A couple of years ago my wife and I decided to go on a whale watching tour. While walking along the boardwalk at Telegraph Cove, I stopped at the old Dodge truck, visualizing an image.
As I stood in front of the truck thinking of a composition, several tourists stopped and looked to see what I was looking at and they would then start staring at the truck. Pretty soon, half a dozen people were staring at the truck.
I decided that shooting the truck that day wasn’t going to happen and I put it on my list of things to shoot. It was six months later on a cold winter morning when I finally decided to head out to Telegraph Cove and shoot the truck.
As I walked down the boardwalk towards the truck, a light dusting of snow began falling and I found the resort empty of people. I just had this urge to start shooting everything and capture it all, but I resisted and went to the truck.
A tip for photographers - “If you see a scene you like, spend your time getting the composition right in-camera before pressing the shutter”.
I set up the tripod and moved it in front of the truck, focusing on the Dodge front grill and eliminating everything else distracting in the scene. This meant cutting out the flat tires and fire hydrant to the right of the truck. I moved the tripod up and down a bit and to the right and left and zoomed in and out until I had what I liked.
This all took ten minutes or more, and then a second to press the shutter release. I was very happy with the final image and I hope to sell a few prints of the old truck on Aug. 3 at the Telegraph Cove Craft Fair on the boardwalk. Hope to see you there.
Douglas Bradshaw has lived in the North Island for 33 years. He is a Landscape and Wildlife photographer based out of Port Alice B.C. His website is portalicephoto.com follow him on YouTube and Facebook at Port Alice Photography, Images by Douglas Bradshaw