turned out nice comment, the conversation led to an invitation to dinner and an evening of sharing photographs with me, and a family history.

I have found I really do not need to go too far to “explore” the “world” a little curiosity goes along way…

It is a matter of choice.

I have yet to understand why so many people choose to show photographs that are poorly done.

With the proliferation of MySpace, Facebook, and other social networking websites comes the showing off of people’s photographs.

There are many people on these sites that post photographs (mainly self portraits) that are so blurry the person in the photograph is just about unrecognizable. With a digital camera in hand there is no reason to have a photo that blurry….. Delete it!!!! Try again it is not that hard to take another one.

Two styles of photographs that crack me up are the one out stretched arm photos, and the bathroom mirror shots. Again with digital cameras there is no reason to have shots like these… Just about all digital cameras have a self timer setting that give the user ample time to set it pose and have a photo taken. The only exception to this is if the user is using a cell phone camera there are not many that have a self timer built in yet. Please learn to use your camera, read the manual… Buy a small tripod there are some really good ones on the market that are compact and will not cost you an arm and a leg.

If you only have a cell phone camera that does not have a self timer call your best friend over and have them take the photos for you… You are going to post them on the web for the whole world to see, you may as well get someone to help you out…

Photography is a lot of fun, and it is great that we are able to carry cameras just about everywhere we go these days… With a small amount of effort these same photographs could be much better.

Just remember when you want quality photographs you can be proud of, check your local listings for a professional photographer, be sure to take a look at their website to be sure the quality is up to a standard you would like to display for a life time…