TSD Photography: Off the Beaten Path

Look left, look right, look up, look down. There you go, another secret revealed! There are so many great shots, especially when walking in an urban area, if you keep your eyes away from front. A little disclaimer here...you do need to watch where you walk. You don't want to bend those glasses, break a nose or crack that fast L series lens you just spent $1250 for.

Now that you've looked and found a great shot, what if it isn't right there where you are standing? I don't advocate tresspassing, but there are times you can duck into a parking lot or a semi-public area to get a shot.

Take this one for example;

I saw this while walking along the street, and there was no way to frame it from the street. This one was too good to pass up, so I walked down a driveway that was meant for off-street parking for an apartment. Not much risk there. If it were a single family home, and a private driveway, I probably wouldn't have done it. My rule of thumb is, if it were my property, would I be totally torqued to find somebody there?

Sometimes, you luck out, and things just fall into place. I was taking a bike ride, and came up to the antique lifesaving station on the beach. I've never seen a soul there before, but his time I noticed the door was open. As I came closer, I saw two guys that were doing a restoration on the building which was actually a museum now.

One of the guys was so into the job he was doing, he showed me around the building. I asked permission to take photos and he obliged. He left me to wander and of course I had to check out every inch.

These are three shots I would not have been able to get without getting inside. This is not the first time this has happened to me. I've also been inside an old mill because I was at the right place at the right time.