Big Photo Hunt
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Big Photo Hunt
Photographing Abandoned Roadside Attractions with Ken Lee
Night photographer Ken Lee specializes in capturing the beauty of abandoned places through long exposure and light painting techniques. His work has been featured in numerous photography publications, including National Geographic Books, Omni Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, and Westways Magazine. He has spent years exploring forgotten locations—from deserted buildings to rusting vehicles—bringing them to life with carefully crafted lighting. With a deep appreciation for history and storytelling, Ken transforms these overlooked spaces into mesmerizing works of art.
In this episode, we talk about his new book Abandoned Roadside Attractions. We dive into the world of photographing these forgotten landmarks—how to find them, the ethical considerations of shooting in these locations, and the creative techniques that tell their stories. Ken shares his approach to composition, lighting, and the challenges of working in unpredictable environments. If you’ve ever been drawn to the mystery of abandoned places or want to learn how to capture them in a compelling way, this episode is packed with insights and inspiration.
Show Notes:
00:00:00:03 - 00:00:17:06
A lot of times we photograph it during a full moon. So it's it's rather bright because we're using the moon sort of as, as our own softbox or key light. So we can actually see where we're walking as well. And in that way we don't have to use a really high ISO and we can use a pretty long exposure.
00:00:20:14 - 00:00:41:26
Welcome to the Big Photo Hunt Podcast, a show where we talk with aspiring and professional photographers to help us all grow and improve our photography together. I'm your host, Ken Deckinger. If you're one of our community members and you'd like to be a guest on the show, please visit Big Photo hunt.com for more information.
00:00:55:14 - 00:01:28:24
Today we're heading west to the southwest of the United States. That's where my guest, Ken Lee, is from, and where he spends his time photographing abandoned subjects such as old cars, planes, buildings, and amusement parks. If you're familiar with his name, it may be because Ken is making history today as the first Big Photo Hunt podcast guest to appear on this show twice. Last time he was here, we spoke about night photography and light painting.
00:01:29:01 - 00:01:44:23
Today we'll dig into his experiences, which still involve sneaking around in the dark to learn the how, what, and why of photographing abandoned attractions. Oh, you've got a call. Do you need to take that?
00:01:45:27 - 00:01:46:24
I don't know what this is.
00:01:46:28 - 00:01:49:09
That's actually a great reminder to shut this off, though.
00:01:49:11 - 00:01:53:13
No. Hey, listen, I know where I fall on the totem pole of importance here.
00:01:53:21 - 00:01:54:28
No no no no no no.
00:01:55:00 - 00:01:57:03
You handsome people get extra good treatment.
00:01:57:05 - 00:02:01:29
No no no. First of all, you are arguably more handsome than I am, so it's good to see you.
00:02:02:06 - 00:02:03:02
Yeah, great seeing you.
00:02:03:07 - 00:02:31:07
I gotta show something. You wanna see something? I was in a car accident. Oh, no. Yeah, it was crazy. And I was in a state of shock. It was a massive accident. There must have been easily 75 to 100 police, firemen, EMS people, on site news crews. That's me in the ambulance. I stepped out of my car. I was in shock and I just started taking photos. I was not hurt, but here. Look, I don't know if you could see.
00:02:31:18 - 00:02:32:25
Well, I'm glad you weren't hurt.
00:02:32:27 - 00:02:38:21
Yeah. Look, this is me. That's my car. The one of the white van is on top of. That's my car.
00:02:39:06 - 00:02:41:11
And the just completely rolled over.
00:02:41:13 - 00:02:43:19
Yeah. So this here. Here. And then there's this.
00:02:52:03 - 00:02:54:08
I'm trying to get this lady out of the white van.
00:02:54:14 - 00:02:57:02
Okay, so how many people were involved in this accident?
00:02:57:04 - 00:03:28:03
So there were three cars. There was a school bus, probably had about 25 kids on it, and I was at an intersection. I was doing nothing. I was literally being a good driver, sitting at a red light, just me and my dog. I yeah, I just dropped my daughter off at school and, uh, there was this school bus just cruising through this intersection. It was a three way intersection and this white van, it was like a passenger van. It was a transit van. Um, I think it was used to transport senior citizens.
