ESTABLISHED 2010 - Beyond The Campfire was created to encourage readers to explore the great outdoors and to observe it close up. Get out and take a hike, go fishing or canoeing, or simply stretch out on a blanket under a summer sky...and take your camera along. We'll talk about combining outdoor activities with photography. We'll look at everything from improving your understanding of the basics of photography to more advanced techniques including things like how to see photographically and capturing the light. We'll explore the night sky, location shoots, using off camera speedlights along with nature and landscape. Grab your camera...strap on your hiking boots...and join me. I think you will enjoy the adventure.

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Country Roads - A Great Place to Climb Out of a Rut

There are times when I find it difficult to discover something new locally to photograph. It  happens more



often than I would like, but it also serves a good purpose by forcing me to look beyond my normal range. It is easy to fall into a rut and become dissatisfied with my results, but again it also serves to as motivation to seek out something fresh and rewarding. Often it is simply a matter of waiting for good light or different light on old subject matter. Sometimes it requires me to find a new subject altogether. Once the need arises to seek out something new, one of the best places to find it is along a country road.


Country roads are one of my favorite photographic haunts. Kentucky is blessed with an abundance of winding and random flowing back roads with hundreds of old barns and ponds and other rural paraphernalia. Each of them adds a unique flavor to the landscape and how one observes this unique landscape is how one will photograph it.



Light is still the key ingredient so simply photographing what you see will only produce snap shots of the landscape. I often will spend the middle of the day driving along a new country road simply looking for potential locations taking note of where the sun will rise or set, are there any valley's or low areas where fog will collect, is there a clear view of the horizon or sky, what is actually important in what I am observing and how best can it be captured. This kind of approach helps to simplify your approach and narrow down the time and place to attempt a capture.





Country roads; and great place to climb out of a rut.




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