Sometimes, I am racing along the road and see a scene that makes me hit the brakes, turn around, and come back. Scenes like this are the reason you should always have your camera with you. you just never know what you will find.
The back roads of Ohio are full of these scenes and I love to wander the roads in the early morning, looking for them. In this case, I was on my way to Mansfield, Ohio to a shoot when I found this yellow barn. Against the dark clouds, it jumped out at me.
As far as I am concerned, there is only one way to make cornbread…in a heavy cast iron skillit. It's the way my mom made it and the way her mother made it.
I often pass this barn on the way to the farm. It's one of the Ohio bicentenial barns chosen to represent each county in the state. The barn is in pretty sad shape, but currently undergoing rennovation. No matter what direction you approach the barn, you can see this roofline with all of its interesting details. It's a fine old barn.
During a recent early morning walk, the sun was not up high enough to light up the gold soy bean field, but struck this cloud rather nicely.
On a recent Saturday morning, I drove over to the farm and went for a long walk. It was a nice cool summer morning and I was feeling the need to get outside a little bit. This is a mood that comes over me from time to time. I need to commune with Ma Nature a little bit on my own.
The path took me along the edge of one of the pastures and then turned into the woods and crossed a stream. I still get a kick out of crossing a stream by hopping from rock to rock. Now that I am getting up in age a little, I am far more careful than I was in my youth.
My sense of balance is not what it used to be. As a matter of fact, I am thinking about taking some yoga classes to see if they can help me become more limber and more balanced. If you take yoga, I'd like to hear from you on the subject.
After emerging from the trees, I stumbled upon Jason and one of the farmers out in the sorghum field. They had Rosie harnessed up and were cultivating between the rows to keep the weeds down to a reasonable level.
Rosie is new to the farm and this was a good opportunity to get her some practice in harness.
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| Planting Vegetables |
On what proved to be an incredibly hot and sticky day, Chris plants vegetables in the garden at the farm. Tomatoes, cabbage, lettuce, and more. All went in the ground in spite of the uncomfortable humidity. What did I do? I watched and recorded Chris' work of course. It's good to be the photographer.
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| Mystery flower |
This flower is in the vegetable garden at the farm. I have no clue what it is. I am hoping that one of my fine readers can identify the mystery plant for me. Is it an herb a vegetable or just a pretty flower with no purpose other than to look good?
If you can identify this flower, please share it’s name in the comments.
Thank you, and have a great Tuesday.
As many of you are aware, I have been struggling a bit lately. Trying to find a direction for my photography. In some ways, I feel as though I've lost my photo mojo for the moment. So, I am going to try a little experimenting. This will be an attempt to rediscover what I enjoy about photography and have some fun with it.
A prime example is this image that I took yesterday morning on the way to work. The first twenty minutes of my drive winds through local farm country and, at this time of the year, I catch the light just prior to the sun's rise. When I saw this scene, I was struck by the saturated colors that looked as though they had come from the brush of Maxfield Parish, the American painter from the last century. I share a fondness with his work with my sister. She has often displayed prints of his work on her walls. This image is no Maxfield Parish and is not even similar to his work. However, his colors inspired my take on the scene. You just never know where inspiration will come from. Maybe that's why it is inspiring.
As part of my work flow, I often switch to black and white to get a good look at the tones. I find that the colors can sometimes be distracting and seeing the image in black and white helps me during the process. While, I have no intention of using the image in black and white, I thought it was interesting and that you might like seeing the converted image as well.
Have a fantastic Friday folks.
I think you might remember little Haley from some of my previous posts. She is a remarkable little girl. An area that I have noticed Haley having an exceptional gift is with the horses on the farm. Not just the horses, anything equine, such as the mules and the donkeys seem to all love her.
The horses seem to universally ignore me and most other people. I could wave fresh clover and juggle apples while completely naked and they wouldn’t even glance in my direction. Haley on the other hand simply has to walk over to the fence and call their names. Soon, she has them all going all crazy for her affection.
I’ve noticed the “Haley Effect” on many occasions and have often wondered about her way with the horses. She doesn’t feed them treats . She does talk to them and she does pet them gently. Is it her gentleness or something else that they like about her?
The Haley Effect only seems to apply to the equine breeds. Sarah, the resident barn cat, only tolerates Haley as much as she tolerates the rest of us. Pet her a little and scratch her ears a little more and she is about done with you.
Once picked up, Sarah quickly frees herself and goes looking for someplace else to take her nap. The other farm animals just ignore Haley as they do the rest of us. The one exception might be Zack, the goat. Zack thinks he is a draft horse and that might be the reason he likes Haley. If she’s good enough for the rest of the horses, Zack figures she’s good enough for a goat-horse like him as well.
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