Texan Americana

In the Beginning

When I began taking photography seriously, I purchased a Canon Rebel T5i which included a kit lens. Before then, I had been using a Canon PowerShot ELPH 300 HS. It was a popular vlogging camera at the time but it was known to take good photos. At the time, I had no idea of aperture, ISO, shutter speed, or bokeh for that matter! I dove headfirst into using only manual setting resisting the temptation to to use the automatic setting. I figured if I was doing this, I would do it the hard way. No excuses.

I took my little camera everywhere I went. This was easy as I criss cross the Texas Panhandle on a near daily basis for work. I took pictures of every little thing I came across: old farm equipment, bales of hay, windmills, dilapidated bridges, abandoned buildings, cloud formations and crumbling brick walls.

Eventually as my photography improved I moved into food, portrait and boudoir photography and slowly began leaving my camera at home. I had upgraded to a Canon 5D Mark IV with a 50mm 1.2 and 85mm 1.4 lens. I didn’t feel comfortable bringing my gear along as I had invested quite a bit of money in it. I had also become fully invested in doing work professionally and seemingly the days of my adventurous photography was over.

The Return

In the last several months, it began to dawn on me I had gotten away from what had interested me in photography in the first place. It felt like I had gotten away from what I termed “organic” work vs the professional work I had been doing where everything was polished, skin retouched, lighting controlled, and was photographing everyone else’s vision versus my own.

I began to look at the work my local fellow photographers were posting and saw I was missing on out bringing my camera with me like I had in the old days. Driving through these small Texas towns, my eye and mind would see the abundance of photos I could be taking. Granted, I could always use my iPhone but it’s not quite the same pulling out my camera, setting the shutter speed, ISO, and aperture and just snapping away.

So last week, I took at my camera bag and brought it on the road with me for the first time in years. Part of my journey involved traveling on the Fm 809 in Wildorado, TX. I’ve traveled this road for years but last week was the first time I actually stopped and took pictures of what I should have been taking years ago. And so I present to you: Texan Americana.