A friend and I went out one day to find something to take pictures of. This is when I was living in Northeast Florida, yes probably a little bit warmer than where I am now. So she said she had remembered that there were these old old cars parked in someone’s yard about 45 minutes away out in east BF Florida. It was halfway to nowhere. My friend’s passion I think was(is) abandoned buildings and urban (and rural) despair so she always new the cool places to shoot. I must admit I have a secret crush on urban blight myself. Something beautiful (or maybe just artistic) about the emptiness.
So we drove out to the sweltering grasslands looking for the magic patch of old car heaven. Speeding along the back country road looking at field after field of tall grass, we almost became hypnotized by the flatness of it. Suddenly, a glimpse of chrome, lots of it, mixed in with wide metal panels and rust, lots of it. There it was, the magic old car patch! We turned around at the next road and headed back. We surveyed the situation. Very promising, about 8 or 9 old, 1930 to 1940’s old, cars in various states of disrepair.
Some beat up and junked, others looked like they pulled in 60 years ago, turned off the ignition and didn’t move again, just rusting away. This was the view from the street, the hurdle was the barbed wire strand fence surrounding everything. Not one for trespassing (although it seems like everyone I hang out with has a knack for it). Thankfully we didn’t have to contemplate long. This older fella with long white hair and a beard and mustache to match, both in color and length, came out of a barn and headed toward us. He was pleasant enough and even seemed to know why we might be standing on the side of the road by his property.
$10 a piece were the first words out of his mouth after a short exchange of pleasantries. “Excuse me?” I said. He said, “y’all can come in and take photographs of the cars, but it’ll cost you $10 a piece.” At least he didn’t say something like “Boy you sure gotta pretty mouth.” He proceeded to tell us he wasn’t letting anyone do it for free anymore because his cars were famous now and “some woman from up in Indiana” had come and taken photographs of his cars and was making a bundle selling shirts with the print on them. Ahuh. I mean they’re nice, but getting rich off them? Either way I could respect the fact that they were on his property and was free to charge for such a privilege, heck maybe I would soon get rich too. (please feel free to buy as many copies of this print as you want to at my storefront. Ha!) Now I have actually sold a few of these on the Art Festival circuit here around Illinois, but I wouldn’t say I’m about to quit my day job.
Thankfully, I had a $20 on me to cover us both. Lighting wasn’t the best, it was near high-noon in Florida in the summer. It was super bright and the cars were in a mix of shadow and lights. I used the on camera flash (as I have still yet to buy a fancy flash, it’s on the list though) for adding a little fill light and trying to even out the scene. I shot again in black and white as that seemed to add a little something compared to the boring blown out colors, or lack of. This ended up being my favorite shot of the bunch.
To top off the visit, I guess when our $10 meter ran out, our host came back out of his barn and started taking .22 caliber pistol training in his make shift shooting range out back. Ok I may be hard headed but I don’t need to be shot at to take a hint. I’m sure my friend was hoping she would finally get to take pictures of body, that she had been longing to see (did I mention she really liked urban despair?). So we bid a farewell and thanked him for the hospitality, and sped our way back home towards the beach. If I knew what year this was at some point, I don’t recall now. Unfortunately a hard drive crash lost the original RAW files so this is the only shot I still have from the shoot. Maybe someday when I have $10 burning a hole in my pocket I’ll head back by again.
- Canon 40d, ISO 200, Canon 17-55 IS f2.8 at 21mm, f3.5, 1/500 sec
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