Brent Haywood: From Negative to Photo Opportunity

Facing a major downturn in California, real estate agent Brent Haywood turned to his camera, and his camper, and opened a whole new door.













For most of us, the past two years have been some of the most challenging years of our lives.  Just in the truck camper industry, many businesses have closed sending hundreds of good people with families home without work.  In the early days of the recession, our phone rang too many times with an industry leader, often extremely upset, telling us about losing his business and having to let his employees go.  It has been truly heart breaking.

We are very happy to report that business throughout the truck camper industry has picked up in the past six months.  Truck campers are selling again, our readership is way up, and the mood among industry leaders has gone from extremely dark to truly optimistic.  Even better, our industry friends who lost their jobs are finally starting to find work.  Every email with news of new employment is celebrated here at TCM.

Today's story is about a fellow truck camper who saw the dire economic writing on the walls of California's real estate and turned it into a fresh beginning.  Brent Haywood had been a successful real estate agent until the market fell out from under him in 2006.  Lucky for Brent, he had been moonlighting as a real estate photographer and his work had caught the eye of fellow real estate agents.  Brent took his camera and his camper and drove into the future.

TCM: Tell us how your interest in photography became a business.

Brent: A couple of years ago, I was a full time real estate agent.  As part of my job, I was taking photos of the homes that were for sale.  That was initially a side hobby until other real estate agents began asking me for photographs for their offices.  It wasn’t long before I realized that I was having more fun photographing real estate than selling it.  This all coincided with the decline in the real estate market, which made my transition to a professional photographer an easy.


TCM: That’s a great story.  And you’re also into landscape photography?

Brent: Yes.  Right now, seventy-five percent of my photography is architectural, buildings, and real estate in my hometown.  By the end of this year, my goal is to have half of my photography business come from stock and landscape photography.  That means I’ll be using my truck camper as a business tool even more.

TCM: How do you use your truck camper for your photography?

Brent: For the past couple of years, I’ve been using our truck camper as a photography business tool and a recreational vehicle.  My passion for truck camping actually came before my photography career.  I purchased our truck camper in 2004 for recreation at the river and in the desert.  Then, in 2006, I started my photography business.  Now all of my truck camping trips involve my photography business, with some recreation and fun.

TCM: That sounds ideal.  How does the truck camper help you with your landscape photography?

Brent: It helps me get further into the boonies in more comfort.  During my Yosemite trip, most of my photographs were taken within fifteen feet of our truck camper.  In the landscape part of my business, I’m often waiting for hours and sometimes half a day for the perfect shot.  To have modern conveniences while waiting for the lighting to be right is huge.  While waiting, I’m able to work on my laptop and have the comforts of home.  The comfort factor is great.  If I had a toy hauler or a large motorhome, which we have had in the past, I couldn’t get close enough without needing a second vehicle.

For example, I used it extensively on my last trip to Yosemite.  There seemed to be twenty or so photographers each evening waiting for the lighting to be just right at Tunnel View.  It was in the thirties each evening and while most of the photographers were standing in the cold waiting for the shot, I was sitting in my camper with the heat on, the radio on, and coffee in hand.  I was parked in a regular size parking space with the jacks down, the slide-out out, just watching for the light to change.  I took some of my best images through the open camper window!  

TCM: Now that is convenient.  Do you have any suggestions for people who enjoy nature photography?

Brent: The best investments are a tripod, wide angle lens, and a polarizer.  A polarizer is a filter that screws into the front of lens that cuts down on glare.  It also saturates blue skies so they look more rich.  Also, the time of day is the biggest thing that will make a difference in your photographs.  Taking photos in the early morning or late afternoon is best.  I take all digital photographs with a Canon 5D Mark 2 with ten different lenses.

TCM: We looked at the Canon 5D Mark 2 for it’s impressive HD video capabilities.  That’s a very nice camera.  Tell us how you got into truck camping.

Brent: We purchased our truck camper so we could join our friends who were already RVing.  None of our other friends have truck campers.  They have toy boxes and motorhomes.

TCM: So why did you choose a truck camper?

Brent: A truck camper combination was the only thing that fit the things we wanted to do.  Unfortunately, there’s only one truck camper dealership here in San Diego.  We went in and looked at one and researched online about the different brands.  It took a couple of months before we decided to buy the truck and camper.  My wife really wanted a motorhome.

