Needs Some Work

Needs Some Work
Mt. Pleasant, Tx

Last week, I spent some time working in East Texas. Things have a way of slowing down as accents change and I found myself slowing down as well.  

Although I had reminded myself that I was there for work, I did spot this old truck twice with the corner of my eye.  It sat in a field just a few yards from my last customer call of the day.  I couldn't just ignore it could I?  

In English literature there's a term when words are written like the sounds they represent:  smash, bang, crash, etc.  The term is called onomatopoeia.  (Yes, Mrs. Fortuna, I actually fooled you and was paying attention in class, not just daydreaming.)  I wish I could invent a photographic term for images that I captured that represent how I feel.  I think I will take a Sarah Palin moment and conjure my own vocabulary:  photo-essence.

As I studied the truck before I shot it, I developed my strategy to capture the beauty that was still in it.  I knew how the colors would appear as the late autumn sun cast it's glow on the subject and I knew how the shadows would lie.  There would be some warm tones to contend with for sure.  The image would be great with those tones coming through, I thought.

Yeah this old truck needs some work but you really have to look beyond that.  As beaten up as this truck is, it still has plenty of life and a great story to tell.  For now the truck resides in an East Texas field, but one day someone will find it and make something again with the relic.  In the meantime, the story remains untold.

Photo-essence, I like the term.  Yes that's me in the photograph out in the field.  I just need a little work and someone to appreciate what I have to offer.  Don't discard me yet.  There's a picture waiting to be made.