Road Trip Out West; Exploring, Wandering and Photography; Part I; Kentucky

Paducah, Kentucky store window & bench.  The old, historic part of downtown Paducah is quite
a treat for a photo walk.  I saw this little scene as my wife and I were casually walking by.
All images in this post were made using a Fujifilm X100VI.  All images are from JPEGs.
(click to enlarge any image)

The journey begins!  Woohoo!  We have left home and are driving west toward our first destination. That destination is Paducah, Kentucky.  I am pumped about this road trip!

I love road trips. I always have. In fact, when I was a baby and toddler, my parents tell me that when I would not go to sleep they would lay me down on the backseat of our car (seat belts had not yet been invented; seriously) and drive around the block a few times and I would be sound asleep quickly. There must be something about automobiles, the sound of tires on the pavement and the rhythmic movement of a car in motion. 

There is just something wonderful about driving off in whatever direction you choose and exploring places by car to which you have never been.  You have total control. There is no one telling you into which line you have to join, which seat in which you have to sit, how muxh of your stuff you can take with you or which way you have to go. It is all up to you. You get to decide everything about your trip. I find that exhilarating.  But I digress.

Anytime, I leave on a road trip, as I drive away from my home, I find myself wracking my brain to think if there is anything I should have brought that I did not. What did I leave at home that I meant to bring? That I need?  After wracking my brain before I get too far from home, I simply then decide that anything I may have forgotten I most likely can buy along my way. That removes any of that residual stress. But, I guess that probably is pretty normal.  Back to the road trip.

Along the Ohio River the flood wall is painted with murals depicting important moments in the 
city's history.  The Ohio River is just on the other side of this wall with Illinois on the far bank
of the river.  Paducah did well with these depictions of their history.

A closer view of one of the wall-sized murals depicting the first steam locomotive arriving by
barge and pulled by oxen.  To whomever painted these murals, kudos!  They are excellent!

If there is a steam locomotive nearby, you know I'll be make a few images of it or parts of it,
anyway.  These are the driving wheels from Illinois Central 2-8-2 #1518 on display next to the 
flood wall and historic murals.

I suspect you were wondering why my wife’s and my first destination is Paducah, Kentucky. Well, my wife is a quilter, and Paducah is sort of the quilting capital of the United States, or so I’m told. There is a national quilting museum, quilting shops and other sundry activities in Paducah that are associated with quilting, such as numerous fabric shops. Now, as you men and husbands know, we cannot take a road trip or vacation solely for our own pleasure. We have to take into account what our partners, spouses or other halves want to do as well. So, being a very smart man, I quickly acquiesced and agreed to go to Paducah. After all, with the name like Paducah, how can one go wrong?

It turns out Paducah is a really cool place. We arrived in late morning to find a quaint downtown, a farmer’s market in progress and a Riverwalk with huge painted murals, each reflecting various highlights of the city’s history.  I found my surroundings in historic downtown Paducah very interesting.

As I mentioned in my last post, for this road trip I only brought my OM-1 II, the 12-100mm lens, the 8-25mm lens as well as my newly acquired Fujifilm X-100VI. Since my wife bought me the Fujifilm camera for my birthday she did, in fact, expect me to bring it along.  I complied (willingly 😁).  As I stated in my last post, this is not a photography trip but a vacation for us to explore, wander and bring home a few representative photos of the places we visit.  Hence, the minimal gear.  Let’s see if I am successful in accomplishing that.

It seems some of the older parts of downtown are now being 'gentrified' with renovations of the old
buildings into upscale living spaces.  I’m an admirer of these kinds of efforts.

There were lots of other murals painted on various walls that we observed as we walked around
the old downtown area.  Of course, Jeremiah was a bullfrog!

