Monday, August 01, 2005

On Assignment: Ridgeland, Mississippi-Day One

NatchezMothLoRes
"The Moth" by Wes Aldridge

Ok. Today was a bit of a chore. I drove down the Natchez Trace Parkway from Nashville, Tennessee to Ridgeland, MIssissippi. Bad idea. I was originally told it would take 5 hours to make the drive. I thought, "Ah, 5 hours isn't so bad."

Well, let me tell ya it took longer than 5 hours. Let's do some math. The distance to Ridgeland from our Franklin office is right around 350 miles. If an automobile were traveling at theconstant rate of 70 mph for 5 hours, then in fact, my trip should have only taken 5 hours. But, see, here is the kicker... I found out today that the Natchez Trace Parkway is 50 mph, except in some places where the speed limit bottoms out at a sludge-rate of 40 mph. Well, that pretty much sucks for me.

Let's pretend that the 40 mph zones didn't even exist. Then, the 350-mile trip would take 7 hours, with no stops of course. Well, lets throw in gargantuan thunder storms throughout most of the journey. Hehe. It got so bad at one point that I had to pull off the Parkway and sit for 45-minutes to let the storm pass because I literally couldn't see the yellow lines on the road in front of me, much less oncoming vehicles or those total idiots that don't believe in turning their head and tail lights on during a storm. Throw in couple of pitstops at a total of 15-minutes and there you have it.

AN 8-HOUR TRIP. 8 HOURS. OF DRIVING. PLEASE SHOOT ME.

It totally and completely wasted the entire day of photography (as if I could have shot anything in the monsoon and haze anyway). I think that I listened to that Coldplay album 7 times. It kept me kind of mellowed out, thank God.

Anyway, at one of the pitstops along the Parkway, I saw this huge creature resting on the wall leading to the men's room. I thought he was just too bizarre not to take a shot of. So, here is a big green moth. Kind of evil looking, ain't he?

4 comments:

susanne said...

No, not at all!!!
He is a really beautiful moth... similar like that we have around our houses in the fields nearby...and that come every evening inside when light is on...what Daniel always makes completely crazy...but me not...I like them...

Anonymous said...

Wes, is this blog about complaining about your job or photography!
Try some extension tubes or a macro lens and make the photo interesting.
If you don't have either of those your could turn your 50mm 1.8 mark I (with the metal mount) around backwards and it will act as a macro lens.

Wes Aldridge said...

Hehe, the best comments always go up anonymously!
But yes, thank you for the comment.

My job is photography, and this blog is about the total package. We get a little photography, a day in the life of me, shot details, etc., etc. There is a gigantic time element to my job. I have a set number of days to complete an assignment. So using almost an entire day to drive really cuts into my shooting time efficiency. Not really complaining about my job here, just complaining about the massive amount of time wasted driving that could have been used to shoot.

Yeah, macro a lens or some extension tubes would have been cool for the shot, but damn, I don't have any of those. And it would be neat if the 50mm f/1.8 would mount backwards on an EF mount, but as we know it doesn't and I am not exactly wild about the idea of exposed rear lens elements and mirror and sensor attracting the dust and dirt blowing around in rural Mississippi. But, what the hell, if I think about it tonight I will flip it (in a more controlled environment) and get a shot up with it.

Anonymous said...

wes....I don't think I have ever seen a moth like this before.Is it just in the Mississippi area? Nice shot.

dad