Rusty Cars & Wild Horses

Recently I was commissioned to photograph a church for their website and social media. It's a small church with a mixed generation congregation located outside the city; not quite the country but not in the upscale part of this area. On the way there, I saw a classic white steeple with a rusted car elevated in front of it. I thought, "is that car an advertisement for that church??!! That would be sooo Oklahoma. I have got to come back and get a picture of that!"

After I finished my assignment, I headed towards the white steeple.  Turns out, it was an optical illusion from the angle I had seen from the road. The church was set back from the road and next to a salvage yard. Well, that was even better. So, I got some shots and played with some of my favorite Lightroom effects.

A few months ago, I attended a workshop where the speaker was a Canon representative, KelbyOne teacher, and accomplished photographer. I asked if edited photos are considered real photography, i.e. pure and genuine.

He said "absolutely!" and explained that photographs have been edited since the invention of the camera. Even in the old days of darkroom, chemical development, the photographer had control of the finished image. He developed the image according to what he saw when he pressed that shutter button.

I love photographing rusted things. There's a story behind the wonderful texture and rich color. I really enjoying working with these kinds of images.

This is the selvage yard's mailbox. Clever!

The car is a Dodge Royal. According to the interwebs, this model was made between 1954-59. This looks like the '58 4-door sedan (but what do I know?)

Once I left there, I remembered that the wild horse refuge was close by. It wasn't the best time of day or weather to get a really beautiful photo, but I stopped anyway.

It's not easy to photograph these beautiful beasties in their natural habitat. There's no place to safely pull off the road and the horses are often waaay out in the pasture. (And this citychick is not about to go traipsing around there because who knows what critters might be slithering about!) I did manage to find one pull-off with maybe a dozen of them closer to the fence, but there are still several dozen more roaming that protected area. You can see some of them grazing farther out in the photo below.

It's heartwarming to see these animals free, safe, and cared for. I hope to go back out when the grass is green and the sun is setting.