Back out to Union Cross

March 1, 2014

Last week, I set out on an attempt to photograph a barn, but the sky just didn't cooperate with me at all for what I was intending on capturing.  I ended up doing some scouting in the area to try and find some other places that I could file away for future treks.  One such location was an old barn beside of a school, tucked into a wooded field.  Had it not been for construction on Union Cross Rd, I would have never seen it.  I took some time to look at it, but determined that the lighting was all wrong.  In the few minutes that I was thinking about possible compositions, I thought that a nice cloudy sky would work well for this one.  I didn't put a lot of time in looking at things because I was running out of light and needed to find something to shoot for the day.

Fast forward about a week and my first day off of work it was very overcast and the lighting was very even on the ground.  I went through my mental list of possible subjects and quickly came up on the barn off of Union Cross.  The way I was picturing it, I would be able to crop the sky out and grab the barn against the trees.  That was my intended shot when I set out shortly after sunrise.

The Farmer's Field

When I arrived, I was a little disappointed by what I saw.  Not only were the trees not as full or as tall as I had remembered, there was a lot more open area that I was having to deal with.  To make matters worse, there was just a hint of green in the trees which was fine, but there were several blue tarps covering items that were stored in and beside the barn.  The biggest problem was those tarps.  I was having a very hard time finding a composition that minimized those tarps while keeping the sky at bay.  While fully overcast, the clouds were bright, and had just a hint of texture.  I had to use a 3-Stop ND Grad filter to hold back the exposure.  The best composition that I was able to come up with was actually the most simple one.  I used a small tree for some foreground balance, and placed a cluster of the dark green trees behind that, while keeping the barn itself in a prominent position in the right third of the frame.

I was happy with the exposure, and the composition, but wasn't very happy with the scene at all.  I wanted something more...I wanted color (other than the bright blue tarps which really distracted from the whole scene.  Even though I wasn't very happy with the scene as it was unfolding, I figured that I would hold judgement until I saw it on the computer at home.  I thought it might look good as a monochrome image since there was not much in the way of color that contributed to the image.  I knew that the exposure was solid and that everything was properly represented in tonality, so B&W would be a fine option if everything fell in place with the picture.

After a half a dozen frames I decided to pack it in and move on to something else.  I was still feeling like I probably wasn't going to have much to show for the morning and I wanted more.  Unfortunately, I was looking for color, and this time of year has very little of that.  I drove into Davidson County, and then found myself crisscrossing the county lines for about an hour as I drove aimlessly about scouting new locations.  Ironically, while I was getting close to where I started I was driving down Curry Rd and found an old Ford truck (late 70's, but still a decent subject) sitting in front of a house.  I was looking at it and debating on whether or not to try for a picture.  As I passed the house, I saw several old barns behind the house with some really nice rusted tractors around them.  Yeah, I needed to get turned around and knock on the door for this one!

I knocked, and knocked, but nobody came to the door.  As I was walking back to the truck, a lady pulled into the neighboring driveway and we spoke briefly.  After assuring her I was not there to commit various crimes, she told me that the property owners lived in the house much further down the driveway.  I went down to that house and tried again to knock.  There was no answer there either.  While the tractors and barns really caught my eye, there was just no way I would feel comfortable photographing them without permission.  I had to leave there with only the memory of the property for a possible later trek.

Feeling completely defeated, I started to direct my route back to the house.  I turned onto the main road and out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw an old red tractor.  As I passed the house, I looked behind it again, and saw a barn right behind the tractor.  Could it be...the color I was looking for?  I had to get turned around, and I pulled into the driveway.  Once again, I was going to need permission to get the pictures that I was wanting.

Looking Back

This time, the homeowner answered the door and let me give my normal speech about my strange requests to photograph old things.  He was a little hesitant, and admitted that he had never had a request like this before.  It took a little bit of talking, but he finally said "go ahead and get your gear".  He didn't need to tell me twice!

When I got around back I saw that once again, I had found an old International Farmall tractor.  Seems that I am drawn to these more than any other tractor.  Just as I had seen from the road, there was a nice old barn situated behind the tractor which gave the composition a very nice balance.  What I hadn't seen from the road was all the visual clutter around the tractor.  This meant that I was going to have to be very careful with my compositions in order to avoid getting too much visual distraction in the image.  I needed to simplify things as much as I could.