00:03:28:19 - 00:03:59:14
And there was no one in it, no senior citizens in it. But the van tried to beat the school bus. They made a left turn in front of the school bus. And you can't do that. School buses are big. So this school bus, I saw the whole thing in like slow motion. The school bus hit the van and then threw this van and all of a sudden I'm just sitting there at the red light and I see this 14 passenger white transit van being thrown at me, and this on top of my car. And I was like, Holy shit. I was literally in a state of shock.
00:03:59:16 - 00:04:04:08
And I got out and I started taking pictures. I was like, what do I do now? Because I was not injured, I didn't.
00:04:04:12 - 00:04:14:00
I may as well because if nothing else, it can help you, help you later. I mean, who knows what. But but you're all right. It's like your back's not fast or anything.
00:04:14:02 - 00:04:49:11
I'm fine. I was emotionally like. I was shaken up for a good week. It was really creepy. But anyway, this is a really special day for me. It's a big deal. This is a really big deal. There's a lot of reasons why. The first is, obviously we're here because of your book, Abandoned Roadside Attraction. So we're going to talk about your book. And the second reason that this is such a big deal is because you have the same name as I do, which we've discussed previously. The third reason is that you are the first guest that I've ever had on this show.
00:04:49:23 - 00:04:50:14
Twice.
00:04:50:29 - 00:04:53:05
Oh, wow, what a great honor.
00:04:53:07 - 00:05:00:11
I'm honored. You know, most people like they don't talk to me again. They don't want to talk to me again. And we're like, developed a little friendship here. It's it's great.
00:05:00:13 - 00:05:02:14
And but instead I've come back for more.
00:05:02:17 - 00:05:03:08
You have.
00:05:03:10 - 00:05:04:27
You have. Thank you.
00:05:06:13 - 00:05:38:24
So today we're going to talk about photographing abandoned attractions. And Ken has published a book recently on it. The book is amazing. The photos are amazing. And what's really cool is that under every photo, Ken lists all his settings and the lighting he used because these all happened at night. So I want to go through all that and talk about that. Ken, you've been here before, so maybe we kind of do the CliffsNotes version of an introduction in case they missed you the first time. And then we'll get into all the other stuff about roadside attractions and photographing abandoned.
00:05:39:15 - 00:05:42:13
What? What are they? Subjects, I guess. Abandoned subjects?
00:05:42:20 - 00:06:22:19
Yeah. Yeah. There's subjects. All foreground subjects. Whatever. Yes, I am a night photographer, and I do light painting, which means that I illuminate subjects with a handheld flashlight while the camera shutter is open. So that's what I love doing and that's to, you know, give foreground extra oomph, gravitas, interest or um, goose it along or just, um, add texture or what have you. I've had my photos published in numerous places, including National Geographic Books, Omni magazine, um, I don't know, Los Angeles Times and a bunch of other publications.
00:06:23:08 - 00:06:26:06
I also teach night photography workshops.
00:06:26:26 - 00:06:58:03
I don't know if I mentioned we have a little summer house on Cape Cod. I was there in December and there was this Christmas Mart. There were all these artists, and one of them was a photographer, this woman, and she had a picture of, I think it was like a shack on a beach at night, and it was with light painting. And I went up to her and I asked her, hey, is that light painting? Because, you know, obviously after speaking to you, I'm a professional. She was not as excited as I was. You know, I was really enthused by the whole thing. I was like, oh my God, I know what I'm talking about. She was just like, yeah.
00:06:58:05 - 00:07:05:12
I'm like, how long was that? How long? And she's like, I don't know, when did I take it? I was like, no, no, I mean, how long was that shutter open? And I was like, it was right, you know.
00:07:05:14 - 00:07:06:11
Is her name Betty?
00:07:06:24 - 00:07:09:21
No, I know Betty, though. Betty is amazing. You know Betty.
