Iron Butt

Most years, the Urban Group of the RA Photo Club organize an outing they call the Iron Butt. The premise is that an out of town location and time is picked for the participants to gather for dinner, people organize themselves into cars however they like, and the day is spent by the cars taking independent routes through back roads and odd directions till they finally meet up to eat together and swap stories of where they've been. Along the way, of course, everyone takes photographs! In 2016, the destination was Perth, Ontario. I've been on several of these Iron Butt trips and they are always fun. Not only do you get to spend a day with other people and take photographs, but you also get to explore places where you've never been and perhaps would never get to otherwise. Often we travel a considerable distance and make many stops, but during this Iron Butt, my friend and I only stopped and photographed about 4 or 5 times, a couple of times in Smith's Falls and the rest in Perth. Both of these are small Ontario towns, and I've been through both many times on my way to or from somewhere else, but I always longed to visit and photograph each one. This was my chance! It was a chilly, overcast, and drizzly day, which many people wouldn't have liked, but which photographers love for the soft lighting and saturated colours. It was also Fall, and while the peak colour had passed, there were still plenty of brilliant red, orange and yellow leaves left on the trees. In a word: magical! While we didn't drive very far out of the way, we spent a lot of time walking around these two small towns, visiting places we knew about and discovering others. In fact, after dinner with the group, we went and photographed some more, until the light was nearly gone. It was a very fun and full day.