Who doesn't love to travel? I know I sure do! I, like a lot of lovers of travel, do not get to do it as much as I would like to.  Because of my mom's singing ministry, we frequently traveled across the south when I was a youngster. Though I decided when I was 10 that I wanted to be a photographer, I didn't really start taking pictures on a regular basis or seriously until most of my family's traveling was winding down. Everyone likes to take photos when they travel. When a photographer goes on vacation, travel photography can be INTENSE.

Three years ago, I up and took a voyage to England. Alone. You can read a little about it here. Besides the fact that I was already in love with the Motherland before I set foot on British soil, I knew the main purpose of my trip was photography, photography, photography. I owned a dSLR, but I was so high and mighty that I didn't take it. I documented my entire trip on film. There were times when camera malfunctions made me second-guess this decision, but I don't regret leaving the digital camera back in Mississippi while I went to England. In the end, I was glad I'd gone to England on my own because when you are a photographer on vacay, it can be difficult to juggle your desire to photograph with being fair to your traveling companions. I could stop and go as much as I want, come and go as I pleased, all to suit my photographic needs.

Both the issue of film vs. digital and how to get in satisfying photography while traveling with others cropped up for me recently. I traveled with about 7 of my friends to St. Louis, Missouri for a quick visit. I, being me, left my nice digital SLR at home and opted instead to take my Nikon FE and Holga 120N. I didn't stock up on film before I left for Missouri because I figured I could just do that when I got up there. When some of my friends realized I didn't have my digital camera, they were both perplexed and slightly disappointed because they new the limitations of film might hamper the volume of photos I could take on the trip. I was somewhat offended that my artistic vision for documenting our time in St. Louis was being questioned. Then some things happened along the way that caused me to learn my lesson.

I am very stubborn about using film rather than digital in most areas of my photography. However, I'm going to have to admit now there are some drawbacks to basing yourself in film photography. For example, when my friends and I arrived in St. Louis, it was getting late in the day and the sunlight was fading fast. We went to the zoo, and there were definitely certain shots I couldn't get because I had a slow film speed, 100 ASA, loaded in my camera. Sure, I am quite pleased with some of the photos I DID get, but the scope of my photography that first night in the STL was not what it should've been.

Tragedy struck my plan of being too cool for school and do only film photography in St. Louis: I actually LEFT my wallet at the restaurant where we'd stopped for lunch on our way to St. Louis. Cape Girardeau, Missouri. I discovered this when I went to stock up on film and had no way of paying for it. D'oh! My lack of preparedness bit me in the rear. Yes, Amanda Raney did go out of town with only one roll of 35mm film in her possession. Oh how the mighty have fallen...

I ran out of film pretty early in the day Sunday morning. Before we'd even left our super cool hotel, in fact! And we still had hours of St. Louis awesomeness to enjoy before going home. What's a girl to do??

All was not lost, thanks to the darling Annie who decided I should use her point-and-shoot digital camera while we spent our last few hours in St. Louis before going back to Memphis. I'm sure she knew not being able to take photos like I wanted was just eating me up inside. If you think I'm uppity about not using my dSLR for everything, you should see how uppity I normally am about my ever having to use a point-and-shoot digital! Once again, I had to learn my lesson: some camera is better than no camera at all. And guess what: that little camera of Annie's wasn't half bad! It performed well, I'd say. We went to the St. Louis Art Museum, the galleria, and a cool pizza joint for lunch. I ended up being quite pleased with a lot of the photos. Just gotta know how to get the best out of these little cameras.

For the events that unfolded with my photography in St. Louis, I am taking the "all's well that ends well" viewpoint. I didn't come back with a portfolio stacked with shots of that city, but I came back with a lot of fun (and some quite nice) shots that fulfilled my need to do photography while traveling.

