Speeeeeeeeeed

I like making pictures that illustrate motion, generally using a technique that creates some kind of motion blur. This is great fun and there are certain a pretty good amount of them in my archives. For good reason.

They never made it out of my files.

If you travel somewhere on some kind of assignment, your editor likely wants to see pictures that illustrate the assignment, especially if it’s a travel commission because the pictures are usually very positive.

Unless the story is about traffic, no matter how artistic the pictures are, traffic is rarely positive.

That’s something to consider when you are out taking pictures. What is my intent? What am I trying to say? How do I do that? How do I get inside the picture without just shooting stuff?

I look at a lot of photographs, in print, in blogs, on social media sites and so on. I see a lot of the same thing.

Let’s use the Route 66 group that I follow on Facebook as an example. Any pictures made west of The Mississippi Rive are predictable. Cadillac Ranch. The Swallow Motel in Tucumcari, New Mexico. Various motels and leftover period buildings in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Main Street in Gallup, New Mexico. Seligman, Arizona and Roy’s in California.

There’s nothing wrong with photographing the highlights, but how about making pictures that are a little different? I’m not going to tell you what and how to shoot because you’d be making my pictures. What would be the fun in that?

You could do what I do to prepare. I read everything I can about the place. I never look at pictures. I’d rather let my imagination run free. It may be that I end making the same kinds of pictures that others do, but at least I gave it a shot.

A shot. Pun intended.