Yesterday was a good day in more ways than one, but for the purposes of today’s post, we will stick with one way in particular: I added two new houses to my abandoned houses collection!
Perhaps “new” is the wrong word to use in this context, but I’m sure you know what I mean. These two houses sit by the Hume Highway just out of Wangaratta and I have seen them dozens of times and wished to get closer to them. Every time, something stopped me: either I was travelling by bus to visit the parents or, if I was actually driving, the weather would turn terrible on me.
This time, none of those roadblocks appeared and I was finally able to capture these two houses for my collection. First, though, this little shed:
And now, for the unloved and abandoned farmhouse itself:
Isn’t it gorgeous? I wish I could adopt it and take it home. It even came with its own windmill just out the back, which I didn’t manage to capture in my photographs. Plus, by the time I noticed it, the sun was trying to burn us to a crisp and we were in desperate need of caffeine.
The other little house is across the road from the first one. So handy of them to be grouped together like this!
That is the only good side of that house, alas. From the front, it has been subjected to severe uglification as the decades passed and it’s just a mess.
This year, I’m trying to focus on more landscape or environment-style photographs. I tend to focus on details and textures a lot – which is fine – but I want to print out some of my favourite photographs and I’m finding I’d like them to be more in the style of sweeping landscapes than abstract details. I don’t mind abstract details (obviously, since I always seem to focus on them), but I want to challenge myself a bit this year and since I’ve always believed I’m rubbish at landscapes, that seems as good a place to start as any.
Does anyone have some ideas of what makes a good landscape photo, either from the photographer’s point of view or that of a viewer? I’d love to hear them all.
You have reached the blog of Katiefoolery: a writer, a photographer and a long term procrastinator. In this blog, you can expect to find ramblings about all manner of subjects, usually accompanied by photographs.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Mostly I just want to know how you get those gorgeous colours! What camera are you using, or is it post production?
Hello, not a complete random stalker! Thanks for asking that question, because it actually made me think a lot of about what I’m actually doing when I take these photos. The colours are a combination of what’s there, of making sure I capture what’s there, post-processing and custom actions. My camera is a Canon 60D and I was using my 24-105mm L series lens; when I was taking the actual photos, I was trying to ensure that I was balancing the light so the blue of the sky remained without throwing everything else into silhouette.
Post-processing involved altering the curves to bring out the colours even more and in one case, altering the colour balance to make sure red and magenta were properly represented. Then, I ran an action from a set I bought from Florabella. And that’s how I ended up with the colours you see above!
Ohhh fun. I love abandoned farms. In college, I lived out in Amish country, and there was this fabulous barn on the way into campus that I was always dying to photograph. But as you say, the conditions were never right, and so I never stopped. I wonder if it’s still there.
I’ve never been very good at landscapes either. I think the one you’ve taken above is quite interesting–it has texture, and contrast, and a leading lady (that gangly tree). I often find that my most successful landscapes have some kind of human element in them, i guess because I’m drawn to that contrast. Forest photos are hard, too. In person, everything looks so full of depth and color, and then you take the photo and everything just looks green. Le sigh.
Yes, forests and bushland are definitely tricky. That uniformity of colour is difficult to work with and, as you say, all of the depth and fascination just seems to vanish when you take a photo.
Thanks for your thoughts on what makes a good landscape, too. If I’d taken that last photo at a different time of day, it might have been easier to see the row of three letterboxes at the end of the road, but they unfortunately blend in with the trees lining the highway. Oh well – these are all good things to take with me when I next try my hand at some landscape photos.
Your story about the barn makes me think an impromptu roadtrip is in order to see if it’s still there.