A Place Where You Leave Something Behind - Photographing Kentucky's Backroads

I find it comforting the way the backroads of Kentucky seemingly weave and twist and converge upon themselves. Not any kind of rhyme or reason to their meanderings, they just follow the lay of the land and end up where they were meant to arrive. Coming from Oklahoma where all the roads were situated across a giant grid, I found myself lost several times as first I explored the natural charms found across Kentucky. One road may change names about as often as it changes directions here with side roads leading off into a patch of enchanted woods or across a nostalgic low water bridge that spans crystal waters flowing across ancient gravel. It is the haunting call of the side roads that entices a photographer for they represent the very best the state has to offer. Photographs of the low keyed life discovered along these often forgotten places is best presented in black and white for it is within this realm the true charm and simplicity of this wonderful example of Americana can be found.

Sometimes I will make sure I have a full tank of gas and when the opportunity presents itself I head out just to see what I can find. A good map or a GPS locator APP on your phone helps as long as you can find service, which isn't always available. Even so, just take off down a road you have never been down before. Odds are in Kentucky you will end up back where you started anyway.

I especially enjoy running across a small country church. More often than not they are tucked into some scenic corner with a small cemetery behind or to one side of it. These old cemeteries are a unique connection to the past some with headstones dating back to 1700's. Sometimes you will simply run across a small family cemetery standing alone just off the road. They are usually well kept and in the spring and summer you will find wildflowers growing around the area.

Mornings when dew gleans in the early light and fog settles in the low areas are the best times to travel down these nostalgic lanes. I will often simply stop and stand alongside the road during those early hours just so I can gather in the fresh aroma of the country air and experience the atmosphere of the moment. There's not many things better than a country morning.

You will discover old barns, fields of grain, and rolling hills interspersed between wide open farm country to accent the small streams and heavily wooded areas. There will be pastures with horses and cattle along with small fenced in spaces where you might find goats or even an exotic animal or two.

Wild deer and turkey will make themselves present as they add their natural instincts to the landscape. On a summer morning you might find some kids fishing a farm pond or riding a horse across a field. During the fall you will experience colors second to none across this country and the winter brings its own flavorful accent across the land. Spring will explode with dogwoods and redbuds splashing their color across fields, and old barns suddenly come to life again with their own stories to tell.

When the corn fields are ripe, they cast a golden aura across the landscape and when the wheat turns brown, there is nothing more soothing, more beautiful than when the winds send the fields into motion, and nothing more American than when the farmers gather in the harvest.

You will discover old bridges, although no longer safe to cross, who still retain their connection to the history of the country.

Not far down the road you will encounter the heart and soul of Kentucky, the old homestead farm house often seen at the far end of a side road. It is here, at these locations where you experience the true wonder of Kentucky's backroads. It is almost like the these locations sing to you, "Stop here a moment...and take part of what you see home with you." When you listen to the country song, you will certainly understand why most likely you left a part of yourself there as well.

Making Your Flash Lighting Look Like It Is Supposed to be There

Sometimes I am amazed at the technology of photography today. Back in the day when I first started using a 35mm SLR camera, the technology was rather old school with just a hint of what was to come being suggested. I have to admit though, back in the day was a great learning experience and I owe a great deal to being forced to learning how to think thru the photographic process to those days.

My first experiences with using an electronic flash unit were at best rudimentary attempts of filling in light. I knew nothing about how to use a flash unit except to attach it to my camera and point it toward my subject. At best I would bounce it off a ceiling and feel like I was doing something real creative in the process. Fact is, I had no clue what I was doing and that clueless understanding followed me right up to and well into my digital transformation.

Fast forward a few years and today I use electronic flash (speed lights) units all the time and rely on them to help me create some wonderfully lit compositions. The technology today when it comes to flash units is superb. You can control the power output of multiple flash units from your camera or from the transmitter attached to your camera. Built in Through The Lens (TTL) systems in today's cameras and flash units can take a great deal of the guess work out of effectively using your flash. Of course, shooting manually opens up all kinds of creative options.