The Cub

One of the best ways I've found to simplify a scene is to pull out intimate details.  Since I seem to be drawn to these old Farmall tractors, I decided to get the label off of the hood, using the headlight as a visual anchor.  Even with this composition, the old barn snuck in and provided its textures to the background.  I guess these labels are the equivalent of a hood ornament on a classic sedan.  Either way, they are starting to capture my attention more and more.

While it was the red that drew me to the scene in the first place, I found that the tractor was almost too much.  This is very easy to find when dealing with red since it is such a powerful color.  There was no way to make the tractor a smaller part of a larger composition.  I just didn't have the room to deal with behind his house, and there was so much visual clutter to deal with also.  I again, thought about doing a monochrome conversion on the images I was shooting.  I knew that it was going to be a hard thing to separate the tractor from the background though because of the similar tones represented, but I kept the idea in my head.

Ever Ready

Ironically, the first composition that I set up was one that I didn't like at all in color.  There was just too much red, but the surrounding clutter was reduced quite a bit which I did like.  It was just too blatant, and in your face with the solid red, and then the sky was also a washed out gray which really messed with the flow of the image.  However, I decided to do a B&W conversion on it and see what I could do.  After doing some tweaks to the tonalities of the various colors, I was able to get a little visual separation in the tones.  I massaged the contrast a bit, and decided that this image worked out very well.  However, just in case I was stretching a little bit, I asked Toni's opinion on it.  She came over and didn't even think about it long and said "I like it!"  Typically, she doesn't like my tractor shots, or any of my old cars as much as my landscapes.  So, I asked her if she thought it was ok for that type of picture, or if she actually liked it based on its own merits.  To my surprise, she actually liked the picture, really liked it!  I was sold, it would be in the gallery.

While I didn't get the images that I was previsualizing when I left this morning, I had the opportunity to get what I think is a really good B&W barn shot, along with several shots of another Farmall tractor.  Photographically, it was a very good morning, and rather productive considering that I am really starting to hunger for the bright colors of spring.  My want for color is limiting what I am drawn to in the current season, but I am quite used to this, and know that it happens every year about this time.

I am really hoping for some good skies in the next couple of days so I can start working on my landscapes to get geared up for the Spring.  I'm itching to start poking around the Blue Ridge Parkway, as that is probably my favorite place on earth to find landscapes.  It won't be much longer now.

A Frigid Tractor Shoot

January 28, 2014

There I was, driving around at work minding my own business.....

I have been patrolling around this area for years at work and have been by this old homestead many times over the years.  I have even seen this tractor, but haven't really seen it as a photographic subject before.  As it turns out, a couple of days ago, I was talking with one of the family members of the property owner and he was telling me about how he grew up and worked the land out here when he was a kid.  I heard stories about him on the old Farmall tractor loading hay by himself.  He would leave it in low gear and let it idle by itself while he did what needed to do with the hay.  If it started to get off line, he would have to jump back on and correct the path before returning to the hay.  All of a sudden, after hearing this story, the tractor came alive for me and ignited my interest.

The problem with this tractor is its location.  It is under an overhang from an old barn where it just fits inside.  This means that lighting is difficult at best with the shadows involved.  To get the shadows exposed correctly, I would have to sacrifice the highlights on the outside of the barn as in this cell phone picture I snapped while scouting the location.  During the day, the nose of the tractor is hanging outside of the shade which again introduces issues with the shadow detail that I think is absolutely necessary for the image.  I had to do some thinking about how to properly render this image.  My best thought was to come out before dawn, so that any light that I would be getting from the sun would be low, and potentially able to provide some lighting into the shadows.  I was going to have to get in close, and come up with some very creative compositions in order to eliminate the outside as a distraction.  I knew that in low light, I would still be at a loss when it came to the shadow detail, so I figured that I would do a little painting with light.  The warm light from an incandescent flashlight should complement the wood tones of the barn siding quite well.

I had my plan, I just needed my day.

That day just happened to be my first day off.  The forecast was calling for cloudy skies early on so that would help to diffuse the light and potentially extend my time for this subject.  It was going to be cold, and actually get colder as the morning went on, with a pretty significant wind chill to add some interest.  When I left the house it was 27 degrees, by the time I got home it was 21 degrees...that was over the course of maybe an hour and fifteen minutes.

