Revisiting a Trucking Tradition

On Saturday Elliott and I met up again with Marty and Riley at a favorite destination of mine, the Truck Graveyard. We were also meeting another of Elliott's friends, Jacob, who I'd heard a lot about and was excited to see in person. He was super cool and friendly, we had a wonderful little group and I was excited to take not only truck photos, as I thought I'd done it all before, this being my fourth trip here, but I wanted to take more people photos. Well nope, that didn't happen. We chatted for a bit and then everyone spread out in different directions, immediately lost behind rusting relics, inside a dusty dark garage or simply blending in with the fall foliage. I stood alone, looked around, shrugged and turned on the Sony, which definitely had a memory card in it this time, I'd checked three times the previous evening and in the morning. Working in my usual Manual setting on the camera, I fiddled with the dials, set up my focus point, clicked the shutter, and nothing. I clicked again, and again, and again. Nothing. I wanted to just sit down and howl. But I immediately thought, well, I have the iPhone, let's get creative. But I simply stood, head bowed and let the sorrow and frustration wash over me. But then I thought, there's Elliott, I have Elliott now, he'll fix my camera and unjam it for me, and so spotting him in the distance I made my way over to him. He couldn't fix it, but he did the next best thing, and promptly got his back up camera, a Nikon 5300 (I think), handing it over without any reservations. I was a little stunned by this, one, because he was displaying complete trust in me with his equipment, and two, it was a Nikon. Like the Android versus Apple war, the red tractor versus the green, there's always been a Canon versus Nikon. I've always been a Canon user until I got the Sony mirrorless, and now I had to use a Nikon. Whoa! But I put on a stiff upper lip and graciously accepted the hand of my enemy. And I have to admit, I was very pleasantly surprised. It took some getting used to, especially as I shoot in manual mode, but after a few faltering steps I was off, and extremely grateful that I had a quality camera to capture this favorite haunt of mine. I have to admit that I focused exceptionally hard as I wanted to prove that I could shoot OK on an unfamiliar camera, but I was more than pleased with the images I captured. And some may say the shots look good due to my processing, but processing ain't worth nothing if you haven't got a good image to start with. So now, I have to admit the Nikons are OK, actually they're pretty good. So thank you once again, Elliott. He's starting to become a knight in shining armor, constantly coming to my rescue in my most dire of situations. And I love it!

 Sadly, the owner of this truck site has passed, but I have fond memories of conversations with him, sitting in his office while my friends were taking photos, fascinated while listening to his memories and tales of his truck and car collections. He had a very comfy armchair in his office that I sank into, and with him being over 6ft tall, even in his late 80's, he would tower over me as he chatted, my neck aching as I smiled up at him. His sons are equally friendly, I had a few words with one on them while I was walking around pointing the Nikon as various crusty metal trucks, and his smile reminded me of his father.

So here are the photos. Not too shabby, and I have to admit they came out better than I thought, because I felt that I was at a disadvantage not having my own camera, and this made me work harder to get better photos. I guess I have a bit of a competitive streak but also I'm always up for a challenge, and proving I could handle an alien camera made me work harder. There's some lame shots here but I kept them in to give a better overall feel of the place. With the owner passing, there's been talk of selling the land. It hasn't happened yet, but who knows if this is our last visit.

These trucks, despite their neglect, still stand in splendor. Whether in a open field, or slowly being blanketed by creeping vines under shady trees, or with saplings thrusting their way to sunlight through still gleaming chrome grills, they pose silently majestic, sunshine flashing and lighting up fender lenses as though still powered from within. Unbroken cobwebs collect dust inside shabby interiors, faded fabrics unfurl from seat covers, pooling down to the floor and collecting with dried brown leaves from winters past. Windshields, many still intact, grip resolutely to rusted crumbling frames, glass blurred and fogged by decades of exposure, while a few others, peppered with gunshots, display patterns imitating frost on a frozen morning, filigree finger cracks radiating out from where the bullets entered.

It was actually a joy to walk around the fields because I suddenly realized that I hadn't collected any ticks grabbing a free ride, nor had I been attacked by fleets of mosquitoes. On each previous visit, we'd picked quantities of ticks off before we got in our cars, and then found more once at home. I got back to the Blue House this time with no harbingers attached and only one mosquito bite.

The photos below were taken by Jacob. We handed him the Nikon I was using and he snapped away. And Elliott and I loved them. He caught us messing about, we don't remember what was being discussed, but loved the way he captured such unique character shots. He's also an accomplished photographer, having shot photos in many parts of the world, see here.

And so we finished the day with plenty of photos to process. I had a mishap, falling off the back of a truck,but with no lasting pain or wounds so I shan't delve into that incident. I got to work on Monday to be pleasantly pleased and a little surprised at my Nikon photos, and the Sony has been shipped off to a hospital in CA to be nursed back to health, at a great expense, I must add. But all's well that ends well, and this day certainly did. Thanks to a fab boyfriend and stellar company on the photo shoot. Roll on the next event!