00:07:09:23 - 00:07:10:08
Okay.
00:07:10:20 - 00:07:14:02
I know of her. That's it. I've. We've never had contact.
00:07:14:09 - 00:07:25:05
Betty is super talented, and Betty has actually been on this podcast. She's terrific. And she's so nice. The nicest lady I'm hoping next summer. So we get together. I'd love to have her take me out and show me around.
00:07:25:07 - 00:07:25:26
Right on.
00:07:26:09 - 00:07:43:29
All right, let's get into this. So the first time we got together, we were talking about light painting, night photography. And this is actually a really good connection to today's talk because we're going to talk about photographing abandoned subjects. And can a lot of those look like they were shot at night. Right.
00:07:44:14 - 00:07:45:09
All of them were.
00:07:45:17 - 00:07:51:17
So it kind of ties together. What is it about abandoned subjects that you're attracted to?
00:07:51:27 - 00:08:23:25
A lot of things. It's the history, you know, trying to figure out what's going on. And a lot of times I'll try and research those. As you can probably tell by the book. And then also from a photography standpoint, they're just fascinating. Like when you see something that really used to be interesting, whether it was someone's hopes and dreams or an automobile or something else, a lot of times, even in its decay, it's a beautiful thing. And I think one of the things that night photography with light painting does is that it breathes new life into it, that ordinarily it wouldn't have.
00:08:23:27 - 00:08:42:04
It would be ordinarily blight that you would drive past or walk past and you wouldn't notice. But here, maybe it takes on new life and has new texture and can be recontextualized in a different way depending on how you choose to light and what colors you choose and and so forth.
00:08:42:18 - 00:08:48:03
The book has all kinds of structures. It also has a Flintstones park or something. Is that.
00:08:48:05 - 00:08:49:01
Right? You have the.
00:08:49:03 - 00:08:49:29
Bedrock City.
00:08:50:11 - 00:08:53:07
And a 1940s water park.
00:08:53:19 - 00:08:56:06
That's right. Yeah, there's a water park in there too.
00:08:56:08 - 00:09:02:06
Do you go to those places and just feel like the history there? Do you, do you kind of imagine what happened on those locations?
00:09:02:18 - 00:09:25:12
I really try to. And that's especially true at night, which is one of the reasons why night photography is so much fun. It's because you know how your imagination runs amuck at night. It really does that with night photography, and a lot of times that can inform how you choose to light something and how you choose to photograph it and at what angle and things like that. You know, just based on how it makes you feel.
00:09:25:27 - 00:09:33:19
And the cars that you have photographed. Where are they? Are they just like, do you just drive down route 66 in the desert and see these cars?
00:09:34:06 - 00:10:05:00
Sometimes you can find them just by going to locations and saying, hey, you know, there's a pretty great looking 1940s or 1950s vehicle. So I'm going to photograph that. And other times you hear about it either from other people or, or blog posts or things like that, and then photograph it or or sometimes a lot of times. And locations and cars go together. It's not unusual to have abandoned buildings. And then maybe there's 1 or 2 cars in the back.
00:10:06:00 - 00:10:11:04
So the cars, like they're not just all in one place. It's not like a giant graveyard of old cars that you're photographing.
00:10:11:15 - 00:10:45:13
Not necessarily, although I love those two. Like, for example, in one of my books, certainly the first one, I think maybe two of them feature things like auto salvage yards in them. So I photographed places like Pearson Ville in California, and that at one point had 4000 cars in their auto salvage yard, many of them these exotic old vehicles and 1940s 50s 60s vehicles and things like that and like weird things like a one of my favorites was a Cadillac camper.
00:10:45:15 - 00:10:49:19
So it was a Cadillac that had been turned into an RV, essentially.
00:10:50:08 - 00:10:51:03
That is cool.
00:10:51:28 - 00:10:53:23
Yeah, just fun stuff like that.
