For most of my visits to the Catskills, I have planned my shooting destinations in advance, while also allowing for a degree of change for lighting, weather, etc. Although it may sound oxymoronic, sometimes as part of the planning process, I will schedule a morning or an afternoon with no plan, to either scout possible future locations or to just simply drive around to see what I can found.

Want a Nice Cold Coke?

And that’s what happened with this photograph. I had finished an early morning session at Callicoon, which has the look of many bygone years, and was then just driving around the backroads of Sullivan County. There are many great rural scenes in this section of the Catskills, including a wide variety of farms, barns and landscapes. As I was driving by one particular farm, this country scene came across my vision and caused me to immediately stop.

This wonderful scene shows an old Coke machine that had certainly seen better days, several lucky horseshoes, a few rusted saw blades and a corroded pitchfork blade, all proudly displayed on the side of a small, weather-beaten barn. Contrary to the image seen here, the actual farm was a beehive of activity with tractors and workers moving every which way.

Although it is a simple photograph, “f8 and be there” as they say, I thought it was a great capture that I felt quite fortunate to have come across.