The magic of marker lights snaking down a highway or freckling a truckstop parking lot is what photographer Bette Garber sees through her lens. She calls them "land stars." It's the romance of trucking ­ the stories behind the drivers ­ that keeps her shutter firing. Bette clearly knows what it is to be a woman in trucking, but it's not an issue for her. Her life's work is following the land stars down the highways and byways of America, discovering the tales that drive the drivers, and telling them through pictures and stories.

At the Mid­America Truck Show in Louisville, Real Answers flagged down Bette and her "Truckers News"-bedecked van to hear her tell her own tale ­ this time in words.

What is it about trucking that attracted you as a photographer?

"I see romanticism that some people don't believe exists, but it's there. It's what I try to capture.

"On the CB, some guys badmouth their job, but not all truckers feel that way. They enjoy the work. They make a good living. They see the beauty and the great outdoors.

"Here's the magic, and it's a hidden magic only truckers see: trucks at dawn. And at night, there's a snake of gold marker lights ­ it's beautiful ­ or, at a truckstop, there's a sea of trucks from everywhere in America.

"There are just certain images of truck life you can't see anywhere but on the road. It's a great way to make a living."

Have you always been a photographer?

"Professionally, I've been a writer all my life.

"I graduated from the University of Illinois, and I've actually done a lot of different things. I was even a fashion coordinator in Cleveland for a while. I have a real love for fashion ­ which nobody knows about me.

"Everything you do in life is a stepping stone. I did a lot of writing and hopped around. I was traveling while I did some writing for a scientific company, and I got a CB just to ask for traffic reports.

"At a trade show, I was talking to a guy from a lab that did diesel oil analysis. I wrote an article about it and went to truckstops looking for trucking magazines to sell it to. One couldn't use it, but another could, and I sent along photos of trucks on the highway."

"You know, trucks are like trees to some people. They're there, and they're big, but nobody cares where they're going. Being a writer, I wanted to know more. I was always questioning, questioning."

Was that your first "stepping stone?"

"I started taking more pictures in 1976, and a friend taught me darkroom techniques. In 1977 I took a big box full of photos to Kansas City for a truckers' magazine convention. The editors loved them and came out and hugged me.

"Later that year, during a convoy to block I­70 at the Kansas/Missouri line, I was asked to take pictures there, and that, to me, was the defining moment. "I began to sell photos to American Trucker, which was a great magazine and where I did all of my work in the 80s. At the start of the 90s, I got hooked up with Trucker's News and editor Deborah Whistler. I've never worked with anybody like her. She tells me 'If you find it interesting, write about it.'"