So what is my conclusion in all of this? When you, as a photographer, are going somewhere special, you have to assess the purpose of your trip. Is this a trip that is going to be based mostly around photography? If so, how is this going to work out if I'm traveling with others who are not mainly interested in doing fine photography while we're away? Even if I had had all the film in the world while I was in St. Louis, I wouldn't have been able to do everything I wanted to photographically because I was with people whose purpose was to hang out with friends in a different city, not pack in as much photography as possible.

I had to learn that maybe it's okay that I go out of town with my friends and have a main purpose of just being with my buddies. When I access the purpose of future out of town trips, I will decide if it's to hang out with my friends, or if I'm planning on coming back with a body of work from that city. After my experience in St. Louis, if the answer is "my main purpose is to just have fun with my friends," I'm honestly just going to throw my digital camera and maybe a small 35mm camera in my bag to take care of the type of photography I'll do while I'm away.

It was my first time to travel to St. Louis and I just LOVED the city. I was just DYING because there were so many awesome things I saw and I wanted to capture in photos. It just wasn't practical this time around. I resigned myself that I would be "forced" to go back to STL another time specifically for a photo excursion. Oh, the things I'll do for my work!

"I've always wanted to take black and white pictures in here"
"Where's your camera?"
"In my car. And I DO have some black and white film..."
"Well go get it! If it is something you've always wanted to do and you're this close to it, why not do it?"

Nikon FE. 24 hour diner. After David Bazan's show.

I have a best friend named Meredith. She is a free-spirited gal. She climbs trees. She usually has a blonde streak in her hair, that can be shaded blue from time to time if the mood strikes. She laughs a lot. She doesn't sleep much. These are things to know about Meredith.

Meredith doesn't live in Memphis anymore, but she graced us with her presence this past weekend. I met her on a playground in Nutbush. She climbed things and made a make-shift see-saw with her friend Jake from the Northwest. I was glad I was on hand to photograph Meredith being Meredith, and now I am sharing that with you.

04.04.2009

Location: Bolivar, TN. Equipment: Hasselblad 500 C/M, Holga 120N, Nikon D300

One afternoon in April, Gabe and I decided to take a little photographic excursion to Bolivar, TN. We'd been told by Gabe's dad about a super creepy, abandoned mental instutition that we were stoked to photograph. Before we left, Gabe found out that the band Giant Cloud was going to be meeting us in Bolivar and that we'd be taking their pictures as well. This was GREAT news because I'd shot them before and they're awesome to take pictures of (as well as really cool people to be around.)

After we'd met up with Giant Cloud, we headed to the mental institution to check things out. The building we were looking to shoot WAS just as crazy-looking as we'd been told it was. However, it was much less imposing in the middle of the afternoon than we would have liked. More of a "shoot this on a foggy, moon-lit night" sort of place. Not only that, but they're using the building as a post office for the newer facilities they have on the grounds,  so it's not EVEN  abandoned. Translation: we thought the whole thing was kinda bogus.  We felt let down and thought all may have been lost. Then, we spied an actual abandoned building on the mental facility's grounds.  Gabe, Giant Cloud, and I decided to take a look around that one.  While its design wasn't gothic like the building we'd intended to shoot, the abandoned building was amazingly creepy inside (from what we could see through the windows.) It reminded me of an old school building -  desks and chair stacked up, ceiling tiles hanging down. The whole shebang.

At this point, the band was kinda walking around, seeing what this strange building had to offer, as were Gabe and I. No sooner had Gabe set up the tripod with the Hassy on it, when a couple of security guards pulled up and told us we had to 23-skiddoo. The guards said it's illegal to take photos on the grounds of a state mental hospital. Now, mind you, there were no signs posted to this effect. AND I have the tendency to want whip out a copy of the "photographer's rights" and beg to differ whenever my right to photograph is being challenged. In this case, I had decided the abandoned building wasn't THAT interesting if we weren't going to sneak in anyway, so I didn't put up a fight.  (Also, I always appreciate a word of warning from security, rather than having the law called on me. Thanks, over-zealous security guards for giving us a word of warning!) I'd gotten a shot or two fired, Gabe had gotten a shot off. We headed to greener pastures.

