How We Made It #2 – Photowalks Bakersfield BTS
Gear, locations, mistakes, fixes, and what I’d do differently next time
Last week we kicked off a new series that paid subscribers would get to see first, behind the scenes stories about the latest Photowalks episode. I got a great reaction to the first one, so here goes edition #2.
This week Photowalks visited Bakersfield, a Central California valley city that’s best known for three things: a unique brand of twangy country music, agriculture and oil.
Many people go flying by Bakersfield as they drive back and forth between Los Angeles and San Francisco. But as I found out, they really should pull over and check it out. We found so much there, we made it a two-part episode.
This visit came about due to the persistence of reader/viewer Pete Yackley, who first brought it up to me last July in an e-mail: “Hope you'll put my town, Bakersfield, CA in your schedule.” He gave me a great pitch. The last remaining Woolworth’s luncheonette counter, beautiful scenery, country music and a historic downtown. In an area that’s been too overlooked.
In other words, my kind of place and an easy two-hour drive away from home. I just didn’t want to go in July or August, when temps top 115 degrees. My fall was booked, and I told Pete I would try to get there in the first few months of 2026.
After reaching out to Claudia and Kelly from the Bakersfield tourism department as well, we settled on a date for mid-April, Pete raised his hand to volunteer and help me shoot and we put together a plan.
Paid subscribers get the full episode breakdown: all the things that went wrong (and right), the apps I used, and the shots we had to redo. If you’d like to keep reading, consider becoming a paid supporter of independent journalism.