00:10:54:10 - 00:11:26:06
Are you allowed to do this, like, sneak on to these places? I'm just curious. But also, I'd imagine it's probably an interesting tip for our listeners. If you want to go photograph abandoned structures and to give you context out in Cape Cod, here in Massachusetts, I found this old motel and I went on to the property and I was just, like, snooping around this motel. It was, first of all, it was creepy, man. It was really creepy. Especially motels, because the beds are still in there and there's, like, plants growing in them and there's broken glass.
00:11:26:09 - 00:11:28:14
And I was just wondering if I'm even allowed to be there.
00:11:29:16 - 00:12:00:11
Well, to be honest, it's doubtful because, um, it might be abandoned, but that land is owned by somebody. I mean, you really don't have land in this country of ours that's just simply there and no one owns it. So chances are you're probably not supposed to be there. And it's sort of a comfort level with everyone. So I'm not really trying to encourage people to necessarily trespass or anything, but basically if it's wide open and it's easily accessible. So in other words, I don't have to hop a fence.
00:12:00:24 - 00:12:31:04
Um, there's no overt signs like No Trespassing, keep out. If it's just wide open, I'll walk in. If I'm causing no harm, I'll walk in. So things like that. And there's plenty of places like that, especially in, in the California deserts that are like that. So I'll do that. If I have to hop a fence, then it's a no go. I'm not going to hop a fence for that because clearly someone wants me to keep out. So I'm going to keep out and respect that. Now most of the time, whenever possible, I try and gain access by asking people.
00:12:31:06 - 00:12:42:06
So in the case of some of the auto salvage yards and things like that, I call up the owners and ask if I can photograph them and then offer to give them a print or something like that. So it just depends.
00:12:43:01 - 00:12:44:25
I took my 11 year old daughter with me.
00:12:46:06 - 00:12:47:07
Cool. Yeah.
00:12:47:19 - 00:13:03:09
I put an old camera in her hand. It was. I had a That's canon G7 x I think, or GPS x I had it. It was like my first real camera. I gave her that and we went through this abandoned motel. She loved it. She thought it was awesome. I thought it was pretty cool too. It was really creepy though.
00:13:03:24 - 00:13:05:20
That must have been a great adventure for her.
00:13:06:06 - 00:13:10:13
I thought so, but then there was like just glass everywhere. And there were things like.
00:13:10:15 - 00:13:46:12
Sometimes we wear masks, and in some places we've worn Kn95 masks just to try and keep as much of the garbage out as possible. And I also have steel shank boots for some places where I think there's protruding nails or glass or things like that. So I try and keep safe. And if it feels like it's really not safe, you know, there's plenty of other places to photograph. So I just don't go in there. Like, for example, I test the floorboards, but if the floorboards seem like they're really rickety and they're going to go, I just don't bother going in, you know, because it's not worth a photograph or two to go and jack myself up, so.
00:13:46:14 - 00:13:46:29
No.
00:13:50:17 - 00:14:28:04
Hey, it's Ken breaking in here to let you know that the Big Photon email newsletter, which goes out on Tuesdays at 2:30 p.m. eastern time, has gotten a bit of a facelift recently. It still celebrates the big Photo Hunt weekly top ten members, and it now also includes photography tips, news, this podcast, and introductions to our featured members. Look, I know we all need another newsletter like we need underexposed photos, but for an uplifting, informative and growth oriented photography update once a week, check out the big photo huntxu.
00:14:28:06 - 00:14:32:22
Com to sign up. Okay, now back to the show.
00:14:37:10 - 00:14:51:00
Okay, so I'm really, really interested in this water park. I love water parks. I loved the photos of the water park because it was so retro looking. Was that designed to look that way or was it actually from the 40s?
00:14:52:04 - 00:15:30:15
Now, in my book, I named it Lake Dolores, which was the original name of the water park, but it's been rebuilt several times and rebranded. So the structures that you are seeing in the photos are actually from when it was called Cahuilla, and it was designed to look like a retro futuristic 1950s kind of vibe. And it was more obvious before all the tagging and fires and that sort of thing ruined the place. So by the time I got there to photograph it, as you can tell, it was almost like a contest where they were trying to leave no space, no wall unpainted.
