Over the years of movies and TV, I wonder how many times characters who were drifters have been romanticized? Westerns (saddle tramps?), crime dramas, romances or even stories about the circus.

In the 1960s there was a drama on TV called The Fugitive. He was wrongly convicted of killing his own wife. While being transported to the gallows if you will, there was a train wreck and he escaped. For six years or so he wandered the country drifting from spot to spot. Taking any work he could. Towards the end of most episodes the police would be moving in on him but he would narrowly except. Next week, a new job was found and the story would reincarnate.

Towards the end of the show’s tenure a poll was given to see why people liked this show so much? Did they feel sorry for him and want to cheer for him to succeed?

No, they envied him. He had the “freedom”. so to speak, to wander from place to place, doing new things, meeting new people, and then next week, he could do it all over again. He wasn’t imprisoned by his predicament as logic would dictate, he was free as a bird, or a drifter.

Our views of what is prison, or what is having freedom, are skewed by our perceptions of our own lives. How we live, and how we think we want to live.

There are as many ways to be a drifter as there are people to drift.

In many respects, my photographic journeys across America were my way of drifting. I never planned a photo trip down to every detail. I always left the freedom to turn left when it seems I should turn right. Whatever my plans, I left myself open to wander.

Sometimes I would fly to a destination, and then go from there. I actually preferred driving from home because I had that choice to go left, right, or straight up the middle, right from the “get go”.

Born wanderers, who wander with camera in hand, find a lot of subjects along the way. There was never a “well there’s no birds here“, or “where are the mountains, or its too cloudy for a sunset“, because I visually drifted from subject to subject, and I almost never ran out of subjects. I learned that there was a never ending number of not only subjects but ways photograph them around every bend in the road, or trail.

Unfortunately in my life, I approached friendship or romance from the perspective of a drifter. While people are not things, they are journeys in their own right.

Being a drifter can be a curse or a blessing.

Drifting with a camera, results in variety.

Macros,

Insects

Flowers

Winter up close.

Landscapes

Hand of Man

Mammals

Birds

Of course every day needs a beginning and an end.

Sunrise, sunset.

Drift when you can, stay put when necessary.

God Bless,
Wayne