my home

[John Chardine]

Not the Hay Barn, but I have tried to portray the area around my home. The Tantramar was settled by the French over 400 years ago. They built dykes to keep out the highest tides in the world (50+ feet) and drained salt marsh to create hay fields. Hay was the gasoline/petrol of the day because it was what the draught animals ran on. The Acadians were eventually expelled by the British and some ended up as "Cajuns" in Louisiana (many died on the expulsion journey south). The barns in this image were built later on to store the loose hay. There were hundreds of them and now there are a lot fewer because they are not being conserved. We have terrific winds here and recently a "blow" toppled at least one barn I am aware of.

I made the image with a telephoto to try to obtain a hazy feel and in further processing I attempted to retain this soft look. I cropped and applied Curves, and removed a couple of distant telephone poles. I dodged the sky a bit by creating a layer mask.

Canon EOS 50D, 70-200 mm f4 IS, 1.4 tcII @ 241 mm.
capture date: Friday, January 9, 2009 9:38:34 AM
exposure program: Aperture Priority
ISO speed: 400
shutter speed: 1/1250
aperture: f7.1
exposure bias: +0.3
metering: Pattern
flash: OFF

[Kaushik Balakumar]

A very pretty scene John. Like the light here. Only wish the sky had something more to offer (which is pretty flat & grey now).
Thank you much for sharing the story :)

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey John,
I like the overall composition with the placement of the barns throoughout the frame and the smaller one balances nicely with the larger one as do the trees. I also like the fence leading me through the scene. My only issue is that the sky Kaushik mentioned is bland and seems a bit off on the color cast. In this case, I don't think I would mind the sky being whiter.....as it may add to the scene and the wintry mood. I would however recommend cropping out 1/2 of it. My favorite 4oz. piece of equipment (grad split ND) may have given the sky more pop......but not sure that would help the mood in this case. I say revert the sky back and do the crop. Let's see what others chime in. Overall, a very nicely composed scene.

[Robert Amoruso]

John,

I am agreeing with my comrades above. Nice composition. You did well getting the building to balance and the fence is a nice leading line.