TCM: How did you convince her to not get a motorhome?

Brent: It was a tough sell.  By the time you are done with the entire truck camper set-up, it could be close to $100,000, which is a pretty decent motorhome.  I told my wife that we would use it more if we can take it to more places.  I told her that the smaller the vehicle the more places and campgrounds we can go to.  And a truck camper is easier to park and to drive.  Plus, a truck camper is flexible meaning that we can do everything we want to do with it.  We could go to the river, to the desert, and tow our boat and toys.  We would just have to give up some space.  As you can see, I convinced her that the truck camper was best for us.













TCM: Well done.  So what truck camper did you end up with?

Brent: We bought our Adventurer 90 RDS in 2004.

TCM: So, now that you have a truck camper, what do you think it?

Brent: We’ve been more than happy with our Adventurer thus far.  It’s served us well.  It was a great value for the money.  I wanted to get the largest truck camper we could get at the time.  Choices were limited for slides.  We’ve had zero issues with it since 2004 when we bought it.

TCM: You mentioned going to the desert and the river with your camper.  Tell us about that.

Brent: In the winter, we like to go out to Ocotillo Wells State Recreational Park for desert off-roading.  It’s one of the places you can legally go off-roading in Southern California.  We go for three to four days.  It’s huge.  The great thing is that don’t have to pay to camp there.  It’s beautiful!  When we go to the desert, we tow a twenty foot toy box with three motorcycles, and a Polaris Ranger, which is basically a mini-Jeep.

We also like to go to Plaster City, Superstition, and Gordons Well, which are all within an hour of each other.  These places are all in the middle of the desert with no services.  We can ride anything there.  Most of the deserts in Southern California you don’t have to pay for.  The others are usually an honor system pay machine when you enter.

We’ve got a great set-up when we go to the river.  One of our friends rents a house there.  We go down a windy, tight road where we’re about ten feet from the water.  Because we have the truck camper and it’s short, we can camp on the side of their house.  We have privacy and our own space.  We take our boat out onto the Colorado River to a place called Lake Martinez.

We also use our truck camper when we go to Chargers’ games.  We take our truck camper and tailgate.  It’s added to our game days significantly to have our camper with us.  We rent an RV space for eighty to a hundred bucks a game on top of the ticket price.  You get four spaces together.  Our truck camper takes up so little space, so we get a lot of room outside of our vehicle.  

We really like having our own bathroom at the games.  Typically, we show up three to four hours before, watch pre-game in parking lot, and go in to the game and watch it.  When we come out, having the camper there gives us a chance to sober up and hang out for an hour or two before we go home.  I’m not a huge sports fan, but my wife is, so having the truck camper for me makes going to the games a much more enjoyable experience.

TCM: When we went to San Diego, we found it crowded and expensive for truck camping.  Do you have any suggestions for truck camping in San Diego?

Brent: They are pretty tight on boondocking here in San Diego.  It has been abused;  a huge number of RVs used to boondock along the ocean.

In San Diego, I would recommend going to Shelter Island.  It’s beautiful place to stay for a couple hours.  There are motorhome spaces along the water, but it’s pretty much truck camper only because you can’t fit anything longer.  

I also recommend Fiesta Island.  We often take our dog down to the beach for the day.  You can park on the beach, right on the shore line.  It’s an enormous island that you can stay at during the day for free.  It’s in Mission Bay, which is our large water recreational area.

On Harbor Island you can park a truck camper for three hours.  It says no RVs, but I’m down there all the time.  I can fit in a space so I don’t get bothered.  In fact, I parallel park my truck camper on the street all over San Diego.

TCM: Great San Diego tips.  I wish we’d known that before our last trip.  What’s next for Brent?

Brent: We’re going to get a new set-up.  I’m looking at Dodge Ram 5500 cab and chassis platform and I’ll probably go with a custom work bed, like one I’ve seen on your site.  I’d like a double or triple slide camper.  By having the 5500 I won’t have any concerns about overloading the truck.  I want it to be safe, plus I’m carrying a lot of gear when I’m working.  I could use the additional space.

TCM: That sounds like an incredible rig.  Please send us some photos when it comes together.  And thank you for the interview.

Brent: You’re welcome. 

If you want to check out more of Brent's photographs go to www.brenthaywoodphotography.com.