The trick then boils down to two things: Understanding how your camera interacts with a flash, and then understanding how to apply your flash unit(s) to your composition. We will in this post concentrate on the second concept. For more information on how your camera interacts with a flash you can visit a previous post: Combining Flash with Natural Light: The Mystery Unraveled  https://beyondthecampfirebykeith.blogspot.com/2017/04/combining-flash-with-natural-light.html
on this blog site. Just do a blog search to find it.

We are going to break down a few photographs and explain how the flash unit was used to light the scene. The first thing to remember about using a flash unit is this: If your image looks like a flash was used, then your probably did not do your job correctly. Artificial lighting requires that it looks like it is suppose to be there. This applies to both your main source of light and any kind of secondary fill light you might use. With a few exceptions, the only time light should be noticed is if you remove it. The exceptions being if you are trying to create a specific spotlight effect or a harsh light effect.

Probably the least effective creative way to use a flash unit is to attach it to your camera and point it straight at your subject. This will almost always create a spot light effect and is a dead give away you used a flash. Sometimes you can get away with this when the light is used solely as a subtle fill light. Most of the time, flash units should be used off camera. We're not going to get into the technical how-to explanation because there are several posts on this blog that cover the how and why of doing such a thing. However we are going to look at some simple techniques of how to use an off camera flash and make it look like you were using natural light.

Why not just use natural light? Well, you can, but you cannot effectively control natural light and sometimes the quality of light just isn't there. You can with some easy to employ techniques make your speed lights look like natural light. Let's break down the photo above of the young lady. This was taken indoors on a dark and overcast day. The natural light was very flat and carried a very cool temperature. Because we were shooting indoors in a rather dark room, I needed to add some light, but not just any ordinary flash lighting would work. I needed to control several aspects of the light; the softness or tone of it, it's intensity, and the direction .

There was a large window that provided some light, but it again was very cool and flat and did not provide enough illumination to do the job effectively. To over come this, I attached an ordinary bed sheet to the outside of the window, completely covering the window. I also placed a single speedlight on a stand outside the window powered to full power shooting through the sheet into the room. The flash was about 3 feet from the window and about 7 feet or so from my subject. My exposure was manually set. I set my shutter speed (125/sec) so the ambient light in the room would just barely register, and set my aperture (f/5.6) to capture the light from the flash. ISO was 200. The bed sheet served two purposes. First is softened the light and second it turned the relatively small light source into a large light source that wrapped around my subject.

The finished photograph was exactly what I was trying to capture. A warm, soft light, that gently caressed my subject. Although it was artificial light, it appears to be natural. Using natural light from the window would have been too cool in temperature and much to direct.

This second photo above was made using the exact same setup with a slight tweak of the exposure to capture additional ambient light. Using simple tools like bed sheets is an effective method to create soft wrap around light.

The next photo was taken outdoors in a shaded environment. A single light was used and was attached to a 20x30 softbox. The exposure was set to slightly overexpose the image to allow for a high key capture...in this case the specifics were f/8.0 1/80th second ISO 200. There was quite a bit of ambient light floating around and the softbox light was moved in fairly close, probably about 2 feet way, to provide a full encompassing and overlapping fill light source. The idea here was to not create an ordinary exposure, but an exposure that would allow in post processing the ability to push the exposure out just enough to create a soft yet high key look. I wanted to keep the shadows to a minimum in this image and by moving the light close in I was able to provide just enough shadowing to enhance facial features, yet keep it subtle.

The next photo was taken using two flash units. The main light was again attached to a 20x30 softbox set about 4 feet from the model and a second light was placed on a stand set about 10 feet or so behind the model. The day was very overcast with a gray soft light diffusing through the myriad of trees in the background.  The idea then was to blend both the speed lights and the ambient light into a pleasing combination. This ambient light was important to use in conjunction with the speed lights and the base exposure was set to create a subdued background. The speed lights then were used to illuminate the model and separate her from the darker background by introducing a lighting element that appeared to be coming from a natural source. The softbox generated a subtle wrapped light creating just enough shadowing to bring out her features. A straight on flash coming from the camera would have generated a less pleasing and unnatural spotlight effect.

