This weekend, my family and I drove to Kentucky to visit my Mom.
The spring is early this year, and as usual, I brought my camera.
Soon after crossing over from Illinois, we stopped at the Whitehaven rest stop in Paducah. Whitehaven is a majestic old mansion, originally built in the 1860s and converted into the mansion it is now in the first decade of the 20th century. At some point, it fell into disrepair and then into ruins. However, in the 1980's there was a concerted effort to restore the building, and it is now a beautiful structure maintained by the state as a rest stop and tourist attraction.
While the building looks like something out of
Gone with the Wind, we were running late and I didn't have much time. Instead of running around the building doing architectural photography, I found a frosted window right outside the men's restroom with a bottle of spring flowers. I made that my subject.
I was blocking the entrance to the restroom and had to move out of the way several times to allow people through. But after a few dozen shots, I was satisfied that I had the shot I wanted.
The lesson in the story: look for the shots wherever they are. Just because you have a big, beautiful, historic building to shoot doesn't mean you have to do it. Maybe the shot is sitting in a window, waiting to be discovered!
You can view my website at:
www.tombellart.com.
