So today, I had the Blues. Not the musical kind.
Sometimes I get homesick. Sometimes I don’t turn the news off in time. Sometimes I just feel crappy for unknown reasons. But wanna know what always cheers me up?
A road trip.
I have A LOT of great memories of road trips, especially photographic ones.
Even a twenty-five minute challenge to chase down something I saw next to the freeway (as an aside, it seems we photographers ALWAYS see something really cool while driving 60 mph on some freeway). That was the case today.
I was on my way back from West Seattle and the elements seemingly lined up for me: it was one of those after-the-rain-the-sun-is-out-go-take-pictures-dammit afternoons. As I sped south on I-5, I saw the shot I wanted: a grove of trees lit up by the late afternoon sun, the contrasting light and dark of the evenly spaced trunks were making a really cool pattern. Excitedly, I waited to get to the next exit, which was at least a mile or two away. Those miles always seems to take forever. Of course, the sun and the clouds were doing a dance, so it was now you see it, now you don’t. Once off the freeway, I backtracked on surface streets to get to the choice spot to make my image. But alas, I could not get there from where I was: the roads just didn’t connect. My hopes sank as I came to grips with the fact that this was a FAIL of a photo mission.
So I made this image instead. It’s the view I have when I’m on one of my road trips. Despite the fact that I didn’t get my shot, I felt better anyway. And I now know one thing that will always get me out of a blue mood.