Driving With No Destination
sometimes everything aligns just perfectly..
The first Saturday in March started out perfect: Olive & I slept in until about 8, taking advantage of the weekend in full effect. Once I crawled out of bed, I started brewing a cup of coffee & put on some oldies while the morning sun seeped through the blinds..allowing myself to warm up & letting the mind wake up slowly. There was a bit of cloud coverage outside & according to the forecast, a storm was coming in around 11 o’clock. With my lady being out of town on this particular weekend, I had absolutely no excuse to not do a little more exploration than usual. Luckily, I still felt some creative juices flowing from the previous night’s drive with a dear friend so I decided to get dressed & head out the door with Olive. I had one specific spot I wanted to visit that had been on my mind for the past few weeks: an abandoned house on a frontage road between here (Sacramento) & Davis. But other than that, I had no set destination. It was time to simply just drive & hopefully make some good photos: my favorite pastime.
As we approached the abandoned house, the clouds rolled in even more, which proved to be my ideal setting to shoot in. It was as if I was rewarded by the skies for acting on my instincts once again! I walked around the abandoned property, searching for a perfect angle or two of the house. I was instantly excited with what I was seeing through the viewfinder.
After feeling satisfied with the photos I got, we hopped back in the car & headed further down the frontage road, turning left at the next light & heading south; deeper into the backroads of Yolo County. After a few miles, we made our way over a small bridge & I noticed that there was a creek running underneath. I decided to pull over & take a walk alongside the muddy water. The previous storms & the current grey skies had caused the area to look very dull in color: shades of brown & grey filled the scene. But to my benefit, that ended up translating quite nicely into black & white..
This morning proved to be one of those lucky times where I felt like everywhere I looked, there was a beautiful composition waiting to be captured. I felt so free & so full of ideas. To me, this is what photography is all about: those special moments where it’s just me, my dog &/or lady, my camera & the environment we’re in.
Your photos are really captivating. And with your storytelling too - it gives such a feeling of being taken along on this journey with you. (Even down to the music being played!)