Every now and then, photographers like myself need to seek therapy, and I’m not one for doing traditional therapy, so I grab my camera gear and head out for a day of photography. This kind of therapy is even better when you find a friend in need of the same therapy. Then it’s kind of like group therapy. That’s exactly what I found with Rad Drew, a great friend, and local well know photographer as well as a contributor of articles to this site.
Rad and I have different styles, but we share a lot of likes. We love old buildings, abandoned places, and interesting landscapes. We made plans to leave at 9 AM on Saturday a few weeks ago. We planned to cap off our trip and a well-known Indiana eating establishment, the Beef House in Covington, IN. Doesn’t every photographer deserve a big steak dinner after shooting all day?
We met up and loaded my Jeep Gladiator with drones, cameras, tripods, and other things. The funny thing is, quite unintentionally, we didn’t use any camera gear other than our iPhone Pro Max 14 cameras. Don’t ask me why but it just turned out that way, and I have no regrets. I felt liberated from the larger camera gear, and it was just what I needed to make for a perfect day of photography.
As with most of my trips and workshops, I decided to track this trip using Gaia GPS app. This is a great app for tracking your route and providing all sorts of statistics about where you have been.
As you can see from the Gaia map above, we covered a lot of back roads. Sometimes we would set an initial destination into our car GPS like The Bridgeton Mill and then no matter which way we went or what side road we took, the GPS would always get us where we wanted to go, even though it threw a hissy fit every now and then when we didn’t follow directions.
One of the nice things about a trip like this is you have time to catch up with an old friend. We had so many things to talk about. It was a lot of fun to discuss photography, life, love, and our general pursuit of happiness and, need I say, a dose of politics too.
Some of these photos were edited in my favorite editing app on the iPhone and iPad called Snapseed. If you have never used this app, then download it now. It should be on every photographer’s mobile device.
Our first stop was Crawfordsville, IN, and I wanted to stop there because last year, I was here with Jeff Schewe, and we met a really cool shop owner. He had an antique shop with so many cool oddities. Sorry to say though the shop was gone and had to close due to the owner becoming ill. Nevertheless, we made good use of our time there.
Along the way, we found a canoe rental place that looked like it had been closed for quite a while. It allowed me a chance to shoot numerous abstracts and close-ups of peeling paint. While I was doing this, Rad was off doing some infrared photography that he mentions in his article, A Sunday Photography Expedition With Rad Drew and Kevin Raber – Part 1 . This was a lot of fun, and I shot using iPhone RAW and the Hipstamatic App, where I had dialed in my own look using the Jane Lens and Rasputin Film combo. This look gives a warm colorized look with a bit higher contrast and a black border. I use this setup a lot. I love the Hipstamatic app and will see about doing a story on it sometime.
As you’ll see in the following photos, I have a thing for decay, rust, and abstract. I loved isolating a subject and looking for the abstract in it. If it has rust, peeling paint, or odd textures, all the better. I used a combination here of Hipstamatic and iPhone RAW. The iPhone RAW files were transferred to my desktop computer and edited in Lightroom.
Bridgeton Mill
From there, we decided to take all the back roads we could find to get to Bridgeton Mill. Bridgeton is a large covered bridge and still functioning mill. I have photographed this lovely location many times, and the owner and miller is a friend who has allowed me to use him as a model many times. I brought along some photos from a previous visit and signed them for him. He rewarded me with two big bags of freshly milled pancake mix and some honey.
We made a few stops along the way, and you’ll see those in the photos below.
For more information on NIK Perspective click HERE.
Closing
I was a fun day (12 hours) of being on the road with Rad. I came home tired but refreshed. We had all sorts of weather thrown at us, but that just made it more fun to take photos. Rad and I will probably do a few more trips like this during the summer heading off in different directions.
I encourage you to find a friend or just yourself, load up the car with some snacks and beverages, and head out in a direction and see where it takes you. You might be surprised at the adventures you find and the people you meet. More than anything else, you will feel great at the end of the day. I don’t know a photographer alive that doesn’t feel a tinge of excitement and a feeling of relief every time they push the shutter.
Isn’t it fun to think all the images above were made in just a one-day outing? Think about what you could do. Get out there and do it!
Kevin Raber
May 2023
Elevate Your Vision
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