rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

This past week, my wife and I were on vacation. Exactly one week ago at this moment, we were in our "motor lodge" room recovering from our day's adventure. The afternoon had started innocently enough - we had driven to Cass to obtain tickets for the timber train we were going to ride on Wednesday {perhaps more on that later} - but then we accepted our GPS's suggested shortcut. We spent roughly an hour going those last 11 miles; I may have spent 15 of those minutes taking pictures {extremely "efficient" for me, but I was scared to leave our car - and my wife in it - parked for any lengthy period of time}. Picture #4 shows what the road looked like; I wanted to get the car into it to provide scale, but I parked it only on straight sections where someone driving on the one-and-a-fraction lane road would have a chance to see them {car containing wife} before hitting them.

I am interested in your comments, both as to concept and as to execution.

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{silver streak in background is guard-rail after road turns}

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Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Photos 2, 4 and 5 give me the strongest sense of rural countryside. As you weren't expecting to encounter that particular adventure (crikey, glad it wasn't me, lol), you did well to capture the flavors you did.

If #1 were shot from further away and had a lot of empty space around, it would fit your story better IMO. Do you have any more shots that include the road? It could be fun to embellish your stories about encountering each of the scenes, interspersed with road shots, and doing the storytelling as captions to each pic rather than give us all the info up front.

Very glad you're back safely with us

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

I guess the next time I'll need to spend more time and use more variations in focal length. Most of these were taken from the road; in most cases, including the road would be a problem, because the other side was either a serious drop-off or a hill that required more billy-goat than I have left in me.


If I do end up "publishing" the train pictures here, I'll try to fix the narrative as you suggest.

Cwilson341 Loc: Central Florida

As a child I lived in some very remote and isolated areas of WV and Ohio. These shots all have a familiar feel. The simple white church in 1 is very typical of those areas with its narrow dirt drive. The few vehicles that attended most likely just parked on the grass under the trees. The old barns and silo nestled in a valley with no visible road or power lines, the narrow winding road - these all give me a strong sense of that part of the country - maybe more so because I lived in some similar areas.

I really like these shots. Your compositions work well, the colors are rich (I love green) and I can almost smell the fresh, cool county air!

ebrunner Loc: New Jersey Shore

Two through Five make me think I'm driving down a country road. Since I believe that was your intent, it works fine. One would be an interesting study; but I might have moved around and looked for some different angles. (Of course that would not have been fair to your wife, so I completely understand. Wife's safety always more important than any photo ever). I really like the photo with the barn in it. That puts me in rural America. Nice series well presented.
Erich

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

I love back roads like that one--they often provide for me the best photo ops. Unfortunately, most of the roads in my area are in farmland area; hence, they are primarily straight as a stick and therefore not so photogenic. Nice work on the photos, by the way.

AzPicLady Loc: Behind the camera!

I really like the one with the silo and barn and just a hint of a driveway to it. Nicely done. Don't you just love backroads? I do them a lot when I'm not in a hurry. Actually, my GPS is set up to take me down backroads instead of major highways. That's pretty cool. I get to see lots of interesting places that way.

magnetoman Loc: Purbeck, Dorset, UK

Yes, as others have said, a nice little series achieving a sense of the place, and the first one doesn't quite fit with the rest. Quite understand the restrictions of this type of road - most of our holidays are spent on narrow and winding lanes. Like APL, I favour the silo shot.

NJFrank Loc: New Jersey

I think #3 is my favorite. the The steel bridge ( looks like a train bridge ) contrasting the quite country setting. The reflections on the shadow water is just so serene. Nice series

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

Yes, what was Chesapeake & Ohio tracks is now a biking and hiking trail, and this bridge is a part of that. I'm afraid I startled my wife when I hit the brakes as we went over the corresponding automobile bridge, but my peripheral vision was telling me there was a picture I just had to capture. It doesn't quite fit in with the others, but I love reflections on water, so I just had to justify including it somehow.

Fortunately, this was an unusually wide and flat part of the road, because I spent more time composing this one than any of the others {and someone will justifiably say I should have spent some of that time on one of the others, perhaps #1} as I moved back and forth to decide which reflections were best.

R.G. Loc: Scotland

Some places progress very little beyond what the early settlers made of them. I keep half expecting to see a woman in a long skirt and headscarf wearing an apron and carrying a wicker basket .