I actually love driving around backroads. Most of the time I tend to drive slowly stopping ever so often to take a closer look at the historical evidence of times past. That's where the most interesting photo ops can be found. Sometimes I look for something specific, most times I just wing it and let the nature of the moment reveal itself. Regardless, what catches my attention the most, are the rustic flavors that can only be found away from the beaten path. I especially like old fence rows and old barns.
The ones that cause me to slam on the brakes are the ones where a crop of some kind like cornfields and especially wheat fields converge alongside one of those old fences or barns.
Although I drive around most anytime of day, as with other forms of photography the best times to capture an interesting photograph are early and late in the day. During the summer fog will often greet the morning air and linger well into the later hours before noon. Catch it with a cool or warm sunrise and the sky will often turn pink or orange or red accented with blues and pastels.
On occasion I'll find an interesting subject and make a note of where it is. Stopping for a while I will explore the possibilities identifying where the sun will rise or set or what it might look like on an overcast day or during a rainy day. I've returned to locations multiple times knowing there is a photo op just waiting to develop. Two, three and sometimes four times it takes before I catch it right, like one of my favorite photos of a mid-October morning overlooking the bottoms along Barren River.
I knew the sun and fog would converge inside that bottom land if I timed it right. It took several attempts for it to do so, but the effort paid off handsomely.
Driving the country roads is a year round adventure. I drive a 4x4 Jeep for one main reason; so I can traverse snow covered roads, or rough terrain. I've never been stuck driving that old Jeep. (By the way, it has surpassed 300,000 miles with a little help and upgrades from time to time. It just might outlive me.) Snow days are the best for that blanket of white turns a mundane ordinary looking scene into a winter wonderland and a photographers delight.
As with any outdoor photography, light is the key and the contrasts of warmth and cold are best captured at sundown. Even so, sunrise can often provide a similar contrast especially when an artic blast invades and chills the air to the point where nose hairs grow stiff with each breath. That contrast of artic air, hot sun rising, and a landscape attempting to retain its natural warmth often produces some of the very best country road morning scenes.The trick to discovering great photo ops while driving down country roads is to be able to identify the potential in a scene even when at the moment you see it, the light may be flat or off and uninteresting. Knowing where the sun will rise, keeping tabs on the weather and potential cloud cover, even the prevailing wind can often lead you toward discovering something truly unique from what is otherwise an ordinary looking opportunity.![]() |
This old barn was torn down a few years after this image was taken |