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Subjects Found En route

Does anyone here have a photography subject that, while not the objective of a photography outing, nevertheless often winds up catching your attention as you travel down the road?

I have a couple places that seem qualify. Regardless of how many photos I already have, variations in weather, light, and season all seem to conspire to inspire yet another attempt. Was it Emerson who wrote, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds..."? Words to heed, yet I'd just as soon ignore them.

Anyway, here are the latest two attempts, both taken while the main focus of the day was considerably further down the road. The first is a little farmhouse that was demolished some months ago after standing empty for many years. The second is a successful rural business that runs around the clock for a few weeks during the harvest season.

original.jpg

Pine Road Sunrise

original.jpg

Maplewood Road​
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Does anyone here have a photography subject that, while not the objective of a photography outing, nevertheless often winds up catching your attention as you travel down the road?


Tom,

That happens to me all the time. But that's part of my distractability, a grand tree, a cloud pattern or by the shape of fallen stripped of bark, curved in sting to a beautiful stretched-tensioned canvas or curvaceous mirror finished stainless steel surface, that I now treat as the entire purpose of that trip, much to the annoyance and dismay of my wife!



I have a couple places that seem qualify. Regardless of how many photos I already have, variations in weather, light, and season all seem to conspire to inspire yet another attempt. Was it Emerson who wrote, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds..."? Words to heed, yet I'd just as soon ignore them.



.......or great minds infested with an infectuous meme. (Racist, mysogenistic, anti-science-, anti-global warming" anti universal health care and the like!)

....or that it is the job of the photographer to frame exactly at the time of releasing the shutter - i.e. Frame close and crop closer. Why limit oneself? Why not allow the process to restart in the darkroom where there are creative goblins whispering in one's ear and guiding one's hands?


Anyway, here are the latest two attempts, both taken while the main focus of the day was considerably further down the road.

The first is a little farmhouse that was demolished some months ago after standing empty for many years.

original.jpg


Pine Road Sunrise​



This is so personal to me. It's a portrait of two close friends, the tree and the farmhouse who have stood side by side, sheltering a family and presiding over their joys, celebrations, barking dogs and rumbunctious children!

I couldn't do better. Thank heaven for your uncontrollable impulse to stop for this picture!

I hope you return at sunset, to find the loyal tree still standing!

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Tom,

Here I have to think more. That is because such seemingly "industrial" site seen from afar, I am used to seeing in the heavily polluted industrial City of Vernon, in the Greater Los Angeles area.

From the distance, the second picture looks just a little like such a polluting factory, but in fact it's the opposite!


The second is a successful rural business that runs around the clock for a few weeks during the harvest season.



original.jpg


Maplewood Road​



I find this very different from the first picture, where the two main elements seem to be like kindred spirits, the wooden homestead and tree standing is perfect light, as pillars of devotion and companionship.

By contrast, the second picture has no such intimacy, but instead, boasts an impersonal bold limitless power of man's intervention over the otherwise pristine landscape. This is devoid of sentiment, but a monument to utility in harvesting the hard won gifts of the earth!

Yet it is still powerful as a picture. The Heavens above are sorry for the lonely grain silos and so wraps it in a glorious sky blanket. Not out of love, but to keep up standards! If you are going to be here, and you insist, let's make you look as awesome as feasible!

Asher
 
Asher, thanks for the interesting thoughts!

The trees remains around the old farmstead but the house and all outbuildings are now gone. I have no idea who lived in the house or how many generations grew up there, but am fairly certain lots of holiday meals were served and many milestones were celebrated while it was occupied. A few years ago I noticed the remains of christmas lights dangling off a bit of trim of the house -

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Front Porch​

Not a big deal by any measure, but speaks to the passage of time, don't you think? I wonder if the person who strung up the lights is still alive and if so, do they care at all that the house is now gone.
 
You're right, the elevator is something of an industrial place as it serves as grain storage and as a distribution facility. It's essentially a warehouse of grain. It also dries grain for storage and burns natural gas to do so. Total pollution produced is minimal however, especially when compared with the fossil fuels required to transport the good over the road.

The idea of the heavens keeping up appearances is a joy. The heavens does a reasonable job of this in the dead of night as well. This is from about six years ago during the harvest season with the driers running full blast -


original.jpg

Around the Clock​

Tom,

Here I have to think more. That is because such seemingly "industrial" site seen from afar, I am used to seeing in the heavily polluted industrial City of Vernon, in the Greater Los Angeles area.

From the distance, the second picture looks just a little like such a polluting factory, but in fact it's the opposite!






original.jpg


Maplewood Road​



I find this very different from the first picture, where the two main elements seem to be like kindred spirits, the wooden homestead and tree standing is perfect light, as pillars of devotion and companionship.

By contrast, the second picture has no such intimacy, but instead, boasts an impersonal bold limitless power of man's intervention over the otherwise pristine landscape. This is devoid of sentiment, but a monument to utility in harvesting the hard won gifts of the earth!