This last image was made using two lights similar to the previous setup. The main front light was a single speed light attached to a 20x30 softbox and the second light was a single speedlight on a stand placed a few feet behind the bride. The idea here was to set an exposure that would capture the setting background and use the lights to fill in the subject. The back lighting was supplied by the second light and provided a subtle yet effect halo around the bride. This halo served to separate her from the background just enough so it appeared natural. Again, the front lighting had to appear natural. To accomplish this the 20x30 softbox diffused the light enough to soften it and was placed about 4 feet in front and to one side. This angled setting created some shadow effects but shadows are good as they bring out the features of your subject. If I had used a single light attached to the camera the effect would have been too harsh and too direct. The lighting looks like it is suppose to be there.

The idea then is for the lighting to enhance your subject but not to look like you were lighting it. That is the subtle nature of using speed lights. How much is enough and how much is too much.? Those are questions answered through experience. A subtle touch of light is often all that is required to create a wonderfully lit composition.

Other Values - The Fine Pleasantries of Being a Photographer

It was a typical early summer day on Oklahoma's Tallgrass Prairie , hot and windy, and as the day tumbled toward its last few moments of daylight, I felt a bit relieved when the heat of the day began to dissipate behind the few clouds that hovered above the horizon. The high knoll upon which I stood offered a 360 degree view of the surrounding landscape, magnificent, awe inspiring, simply beautiful. Shadows began to grow longer and filled the gaps between the undulations of the land. Somewhere off to the south a family of coyotes began to howl and their movement caught my eye as they set out in pursuit of dinner. I watched them as best as I could until they were gone. Just knowing they were there added to the natural flavor of the moment.

My camera attached to my tripod stood ready to capture the last vestiges of the day anticipating one of those legendary prairie sunsets. For some reason, I sat silent and made no attempt to capture a photograph. The moment lived of itself and presented to me an image in such a way that a single photograph could never capture the essence of what was there. There were other values at play, values which are only experienced emotionally, pleasures for sure of being a photographer.

As a photographer I have been fortunate to have experienced a great many such moments. They were moments captured by the imagination that otherwise would have been lost. As much as I relish capturing amazing moments of light, I relish as much the experiences associated with having been there to do so. There are other values to being a photographer which are difficult to convey and can most easily be appreciated by having experienced them yourself. Being a photographer of light places you next to moments such as those if you are willing to be there.

I once had a friend who I took fishing with me. He was a nice enough sort of fellow, but as our fishing trip turned into one of those 'nothing was biting' kind of days, his complaining about the day being a big waste of time began to dominate his conversation. By the time we pulled out, I was certain I would never again take this person fishing. He completely missed what it was all about. He focused on catching fish as the measure of our day. I focused on just being out and enjoying the day. When the fishing portion of our day went bust, his day was ruined, but, other than having to listen to his griping about it, my day was just fine. Photography is the same way. There are days where things simply do not work, but the point is to enjoy just being there to allow the day to present itself to you in whatever mood it happens to be in.

Because of photography I have witnessed amazing sunsets and sunrises. I have felt the wind and rain across my back. I have been caught in violent storms and other amazing moments of nature. I have seen the delicate forms of creation, and followed the life cycle of a nest of Robins. I have known the boldness of fall colors and the intense grip of a winter blizzard. I have been thirsty, cold, tired, wet, and sunburned, yet I have also captured amazing moments of natures light. I have missed sleep, and stayed out until the early hours of the morning to capture a night sky so filled with wonder it defies our sense of what is out there.

I have canoed, hiked, and driven countless miles to hopefully capture that one photograph I knew might be there, and then did it again and again, until the photo I wanted finally appeared. I have captured the subtle beauty of the human form and the aggressive forms of wild nature. The exhilaration of having been there to experience all of these kinds of moments far outpaces the discomfort for having done so. Rewards for being a photographer are not always granted based on outcome. They are more often given for having made the effort. When the moment pays off with a spectacular image...well, the reward is self fulfilling.