what makes it

I went to explore a row of cherry blossom trees this morning after getting word that it was popping. It was like a dream land and I got there early enough to avoid any instagram influencer types posing in the middle of the street. I didn’t linger long — I was feeling pulled to a coffee shop, a book, and a bagel to settle into the morning. As I left, I wondered if I just might have a good side mirror shot.

I was stoked to see I did. I only took two photos and both turned out great. I shared the one above on the WordPress.org Photo Directory so feel free to use it!

These shots can be annoying to line up. I’ve spent more time than I want to admit simply trying to get a decent photo that to be presented with one, without any need to adjust, felt like magic. Usually, I am parking and reparking my car, fiddling with the focus of the mirror, and playing around with what angle I want. This has become a bit of an accidental series of over the years:

It hasn’t always gone well as you can see from this quick series from Joshua Tree National Park. None of these are even remotely interesting!

I hated how these turned out from the Grand Teton National Park. I remembered backing my car up to try to get this view and abandoning the effort once I realized the shot wasn’t quite forming.

Here’s a series where you can watch the final shot I got evolve out of a series of frustrating shots.

This was the very first in this series and I have never tried this hard to get the shot since. It feels inauthentic — forced. I like when the shot naturally appears nowadays rather than trying to make it happen. Like the shot below, I was barreling down a road in Moab with one of my dear friends after a hike on a camping trip when I noticed how cool his side mirrors were. He asked if I wanted him to slow down. I yelled “no” over the wind bursting through the open windows and took the photo anyway:

For now, here’s the curated gallery of my favorites and, side by side, you can see how each does their own thing:

Sometimes the view is more in focus, sometimes you can see more of me, and sometimes, if all goes well, you can see the reflection of whatever I’m shooting on the body of my car. That last and little detail is what makes it for me.