An earlier convo with Street Spirit made me realize I have a ton of great old farms at my fingertips that I wasn't taking advantage of. So, this morning I went out to a client's farm for a quick little shoot.... (Thanks for the inspiration SS! )

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/moxiephotos/841563671/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1259/841563671_1395e8ac1b.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Barn" /></a>


<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/moxiephotos/837806589/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1147/837806589_068adfe1fe.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Horseshoe Latch" /></a>


<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/moxiephotos/837800865/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1221/837800865_6bb0fd7961.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Morning" /></a>


<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/moxiephotos/838669560/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1324/838669560_18e6458c3b.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Chicken Wire" /></a>


<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/moxiephotos/838270200/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1203/838270200_e171444a96.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Rising Mist" /></a>


<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/moxiephotos/838273964/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1201/838273964_b704819a99.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Windows" /></a>

Critiques are always welcome. Especially if any of the PP pros have any input on the processing, as I'm still learning PS.

 

Nice pics - looks like a beautiful day. I like the composition in 2, 5, and 6 particularly.

Insufficient nudity in them though.

 

Thanks! Um, the wood is nude? I think I've got some naked geese around here, too.

 

Looks good, looks like a B&W film camera is needed I glad she woke you up, I'd love to have that in my view with my B&W.

 

Me, and my short-term memory shortage! How do I keep forgetting that my dad gave me his old SLR??? It's not like it was a minor thing that didn't interest me. Good idea, Jup...maybe I'll have to go back...

 

nice pics - I like the variety of moods and styles you got. my fav is prolly the barb wire...

 

How did you manage that barbwire shot. Did you underexpose the image?

 

The chicken wire was attached to an old barn and was mostly in shade, with some sunlight coming through and hitting it at an angle to highlight the edges. I actually bumped up the exposure in post-processing to make the highlights more blown/dramatic.

 

Nice shots. The serenity of the scenes really comes through. They're almost pastoral in feel. The barbed wire shot is a nice abstract. Good lighting in all.

Which lenses did you use?

 

^^Thanks, waTSX. It was a very peaceful, quiet morning - I love walking around without having to talk to anyone! They were all shot with my EF-S17-85.

 

Awesome shots... Whodathunk chicken wire would make an interesting photo. Good eye.

I love number 5. Personally I am immediately drawn to the water and mist even though it is technically background. But that is just the way my head works. That is the nice thing about art and photography - the artist can direct the eye, but each viewer might see something different. Lakes, ponds and rivers are my Xanax.

 

This is definitely the sort of thing SS is into.

Nice work!

My favorites in the series are #4 and #5, but the set is very nice.

 

I'm actually really glad you mentioned that about the mist. I, of course, knew it was there, and wanted it be to part of the shot, but I wasn't sure if it translated. Glad to hear that it does! Thanks for looking!

 

Thanks, Dan!

 

Very nice shots. #2 and #6 are my favs.

 

heck yes.... mist = ftw.

 

the first one and the chicken wire are my favs...great job yet again, ever wonder why you didn't take up photography earlier?

 

These are all great work. IMO #2 and #6 have some serious potential as black & whites. Another experiment on these two might be to de-saturate the colors while also increasing the tonal contrast.

 

wndrlst, I like! Nice job.

 

Thanks everyone! And yes, badboy, I do wish I'd gotten more serious about it sooner...it's great for my sanity!

Billiam - thanks for the suggestions! I'll play around with them. Is "tonal" contrast different from the regular contrast slider?



Here's another that I preferred in B&W. I love the amount of control that Camera Raw gives you when converting!

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/moxiephotos/854480719/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1320/854480719_943d44c98d.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Jug" /></a>

 

Took Billiam's advice, & converted the texture shots to B&W...


<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/moxiephotos/873247323/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1394/873247323_ce114d6d6c.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Horseshoe Latch BW" /></a>


<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/moxiephotos/873307011/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1312/873307011_52adf333b5.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Windows BW.jpg" /></a>

 

Those did convert nicely to B&W. Real nice contrast and tones in all. I like the first especially.

Can you share how you converted? Simple desaturation or a more involved process?

 

I converted them using Camera Raw in PS. It's really nice because it allows you control the white/black levels of each individual color in the photo - giving quite a lot of control. I didn't tweak anything else, except to sharpen, of course. If you'd like, I can post the conversion prior to adjustments when I'm on my own computer...

 

^^That'd be great. Thanks.