00:15:30:21 - 00:15:52:21
But it was still, still fascinating to wander through there. There's, um, a lot of history behind that which I cover in my book. But you have injuries, multi-million dollar lawsuits. Um, at one point during its heyday, there were plenty of people who were going down these slides at 50 miles an hour. Standing up,
00:15:54:17 - 00:16:21:17
which is nuts. And you could actually see advertisements for this around the Los Angeles or Southern California area. So plenty of people remember going there, and lots of people have contacted me about that saying, oh my gosh, I went there as a kid, or I saw a horrible accident with someone standing up or so forth, and you can guarantee that would never fly. Now you would never, ever have a water theme park with stand up slides. But back then, whatever.
00:16:22:07 - 00:16:46:11
There was a place like that in new Jersey, I don't remember. I think maybe it was called like Action Park or something that finally got shut down. I didn't grow up in new Jersey, but I've seen documentaries about this place, and it was like that. It was just that kind of 70s and 80s vibe where kids could just do whatever they wanted, and there were no protections. I'm pretty sure someone died there, if not more than one person. I think that the history and the stories that come out of those places are so cool.
00:16:47:03 - 00:16:48:03
Absolutely.
00:16:48:20 - 00:16:56:00
So what got you into photographing abandoned structures like one day? Did you just kind of go out there and you're like, oh, this is cool. Like, what is it that drove the appeal?
00:16:56:25 - 00:17:39:25
I think a lot of it was meeting friends, and it opened up this whole different photography, because when I first started night photography, I was going out to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest or Joshua Tree National Park or other places in Owens Valley, and photographing nature because it seemed logical. You go out in nature where there's dark skies and you start taking photographs. But then I came across this website called The Nocturnes, and the Nocturnes were really into light painting of subjects. Through it, I met people like Lance Koenig and Troy Paiva, and eventually became friends with them, and then discovered this whole other world where people were photographing abandoned places and things like this.
00:17:39:27 - 00:17:49:10
This is largely pioneered by Troy. And and what it did also is it broadened the amount of subjects that I could photograph. So why not?
00:17:50:04 - 00:18:05:26
And so these structures are there. Why have they not been removed? Or why has the land not been built on where I live? Space is at such a premium. If something were to go defunct like that, it would be gone within five years and there would be a new structure there.
00:18:06:09 - 00:18:36:27
Right. But you probably hit on part of it, because most of these places that I'm photographing are out in the desert where there's wide open land for miles and miles. Some of it has to do with litigation and some of it lack of money, some of it maybe people passed away or what have you. But yeah, it's always interesting to try and figure out why somebody left what appeared to be a perfectly great structure. So a lot of times it's due to financial reasons, um, such as the case with route 66, for sure.
00:18:38:04 - 00:18:44:15
This water park, for example, it was there and it was a destination. People would go out there just to go to the water park.
00:18:44:29 - 00:19:06:15
Yeah. It's about, Uh, I forget it's probably about 45 minutes or so outside Barstow, and it's in between Los Angeles and Las Vegas on Interstate 15, and it's easily visible from the interstate. So it's probably one of the most popular visited abandoned sites in Southern California.
00:19:06:28 - 00:19:37:25
There was this, again in Cape Cod. There was this you know, it's funny, I, I don't actually spend that much time in Cape Cod. I just feel like maybe Cape Cod is so quirky that all my weird photography stories are about Cape Cod. But in Cape Cod there was a I think it might have been a Navy base almost at the end of the Cape in Truro, and they have a massive radar structure there, and I think it was in the 60s. They built a town there for all the officers and their families that lived there, and it was abandoned.
00:19:38:03 - 00:19:57:06
And there are stories of people going into those houses there. And I went last summer, but one year before I went there, I read afterwards because we got there and everything was gone. Um, they raised it all and they raised it because people were going in there and it was dangerous, but it looked really cool to photograph. But it was gone. There was just a street where the houses were.
00:19:57:23 - 00:20:05:07
Yeah, I had heard about that from Tim Little. I don't think he's actually gone in and photographed it, but, um, he certainly talked about it before.