Intimacy

I arrived at the old farm long before the sun was over the horizon, but with the clouds, I wasn't likely to see the sun at all.  It was pretty much still dark when I was getting my camera bag out of the truck.  For the first time this winter I pulled out my photographer's gloves and put them on as my hands were already stinging in the wind.  I got the tripod set up and with the help of my flashlight, I framed the shot that I thought I had in mind from the previous day. I dialed in the focus and guessed at my needed depth of field.  I then set the shutter for 30 seconds which would give me enough time to provide all the light that I was going to have available for the image.  In the 30 seconds, I put a lot of light on the walls, and did a quick wipe over the tractor itself.  The resulting image (first exposure of the day) is seen above.  The effect that I wanted was there, but the result was lacking something.  Toni loves this one for the abstract quality, and she had the honor of naming it as well.  I'm still not sold on the image, but I can see potential in it through Toni's eyes.

While still in the early hours of the morning, I worked on some more compositions as I dialed in my vision for the shot.  For me previsualization is so very important for photography.  I have to have an idea of the final piece before I can set up the shot.  I worked in closer and closer until I had a view that I was pretty sure was what I was after.  It was another intimate shot, but composed completely different.

Powerhouse

The resulting image captured what I had in mind from the powerful face of this International tractor to the detail in the wood of the shelter.  The headlight, much like an eye of a person stood out in a generally even toned image.  Yeah, I liked this one, liked it a bunch!  When I got home, however, I found out that while it captured what I was seeing in my mind, what I didn't realize was it was missing the emotion I was going for.  While editing it, I decided to give it a try as a monochrome image.  When I did, and started playing with the tonal values, I found an image that all of a sudden popped off of the page at me.  THIS WAS IT!  This had the feel, and more importantly, the emotion that I was going for with this tractor.

Powerhouse in B&W

I had that gritty image that really stood out, and captured the enduring power of this old tractor.  Oh, did I mention, it is still in use to this day!  The patina of the finish would suggest otherwise which is probably why I am so drawn to this tractor.  It looks long since forgotten, but still has a sense of pride about it.

With the sun coming up, and things getting a bit brighter, I decided that I would try some other compositions of the tractor just to see what worked and what didn't.  I stepped back a good bit, and framed a tight shot that I wasn't quite sure I would be able to pull off.  Surprisingly, with some careful positioning, I was able to not only eliminate the outside, and the roof line, I was able to give the illusion of this being completely enclosed in a barn with me standing beside of it.  I was liking this view quite a bit.  I snapped a shot with the available lighting and was happy with the resulting capture.

Straight out of the camera exposure

I was happy with it, but it didn't sing like I was picturing it in my head.  Something was missing.  It lacked warmth, and it lacked some visual weight on the wood behind.  Well, I was still shooting in the range of 10-15 seconds so there was still time to add a bit of light with a flashlight.  I wanted more warmth, and more "mood lighting".

International Harvester

When I saw the resulting image with the additional lighting, I knew that was the trick.  It had the mood that I was after, and more of a visual balance between lights and darks. I was even happier with this, and it actually turned out to be one of my favorite images of the day.  But just because I was that happy with the image didn't mean that I was done with it.  I could see other potential to this composition as well.  To add to the old feel of it, with the very similar overall tone, I was seeing this as a sepia rendering.  I don't often use sepia in my prints, but I thought I would give it a try anyway.  I have to say, I actually like the sepia just as much as the full color image, which is odd for me.

International Harvester in Sepia

There was just one more view that I really wanted to get on this old tractor before I left.  I wanted the detail of the nose and hood.  That patina was just calling out my name.  I got in close again and framed up the shot that I was looking for.  I was able to get the hood emblem as well as the tractor label in all of its aged glory in one shot.  As with the previous shots of the morning, the wood needed a little painting with my flashlight to really capture the detail.  With a limited depth of field, the wood was slightly out of focus, but the grain could still be made out while keeping the sharp focus right where I wanted it.

McCormick Farmall

I was having a great time with this tractor, and there were some other things that I wanted to try around the property.  However, I could no longer feel my fingers, and the gloves were not helping at all.  I had lost the ability to move the zoom ring on my lens, and could just barely work the focus ring.  It was time to pack up and go.  The only problem with that was, I couldn't put the lens cap back on.  I dropped it three times before taking my gloves off (I had two fingers exposed) and by using one hand to hold the cap in place and the other hand with three fingers to squeeze the clips, I was able to put the cap on despite having no fine motor skills left.  I was done...and my hands were worthless now.

On the way home, I had the heat blowing on my fingers and they felt like a vise was squeezing them.  I was not a happy camper, not at all....but I had gotten what I figured was at least one good image from the morning out of about 16 exposures.  Little did I know that I had quite a bit more than one keeper out of these.  I'm quite happy with the morning, and am very happy to be back home with Toni and the heat!