Barn and bales

[Alan Clark]

It's a few years since I got my Kodak Specialist 1/2 plate camera and 203mm Ektar lens. These are some of the first photographs I took with it, of a barn at the edge of my village.

 

[JFont]

Love the random arrangement of hay bales.

 

[Alan Clark]

Thank you.

 

[Joanna Carter]

Without wanting to denigrate the quality of your images, all they remind me of is a similar "mess" that I have to put up with every time I look out of our windows at our neighbour's field. The farmer said, more than two years ago that they were going to be temporary but, here we are. Some of the bales might have moved around but it sill looks a total mess.

 

[Alan Clark]

So when you see hay bales all you see is a mess. I see strong abstract shapes that catch the light in interesting ways, and cry out to be photographed. I've even got photographs of them being made, on my local farm. Can't show them here though, as they were done with a 35mm camera. You especially won't like them as they have a faint hint of grain, which I know you also don't like.

 

[Joanna Carter]

So when you see hay bales all you see is a mess

Not if they are artistically stacked and beautiful straw colour, not covered in a sickly green plastic or canvas.

Unfortunately, this is a view from right next to our hedge…



My point is also that you can't see the accompanying "odour" and, maybe you don't have to constantly see the biggest stack that is between three and four meters high and runs the full length (100m) of our garden, obscuring an otherwise picturesque view of the valley.

Bearing in mind, when we bought our house, that field was just pasture, which the cows would visit for a few weeks at a time.

We didn't mind being next to the farm, as it was then. But, now, it seems the farmer is slowly trying to expand closer and closer to our property.

You especially won't like them as they have a faint hint of grain, which I know you also don't like

That is not true. I have made prints with grain. But, grain is down to the film you choose and, to me, if it wasn't in front of the lens, why include it if you don't have to?

Thankfully, I still have a stock of Fuji Acros 100 in the freezer.

 

[Alan Clark]

Joanna, your story about what the farmer is doing reminds me of something in a Peter Mayle book about a farmer in Provence who wanted to buy an accompanying property but it was bought by someone from Paris. He set about doing all sorts of things to annoy his new neighbour, causing them to sell up. He then got the property he wanted at a knock-down price.

On the subject of grain, it may not be in the subject, but most subjects have texture. Film is good at picking this up but digital often doesn't. You see lots of digital photographs where texture has been smoothed out and looks un-natural, often like melted plastic. Yes, I know that you can avoid this by giving your image a filmic look in DXO (?) But you don't have to do the work with film. Choose the right film format and you just get the look you want. I like to see a faint hint of grain because it comes over as texture and gives the image a certain strength, and avoids blandness.

But look on the bright side Joanna. If you crop the bottom half of your photograph off, It looks like quite a nice image. A bit more separation between the cattle would help, but you can't have everything...

 

[David M]

Joanna touches on an important point. There are two components involved in observing something: the object and the observer. We mostly discuss the nature of the object, but the observer brings a wealth of knowledge to the process.
We may contrast and compare the reactions of a parent viewing a picture of their child with that of an arachnophobia confronted with a picture of a spider.
In either case the image may be well or badly produced and that might influence the viewer’s response. The child may well be objectively ugly or the spider very beautiful, but these qualities can be swamped by other reactions that the different viewers may have.

 

[MartyNL]

Hi Alan, you're not alone. I too, also have a thing for hay bales, it seems!

 

[Alan Clark]

Marty, you obviously have good taste.

 

[Francis R]

Hey bales seems to be addictive

 

[thronobulax]

I have long had an addiction to this sort of thing. I took this some years ago with a Crown Graphic and 127mm f/4.7 Ektar on APX 100 developed in DK-50. Scan of silver print:

 

[Alan Clark]

Good to see these photographs!
I've been wondering, do you get the best pictures if you use a camera with a bail back?