Giant Cloud had seen a old flea market on their way into Bolivar. They thought it might be cool to do some photos there. Having nothing to lose, we followed the band to flea market. This turned out to be a GREAT move. Firstly, across the street from the flea market, there was a diner called Dot's Country Kitchen (photo by Gabe Bouck.) Gabe and the band decided to ask the two women at Dot's if they thought it'd be okay if we took pictures across the street. They did think so, and we ended up talking to them for awhile about possible other cool locations in the area.  They were a lot of fun.

Once we headed over to the flea market itself, we were SO glad we did! There were a series of  rectangular stalls made of wood and fiberglass, with hinged front windows (which were down) and doors on the side for accessing the inside space of the stalls. We all took some time to explore the stalls - most of which had remnants of items that had been sold in them. A child's sneaker here. A toy dinosaur there. Photographing the band as they were walking through the stalls in exploration made for some great shots.

Gabe and I traded turns using the Hassy, and I used my Holga as well,  taking promo-type photos of the of the band while we were at the flea market as well. It was SO great! I felt awesome, like I was going to be the featured photographer on the next Rolling Stone cover (hey, a girl can dream, can't she? *wink*) Gabe's shots of the band were not too shabby either (slash, he did a wonderful job!)

Once we'd felt we'd exhausted our possibilities at the flea market, the Caravan to Memphis (as I lovingly referred to it) got on the road again. I'd promised Julie I'd do some engagement shots for her and Ben, since they'd gotten engaged recently. She wanted the photos taken somewhere a little more pretty than the flea market, so we kept our eyes peeled on the drive to Memphis in case we saw a location that was struck the bride-to-be's fancy. Now, I don't know which part of the "Caravan" laid eyes upon it first, but I'd like for Gabe and me to take credit for noticing the next backdrop for our Giant Cloud shoot: a field. Now, lemme tell you, this was no ordinary field. And it was no ordinary sunset light with which we'd been blessed. And don't you worry, due to our previous run-in with people not wanting us to take pictures in our chosen spot, I did have Gabe go up to the single-wide trailer there and ask the man who lived in if we could take photos in the field. We were granted permission. *high five!*

As I mentioned, the members of Giant Cloud just look cool when they're doing "stuff."  So Gabe and I just followed them around some while they were walking around the field, frolicking in the field, and terrorizing the emus that were fenced-in on the property.

Yours truly also got the opportunity to pull Ben and Julie out of the group to do some engagement-style shots, as promised. I LOVED it because, not only was the field/light/tall green grass so pretty for more "standard" shots, but Ben and Julie also let me take some more playful shots of the two of them. It's my fave when couples let me do that!

Just like we'd done at the flea market,  Gabe and I took turns photographing the band in the field with the various cameras we'd brought. The light was nothing less of spectacular. And I'd be hard-pressed to believe that we could've happened upon a more perfect field in which to shoot this band.  While we did use the D300 for some of our shots, I have to say that the Hassy was PERFECT for this stuff. I'm super happy that Gabe and I had the opportunity to do the Giant Cloud shoot while we still had that camera in our lives. If I could talk to the Hassy right now, I'd tip my hat to it (if I had a hat) and tell it "We couldn't have done it without you!"

Like all good things though, our Giant Cloud photo shoot in the field had to come to an end. The light was waning and we'd ran out of film. At this point, we bid "adieu" to Bolivar and made our way towards Memphis. I could tell you about the "awesome" experience we had at a chicken restaurant in Oakland, TN that will remain nameless  (to give you a hint, it's initials are "Gus's Fried Chicken"), but I'll save that for the day when I run a restaurant review site...

A link to the rest of my photos from our Photo Excursion Awesomeness in Bolivar.
A link to Gabe's photos from our Photo Excursion Awesomeness in Bolivar.