YeagerShots: Born in Huntington Beach State Park
Running late and losing light needed for photos, I for some strange reason didn't stop to think long and hard about where I was driving to for the last two and a half hours. It's spring 2019 and my tag team partner Mac and I are going to snap some pics. I get there first, while setting up my camera to vlog it hits my like a shot gun blast to the face... I'm home. In the place where this photography business life of mine started but not the place where the passion started. That would be Darlington, SC and feature the same lady pictured below.
It was 2004, the girl I asked to model for me at lunch time in 11th grade asked me to meet her in Huntington Beach. It didn't seem like as much traffic was on the road then and I was always in Myrtle [Beach] so it wasn't a big deal. I shot the photos and it would be months, maybe a year before I saw the pictures. That's because I thought nothing of the doing pictures and handing the roll off to be paid for and processed back then by the "client" or more likely "friend" who was the photoshoot subject....Well mainly having someone else pay for the processing part, I was happy to allow. Which nowadays is beyond crazy to think about. Not seeing a photo before having someone else do anything at all with it?!? That was before we lived in a digital world though. Finally tracking down the roll and prints a germ of an idea sprang forward. I maybe able to do this "photography thing".
Back to Spring 2019. It's windy and way more crowded than it should be for a week day. Lots of tourist are in town and Canadians seem to enjoy visiting the beaches along the Carolina Coastline. Sometimes it's people who may slightly interfere with photo shoots but this time it was all the elements. Losing light, wind, and the Atalaya Castle closing soon... gasp! All in a days work. The real problem was photographing in a place that could of easily become very hard to find a new way of photographing. You see places can become stale just look food. You "know" every nook and cranny to shoot in there. Over a decade that site was the birthplace of my photo career, site of a wedding, family pics, and modeling style photo sessions.
With my tag team partner Mac I expressed this concern and we started out on the side of Atalaya. Never done it this way before, so that lead to really shooting in front of doors and the walls around the entrance you'd just by going in. We hung around the entrance taking our time before actually going inside. Once inside the sunlight was a challenge. As it set leaving one side of the building clearly the place to be in where it wasn't to bright. Since I only had my camera with no diffusion for the harsh sunset. Taking advantage of shade in the hallways I was able to catch a few moments I knew immediately would be turned into black and white photos as they sh off light, shape, texture, with shadows that will almost always make for a good black and white photograph. Once settling into a groove we were kicked out! It was sunset so no one could be in the Atalya's Castle Structure at night. Since it was not powered in anyway with lights. Onto the beach we went where it was a spray and pray situation. That just means taking continuous shots and hoping you get something usable. The wind was wrecking havoc on us. So when that happens you hope hair and accessories can be photographed in a split second that actually looks decent in your photo.
As I say goodby to Mac, it's dark not yet night. Huntington Beach State Park always mattered but it gains meaning as the years move on. I hope that I don't stay away for years again, then at the same time the visits should be kept to a minimum right? To keep things feeling "special". After all, I hear "home" is where the heart is. So glad there's photos to prove that.
-Yeag
