A Quick Visit to King

July 20, 2014

A few days ago I was driving through King and saw a barn that I had seen some time before.  I wasn't able to do much with it at that time because it was completely overgrown with vines and weeds.  However, this last time I drove by, I noticed that not only were the weeds gone, the siding had been stripped off of the shell as well.  This was a little odd to see a barn at this stage and it made it rather interesting to me.  I wanted to come back at a time when the sky was interesting, without waiting too long in case they were coming back out to finish the removal of wood.

Based on the forecast and what I had been watching the sky do all day long, I thought that I might have a good chance at getting some interest in the sky after work.  Without giving it much thought, I went ahead and loaded the camera up and headed out to King.  When I got there, the sky was a little bit blah on the side that I was interested in, and much more interesting on the other side.  I decided to shoot from both sides and see what I could come up with.

I started with my 24-70mm which is a great lens for shooting barns, but for some reason, I wasn't getting the "look" I wanted with this one. I needed something more dramatic, so I swapped the lens for a 16-35mm for a little more perspective distortion and a sweeping feel.  I added a 3-Stop ND Grad to round out the optics to help keep the detail in the sky.

The Forgotten Corner

Against my better judgement I spent some time on the left side of the barn which put the sun in the background, as well as power lines, and a newer house.  There was also the street and a street sign.  These are usually very big no nos in my photography.  However, this time they seemed to play a certain role in showing the age of the old barn.  It was in that juxtaposition of physical conditions that I found a nice balance to the image.  It's still one that breaks my mold quite a bit, but sometimes it pays to work outside of one's comfort zone.

The better lighting was from the other side of the barn, but the trade off was a much less interesting sky to work with.  The ND Grad helped a bit, but I needed something to punch up the contrast even more.  I started to think in terms of black and white and I could see the tonalities working rather well in that visual realm.  I shot the scene in color, but I had full intentions on converting to monochrome and applying a red filter to boost the contrast a good bit.

Only the Framework

I think that black and white really suites this subject with the current conditions.  There is so much really great texture to be examined throughout the image that it almost seems to be a waste to clog up the visual receptors with all the color.  I really think that this is the best side of the barn, and one that does hold its own in a composition consisting mainly of just the barn.  There is just so much to look at, whether it is looking beyond the framework to the inside, or looking at the vines that are still clinging to the fascia above the doorway.  Even the roof offers several layers of texture standing out against the deep tones of the trees in the background.  While this isn't the image that I set out to capture, I have to admit, I really like this one.  It is the one that I am most satisfied with I believe.