Looking at small town America through the viewfinder – and a cup of gas station coffee

I love starting my day by grabbing a cup of gas station coffee and shooting up a small town. The towns around here are so small, some mornings I can shoot up two or more.

My weapon of choice is a vintage Canon. Vintage by today’s standards because it’s more than five years old. It’s nothing fancy − a fixed-lens model I bought for less than $500. But it’s not about the camera or how much you pay for it. You have an eye for photography or you don’t.

Between that and my cellphone camera, I’ve put plenty of photos in galleries. (Not to toot my own horn, but one of my works will be in this year’s May Show at the Mansfield Art Center. Which runs May 19-June 30.)

You can blame the Times-Gazette for my passion for shooting up small towns. A staff photographer quit and was not replaced. I started bringing my point-and-shoot camera to work − mostly to shoot car crashes. It was literally a crash course in photography.

The Times-Gazette had a point-and-shoot camera reporters could use when the staff photographer was off on assignment and unable to respond to crashes, fires, and the most undesirable of all assignments − the grab and grin. (That’s journalism lingo for those ubiquitous photos of benefactors handing donation checks to grateful recipients.)

Reporters dreaded using the company camera. It was one of the first digital cameras ever made and there was about a five-second delay from the time you pressed the shutter button till it took the shot.

On one occasion I was covering a dinner where an elderly woman received a plaque for a lifetime of service to the local Red Cross. She reluctantly posed for a photo onstage − only to be called back for a second take because she had walked out of the frame and off the stage before the camera took the shot.

In spite of all that, I gradually came to love photography. More than writing at times. There were days when, if I didn’t pick up a camera and take a few shots, I’d feel half-alive. I especially love shooting early in the morning, when it’s quiet, the light is soft and people are just beginning to stir. It helps that they’re not yet awake and don’t notice me and my camera.

I suppose if I lived and worked in a big city I’d become what’s known as a street photographer − lurking on a park bench and surreptitiously squeezing off shots of unwitting passers-by. But I don’t. And I’m glad.

I can’t resist the allure of small towns. Especially during the early morning “rush minute” when people are grabbing a cup of coffee from Mickey Mart on their way to work or stopping by a ma-and-pa restaurant for breakfast.

So hop in, fasten your seatbelt, and I’ll take you on the rounds of a few small towns I’ve shot up over the years. I won’t complain if you spring for the coffee.

This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: Looking at small town America through the viewfinder – and a cup of gas station coffee