Blue Barn

[tom w]

It was late on a Sunday morning as I was trying to get to the dunes at Oceano when I came across the blue barn in the middle of an empty field.

[michael ellis]

Hi Tom-

That is a very weathered barn, and blue besides. No wonder it caught your eye. While I like the weathered wood etc., in this photo there isn't much to focus or hold my attention. Did you try any closeups of the hinges etc.? It looks like there are a lot of possibilities here and this location would probably be worth a return visit if possible.

Sincerely,

Michael Ellis

[RSL]

Hi Tom, Are you familiar with the work of Charles Scheeler? If not, you need to check him out. He was a painter and photographer, and he dealt in extremely sharp reality, both in his photographs and in his paintings. He was around in B&W days, so he'd probably have rendered the blue barn in B&W. Had he done the same thing you did, and he did a lot of it, it would have looked something like this. Only problem is, Scheeler used an 8 x 10 view camera, so the sharpness and detail in his pictures was much, much greater than in my grossly over-sharpened rendition of your shot that I've posted here. This isn't a bad shot, but if you're going to do this kind of thing you need exceptional quality in the image. Nothing less than medium-format is going to get the job done, and I even question the ability of medium-format to do it right. For this kind of thing -- at least at the moment -- you need to go back to 8 x 10 or 11 x 14 film, and contact printing. I know I'll catch flak for saying this, but I'll stick by what I said -- even after admitting I've done my share of this kind of thing with 35mm or its digital equivalent.

[tom w]

Hi Tom-

That is a very weathered barn, and blue besides. No wonder it caught your eye. While I like the weathered wood etc., in this photo there isn't much to focus or hold my attention. Did you try any closeups of the hinges etc.? It looks like there are a lot of possibilities here and this location would probably be worth a return visit if possible.

Sincerely,

Michael Ellis

This barn is in an open, flat, agricultural area near Guadalupe, CA. I saw it from the road and drove probably 200 yards down a dirt road to get to it. I was very surprised that no one was around. I felt like I was trespassing and felt very exposed and made only 4 or 5 exposures. Being reticent and non-confrontational by nature I was too timid to take much time, though I really wanted to. It's the kind of subject that one could spend hours with.
Tom