00:20:06:01 - 00:20:20:13
Have you heard of this town in the desert somewhere out in California? I think it's probably east of LA, where they built a lake, and they pitched it as like this promised land town, and they built some houses around it, but it never worked.
00:20:21:01 - 00:20:22:23
That might be California City.
00:20:22:26 - 00:20:24:09
Let me see if that's what it is.
00:20:25:18 - 00:20:28:27
Although you did say it has a lake in California city does not have a lake.
00:20:28:29 - 00:20:48:14
Let me see. City in California with a man made lake that nobody ever moved to Salton Sea. The Salton Sea, a ghost of former glory in the California desert. I think this is it.
00:20:48:16 - 00:21:18:29
I am very familiar with Salton Sea. So the lake is artificial? In a manner of speaking. But it was an accident. So basically, I believe it was the Army Corps of Engineers. Don't quote me on that and apologises. This is wrong. But basically they were diverting water from the Colorado River for farmers, I believe it was. And the water spilled over the edges and basically flowed into this low depression area and created the Salton Sea.
00:21:19:16 - 00:21:55:15
And so what happened was initially people flocked there and they built all sorts of resorts and things like that. And it was a very popular resort destination in the 1940s and 50s, I believe it was. But what happened was because there's no outlet for the lake. It petrified after a while, and also there was a lot of runoff from agriculture and things like that. So between those two things, the thing completely purified and the water turned really smelly. Fish started dying and by the 1960s, I believe it was people thought, you know, maybe we should go somewhere else for, uh, for our vacation.
00:21:56:09 - 00:22:06:27
That's exactly the story. That's what I remember. And it's so salty and toxic that nothing can live in it. Right. Or I think I read that there was some fish that somehow evolved to live in it.
00:22:07:05 - 00:22:11:03
There are fish. I don't know if they evolved to live in it, but there are fish there.
00:22:11:16 - 00:22:41:13
I'm trying to read about it right now. Yeah. In the 1970s, the Salton Sea began shrinking, revealing a muddy sea floor contaminated with pesticides from the agricultural runoff. Toxic chemicals from the sea floor created a harmful powdery dust that spread through the air. Fish and birds died. Salinity levels rose to dangerous levels. Of that, the vacation destination disappeared, leaving behind a ghost town of its former self. And the reason I thought of it as I'm talking to you is because there are these pictures of all these abandoned structures on there that look cool.
00:22:41:28 - 00:23:14:26
A lot of them are still there. However, some of them, especially along Bombay Beach in that area which is along the shores they started, they started crumbling. But the way they crumbled was really strange because it looked like they were melting back into the earth, and it was really odd. So I kind of got into this a little bit late, this whole, um, night photography with the abandoned structures. And by the time I got there, the structures were really, really, really dilapidated already. So I came there basically in their dying breath.
00:23:15:27 - 00:23:23:19
So if someone wants to get into all of this, what's the first thing they should do if they want to start getting into photography of abandoned structures?
00:23:24:06 - 00:23:56:06
Well, first of all, I suppose there's a lot of there's a lot of information online about abandoned structures, because there's a lot of people who are really into something called Urbex. They'll go out and explore these things. Now, most of them do it during the day, but that doesn't matter. You can find out about these abandoned structures through Urbex forums and Facebook groups and so forth. Also, a lot of blogs and even even books, you know, such as mine. So that's one way of doing it. And once you find these places, it's a matter of going there with your camera.
00:23:56:15 - 00:24:34:16
You could go there during the day, or you could go there at night, like we love to do. And there. Well, it depends on when you photograph it, but a lot of times we photograph it during a full moon. So it's, it's rather bright because we're using the moon sort of as, as our own softbox or key light. So we can actually see where we're walking as well. And in that way we don't have to use a really high ISO and we can use a pretty long exposure. So for instance, a lot of a lot of my base exposures throughout the book are went like 2 or 3 minutes in length, sometimes longer.
