ISO 200 18mm f/11 1/25sec
I definitely have a weakness for rundown barns, that and a huge weakness for light houses. Anytime I see a beat up discarded barn I get the sudden urge to pull over and jump out to shoot it. And thats exactly what I did with this one! I could just see the peak of the roof over the hill next to the road, but it was enough to peak my interest (get it.. because the peak of the roo… nevermind). So I threw the car in park, grabbed my ready to go camera and dashed up the hill. As soon as I hit the top I was just about knocked off my feet by a most fowl smell. It was difficult to place at first smelling like sour horse manure, but I managed to keep trekking forward off of pure excitement. It wasn’t until almost slipping on a rotten onion that I realized where the smell was coming from. I looked around the ground and realized I was standing in what I would probably say was the biggest rotten onion field this side of the mississippi (which is the only state I still spell out in my head when writing, not because Im afraid of spelling it wrong, but because as a kid we used to run around the playground chanting the letters like it was some sort of group spelling bee). With the constant change of weather out here it has left our fields quit muddy, so walking around this shack was harder then trying to walk across an ice rink wearing glass slippers, not that I’ve ever done it, but I figure it must be difficult. It was a continual battle between trying not to slip in the mud and or step on the squishy rotten onion land mines that were dispersed throughout the terrain.
I liked this particular shot the most, however this shot I also slipped when taking so the highlight exposure for the hdr was a tad off. Luckily the latest Photomatix Pro is great at reducing most of the ghosting when tone mapping the HDR images. In fact besides adjustments made in Lightroom 3 giving it my signature slightly desaturated look I’ve been loving in my hdr lately, I haven’t made any other adjustments.
Im typically more partial to red barns specifically, but this green really spoke to me! It worked so well with the muted tones of the rest of the field and wasn’t the typical bold barn Im used to seeing. It was well worth putting up with the smell and struggles against the mud. I’ve probably been its only visitor since the final days of onion season last year and more then likely it will stay that way until the soil is ready for next season. Because of that I feel privileged to have run across such an unattended beauty. One of the few that get to witness what it has to offer. The good ol’ onion patch barn.