Yet it is still powerful as a picture. The Heavens above are sorry for the lonely grain silos and so wraps it in a glorious sky blanket. Not out of love, but to keep up standards! If you are going to be here, and you insist, let's make you look as awesome as feasible!

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Tom Robbins said:
The idea of the heavens keeping up appearances is a joy. The heavens does a reasonable job of this in the dead of night as well. This is from about six years ago during the harvest season with the driers running full blast -




original.jpg


Around the Clock​



Tom,

Far better and meaningful at night. It shows itself in full glory, now no longer a quiet agricultural grain factory, but it's exploded to life as a fairground, perhaps in Munich's Oktoberfest! This image design is exceptionally clean and well-balanced and popping with interesting elements and rythms. A key, but surprising feature in this conposition are the long lines of lights above. Is this just "Razzmatazz" or functional for monitoring the process or allowing men to work high up when it's dark?

BYW, I will be posting an image that seems esthetically related from the early 20th Century, a vintage Union 76 Gas Station, "The prettiest gas station in the entire state of California"!


Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Just a technical point. I am very often with just my iphone or only a 50 mm lens. So I am endlessly stitching overlapping handheld images. What a chore but so amazinglyvpossible!

So Tom, what lenses did you use?

Asher
 
Just a technical point. I am very often with just my iphone or only a 50 mm lens. So I am endlessly stitching overlapping handheld images. What a chore but so amazinglyvpossible!

So Tom, what lenses did you use?

Asher

All photos were taken with Canon tilt/shift lenses, Asher. 90mm for the night shot and 45mm for all the rest. The 45mm version sees most usage (24, 45, and 90mm t/s) and as a result, its gearing had to be repaired about a year or so ago. I'm looking forward to replacing it with the new 50mm version. It should be available in November.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
All photos were taken with Canon tilt/shift lenses, Asher. 90mm for the night shot and 45mm for all the rest. The 45mm version sees most usage (24, 45, and 90mm t/s) and as a result, its gearing had to be repaired about a year or so ago. I'm looking forward to replacing it with the new 50mm version. It should be available in November.

Tom,

I have just the 24mm tilt shift, which got jammed and frozen tlted. Turned out to be useful like that. I dropped it and now it is unfrozen but I have to fix the bayonet as it now won't mount!

I use mine free hand!!

Do you use a tripod for your shots?

Are your pictures stitched or you select the appropriately wide lens to avoid that necessity?

What is the arrangement of the T/S matching portrait or landscape for the tilt and the shift?

Asher
 
Tom,

I have just the 24mm tilt shift, which got jammed and frozen tlted. Turned out to be useful like that. I dropped it and now it is unfrozen but I have to fix the bayonet as it now won't mount!

I use mine free hand!!

Do you use a tripod for your shots?

Are your pictures stitched or you select the appropriately wide lens to avoid that necessity?

What is the arrangement of the T/S matching portrait or landscape for the tilt and the shift?

Asher

Asher, I always use a tripod with the tilt shift lenses.

Images are stitched (merged) in Photoshop to obtain the final photo. Pretty much know what I'm after when things are set up while looking through the viewfinder. Some minor cropping is involved, but always wind up with a larger image with greater resolution than that from a single 35mm frame.

While avoiding the extremes in shift movements, obtaining a 1:1 aspect ratio (square) with vertical shift and the camera body in landscape mode is identical to using a horizontal shift with the body in portrait mode.

You can also use horizontal shifts with the body in landscape mode to make 2:1 aspect ratio panoramas without coming close to the movement ends. Tilt can be applied to meet circumstances regardless of body/lens arrangement. Here is a 2:1 pano taken today with downward tilt to place the focal plane along the surface of the water. Aperture was f/6.3.

original.jpg

Crossed Up​
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Asher, I always use a tripod with the tilt shift lenses.

Images are stitched (merged) in Photoshop to obtain the final photo. Pretty much know what I'm after when things are set up while looking through the viewfinder. Some minor cropping is involved, but always wind up with a larger image with greater resolution than that from a single 35mm frame.

While avoiding the extremes in shift movements, obtaining a 1:1 aspect ratio (square) with vertical shift and the camera body in landscape mode is identical to using a horizontal shift with the body in portrait mode.

You can also use horizontal shifts with the body in landscape mode to make 2:1 aspect ratio panoramas without coming close to the movement ends. Tilt can be applied to meet circumstances regardless of body/lens arrangement. Here is a 2:1 pano taken today with downward tilt to place the focal plane along the surface of the water. Aperture was f/6.3.

original.jpg

Crossed Up​



Tom,

Well done getting the water so in focus! This is exquisite. I will tell my dear friend, Grandpa ? about this special place!

My little ones get stories about such places in ?-land each weekend, when they visit and climb all over me!

Asher
 

Jarmo Juntunen

Well-known member
I find documenting one's surroundings a worth-while effort. You're doing a really great job with your series! Besides, they are good photos, as well.
 
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