00:24:35:04 - 00:25:09:23
Um, F-Stop of f8 and ISO of 200, maybe 400. So we're not talking about placing really huge demands on the camera. So consequently you can use almost any halfway decent camera and almost any halfway decent lens. You don't have to have a super fast lens or anything like that. And and you can photograph it so it doesn't require any specialized equipment. I would say if you get a special if you get specialized equipment at all. Get the best tripod you can afford, because that's one of the most important pieces of equipment at that point.
00:25:10:15 - 00:25:15:26
And then a halfway decent quality light. But you can buy a halfway decent quality light for $30.
00:25:16:12 - 00:25:22:02
And the tripod obviously is just there to keep things super still because you've got this exposure for whatever, two minutes or something.
00:25:22:17 - 00:25:52:27
Right? But also, you know, if you purchase something that you value, such as several hundred or $1,000 worth of equipment on something, especially in a site that's abandoned where you have loose material, you want that to be pretty stable. So so there's that. You don't you don't want to have your camera suddenly plunged into the ground. Now that said, we've all had that happen. Every single person who does abandoned night photography, probably every single person who does night photography, period, has had that happen before.
00:25:52:29 - 00:25:55:00
But what you're trying to do is minimize that.
00:25:55:24 - 00:26:33:10
I dropped this brand new. It wasn't even during the night. I had this brand new Sony G master 50 millimeter, 1.4 and dropped it in a parking lot. And yeah, I don't know if it's screwed up on the inside, but from the outside it still looks fine. And it it photographs fine as far as I can tell it. Maybe it's a lot better if I hadn't dropped it, but I think I got lucky on that one. Yeah. Okay, so we have a little bit of a conundrum. I always ask three questions at the end of the podcast, and I'm not going to ask you twice, so I don't know what to do, but I do have an idea.
00:26:33:16 - 00:26:41:00
Or we could you know, what we could do, Ken, I could ask you the three questions and we can see if they match up to your first podcast Okay.
00:26:41:02 - 00:26:45:15
So should I try and make the match up or should I answer completely different on purpose?
00:26:45:17 - 00:27:01:18
I don't think we should say. I think we should just give it a go and see where it lands. Okay. I don't want to know you. You can you can just. You don't tell me. I don't want to know. What if it's for real or not? Okay. So I'm going to ask three questions. The first is what camera system do you use?
00:27:02:14 - 00:27:33:06
I use a, uh, a Nikon D750, uh, which is an old SLR, old DSLR camera from about 2015 or something like that, and a Pentax K one, which is a brilliant camera for night photography, and that one is a 2016 DSLR. And the reason why I'm emphasizing that they're DSLRs instead of mirrorless is because I want to emphasize that it doesn't take super high end, expensive equipment to do this.
00:27:33:25 - 00:27:42:01
Anybody can do this with any reasonably modern camera. Anything made in the last. I don't know. We'll say 15 years should be no problem.
00:27:42:21 - 00:27:50:10
I think I recall you saying the same exact thing. I have to drop a cut from the previous episode right here to see if. Okay, here we go.
00:27:50:26 - 00:27:56:19
Um, Nikon D750 and, um, the Pentax K-1 number two.
00:27:56:21 - 00:28:00:03
You ready? What's your favorite genre to shoot and why?
00:28:01:14 - 00:28:02:28
Probably boudoir.
00:28:03:20 - 00:28:04:13
Serious?
00:28:05:15 - 00:28:06:24
No, it's night photography.
00:28:06:28 - 00:28:08:18
Oh, because I was like, wait a second.
00:28:09:06 - 00:28:10:15
That was trying to mix it up.
00:28:10:17 - 00:28:12:08
That wasn't on my radar at all.
00:28:12:18 - 00:28:43:04
This, though. My second favorite thing besides travel photography. Just. Just because I love photographing. Um, if it's something like, uh, a specialized form of photography, I would say concert photography, because I really love that. And I especially love it when I have permission by the band or I'm commissioned by the band to go out and do it. Because I have access to the stage, I can wander all around the stage and get these really cool angles. And part of it is because I'm a musician too, so it really speaks to me.