For this trip (and in the future, for the most part) my intention for using the X-100VI is as a walk around, kind of “snapshot“ camera—photograph anything that piques my interest that I happen to see, camera.  More or less be a casual photography camera. I want to feel unburdened by not having to carry a camera and more than a single lens even though only one focal length can cause me to miss some compositions.  I want it to be ‘just there,’ handy, its use be simple and mostly automatic.  Am I making sense?  I had the camera set for raw plus JPEG with several film simulations programmed into the custom settings, aperture priority, AF-S, Auto ISO, Auto White Balance, etc.  I’ll retain some control but I want the camera to do the work for me so I can just enjoy ‘seeing the subject, raising the camera to my eye, composing and pressing the shutter.’  Fast, simple, easy.  

I'm not sure what this is all about.  I was drawn to the contrasting textures of these old rusty
metal pieces covering where a store's window once was.  The tiny sign in the middle says
"Avert."  I have no idea if that has any meaning other than someone stuck it on the rusty metal.

So my choice for walking around historic downtown Paducah was the Fujifilm camera (seems like the perfect circumstance for it) which I carried in my right hand with a wrist strap. It is small and lightweight enough that carrying it for hours was not a chore.  At the end of the day, I made many casual photographs—fun photographs—and I’m very pleased with the results. I’m posting a few of my images here—all from JPEG files. So the Fujifilm camera seems to be clearly serving my purpose very well at this point.  Did I yet mention how much I like using the X100VI?  You’ll read that question many times in the weeks to come, I’m sure.

This is a bit strange.  It is not quite like
anything I've seen in a store window
before!  A boy in a lab coat holding a
Slide rule.  Bizarre!

When encountering various subjects in a variety of light conditions I found myself easily switching film simulations by quickly pressing the ‘Q’ button and rotating the rear command dial.  I have one simulation programmed (C1) for normal scenes and subject and another for high contrast situations (C2).  A third for black & white (C3).  I love the Deep Tone Monochrome on the Nikon Zf and I plan to find a simulation, or create one, for that look.  Anyone found a really good one?  I’m still experimenting with which base simulation best suits my preferences for color, contrast, etc.  I find the ability to shoot JPEGs and change films simulations rewarding.  

So far, I’m finding this camera fun to use.  No stress.  No worrying about the complexities of using all kinds of modes and features.  Simple, easy with excellent image quality. See, lift, compose, push the shutter button.

I would recommend paying a visit to downtown Paducah Kentucky if you are in that area. I think you will find a photo walk downtown very interesting with many possibilities for casual photography.

From Paducah, we chose to drive west on US Route 60.  Driving secondary road and staying off the major interstate highways is how I like to travel.  An interesting fact about Route 60 when you leave the Paducah area is that you will first cross the Ohio River, then travel on a very small piece of extreme southern Illinois, maybe a quarter mile wide, then cross the mighty Mississippi River.  Route 60 crosses both right at the conjunction of both rivers. I found this to be a unique piece of landscape.  Driving Route 60 across southern Missouri surprised me a bit. It is primarily woodland with a few small towns peppered along the way.  Driving Route 60 is a pleasant experience with the roadway mainly being four lane and divided by a grass median. An easy drive. 

Our destination for that next evening was Lawrence, Kansas. Why Lawrence? No particular reason other than in my planning it was a decent day’s drive from Paducah and it was on the west side of Kansas City. Typically, when I loosely plan a road trip, I will find a place to stay on the other side of a major metropolitan area so in the morning when leaving the hotel, I don’t have to fight rush-hour traffic.

Next, across the flat, sparsely populated landscape of Kansas where we had a bit of a scare and into the desert dry plains of Eastern Colorado. 

If you have any questions or comments, please either leave them below or email me. I’ll be happy to answer.  You can find my email on my website.

So far, the trip is going very well. The weather is great, traffic is light and my wife and I are having a good time seeing the sights along our way.  We even enjoy spending 24/7 together!  How about that!

Join me over at my website, https://www.dennismook.com.  

Thanks for looking. Enjoy!  

Dennis A. Mook  

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