Gather ye photos while ye may

Nikon D810, 35mm (18-35), 1/100, f/7.1, ISO 200, Filtered

A recent experience brought me mindful of one of the most important rules of photography: if you see something worth shooting, shoot it. If you have any way to take the picture, take it. Never think “oh, that thing will still be there tomorrow. I can photograph it then when I have a better camera and I have the time and so many other excuses to not do it now.”

You might be right. But then again, you might be wrong.

I noticed this gutted, flat-tired trailer abandoned beside the road along the route I take to and from work every day. I admit I didn’t photograph it the first time I saw it. Or the second. Or even the third. But it was obviously worth a picture, and the fear that it would be torched or towed away started to nag at me.

Two days after I got my shot, the trailer vanished.

The second photo in this post is a picture of the torn-down remains of a house with nothing left standing except a fireplace and a built-in bookshelf. And the third photo is a picture of a semi trailer tipped over by the side of the road, its cargo of large, white spheres spread all over the ground.

The reason you aren’t able to see either of those photos is that I never shot them. I saw opportunities for photos, but I had other priorities. And when I came back, they were gone.

In my partial defense, both of these opportunities presented themselves back in the days before phones with cameras (and in the case of the chimney, even before digital cameras). But now we should all find it much harder to not take pictures when we can.

This too was a transient roadside find: a car that had been incinerated and abandoned along the same stretch of road as the trailer. And again it was gone the day after I took pictures of it.

Long-time residents of eastern Wyandotte County may remember the Tower Plaza strip mall, named after the water tower that stood above the stores. In 2016 it met its demise. I took pictures of it before the dismantling began, but the mid-process photos were more interesting. Added bonus: the tower had a Hollywood Video logo painted on its side.