00:28:43:06 - 00:28:57:27
But, um, I think some of my favorite things are probably jazz bands and rock bands because, uh, they're frequently either really into it or super flamboyant, and it just makes for great photography. So that's a lot of fun.
00:28:57:29 - 00:29:05:27
And number three, on a scale of 1 to 10, how often do you get that burning itch? Just get out there and shoot photos.
00:29:06:29 - 00:29:09:11
12 last time I said 11.
00:29:09:18 - 00:29:14:24
Ding ding ding ding. And last time you said 11. All right.
00:29:15:01 - 00:29:27:28
No, I want to get out there. I want to get out there all the time because I mentioned it earlier in our podcast. What it brings to me, as someone who has ADHD and how calming it is and how creative it is. So I want to do it all the time.
00:29:28:15 - 00:29:32:11
You have a book coming out. You have a book out. Actually, your book is out.
00:29:32:13 - 00:29:39:21
It's actually out. You know, the funny thing, Ken, is that I don't have a copy of the book. You got that copy of the book before I did.
00:29:40:00 - 00:30:08:05
I feel so bad. You know, it was also free. I would have paid for this. And I learned a little hack here. I think this is great. Thank you for. I think your publisher sent this to me free. And you can join me on this scheme if you want. What I'm going to do is I'm going to start a podcast for sports cars, and we're going to call Porsche, and we're going to get a free Porsche. Okay. I'm going to tell them I'm going to have I'm going to talk about their Porsche, but I need a free one. And so we'll see how that works. Then we'll do vacations. We can do all kinds of fun things.
00:30:08:19 - 00:30:16:07
Yeah. We can't talk about sports cars knowledgeably unless we've given it a full test, you know, for several months or years, potentially.
00:30:16:09 - 00:30:47:21
For free, of course. Yeah, yeah. Because hey, we're media I actually. So I didn't mean to take your free book from you. I would, I would have gladly paid for this. So first of all, thank you. Thank you to your publisher. She was like, hey, can I send you a copy of the book? And I was like, yeah, okay. But like, you know, I'm happy to pay for it. But it is actually a beautiful book. The images are super cool Right here we've got the Flintstones. And the water park is my favorite. I think it's because I grew up in Florida and there were a couple water parks back then. They are both gone, obviously.
00:30:47:23 - 00:31:17:27
And, um, there's like a shopping mall on one of them in a parking lot or something or, or a storage facility on the other. But I remember going to these places, and I also vaguely remember that if they existed today, they would be very different from what they were back then, because there's a lot of regulations now that weren't there. So if you're interested in abandoned roadside attractions, photography, night photography or both, or you just want to see some really cool photos for inspiration, check out Ken's book.
00:31:18:04 - 00:31:28:15
It is on Amazon, I checked, and if you receive the Big Photo Hunt email newsletter weekly at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesdays, you can go to Bigfoot Hunt. Com to sign up.
00:31:32:19 - 00:31:43:21
I'm gonna add a link to the book on Amazon in the next newsletter so you can buy it there, or just go to Amazon and buy the book. It's just so cool. So check out Ken's book.
00:31:43:23 - 00:31:46:18
Thank you very much. I really appreciate those kind words, Ken.
00:31:46:20 - 00:31:51:20
Man, I don't just love you because you're handsome. I mean, you're actually a great photographer.
00:31:52:08 - 00:31:55:04
Oh, well, thank you. Very kind of you.
00:31:55:06 - 00:31:56:16
Where can people find you?
00:31:56:22 - 00:32:06:03
Probably the central hub would be Ken Lee photography.com that has links to some of my social media. But basically I'm Ken Lee photography everywhere.
00:32:06:17 - 00:32:25:14
Thank you for listening Ken Lee. You're awesome. Have a great day everybody. Thank you so much for joining me for today's episode. Our next show will feature more valuable stories from our community members. If you'd like to audition to be a guest, please visit Big Photo Hunt for more information. Thanks again for listening today.