Spirit Hole

I was fascinated by the spirit string reference in Cheryl's mini world posting a week ago and subsequently learned more about it and some other Navajo traditions. Yesterday, part of our digital photography group met at a county park for a field trip centered on a wonderful old barn. The best guess based on the information the county has collected is that it was built before 1830. On each gable end of the barn was a spirit hole! Despite a lifelong love affair with old barns, I don't remember seeing a spirit hole before. A little bit of research revealed that spirit holes weren't there for the same reason as the spirit strings in Navajo woven work. Instead, it was a European tradition brought to North America by immigrants whose predecessors made them to allow the escape of the spirits of people who had lived and died in a single building that often served as both a house and a barn. With wood being more widely available in the regions that were first settled, immigrants had a separate barn but retained the tradition. Not surprisingly, people from different lands cut spirit holes of different designs.

nine-exposure HDR with 1 EV increments
Nikon D3s, ISO 200, f/22, zoom lens at 58mm

post-processing

• Photomatix -- tone mapping for a good histogram
• Adobe Camera Raw -- Clarity and some tweaking of Saturation and Luminance
• substantial cropping from left, right, and bottom
• opened up the spirit hole, which had been covered -- probably long ago -- by a long, wide board inside the barn
• Topaz Simplify -- Watercolor II preset, Darken blend mode to reveal the knots
• duplicate layer, Normal blend mode at reduced opacity to tone down the knots
• Flypaper Textures -- gray texture, Hue blend mode, reduced opacity, applied only to sky
• Flypaper Textures -- brown texture, Color Burn blend mode, reduced opacity
• Fractalius -- b&w preset based on Sketch, Multiply blend mode
• Alien Skin Snap Art -- b&w preset based on Stylize Line Art, Multiply blend mode
• gradient vignette, border color, limited to roof shadow and windows
• Red Giant Knoll Light Factory, partially masked (light rays from spirit hole)
• Corel Painter -- F-X Fairy Dust brush, one layer only on sky, a second layer on barn and sky

Very cool effects. Good texture on the barn, and I like the roof against the dark sky. I might clone out the squiggly things in the clouds. Nice abstract, Dennis.

Dennis, This is a wonderful effect. The top portion has a nice ethereal look to it. I agree about the squiggly lines since the whole top area is soft they kind of compete with the feel IMHO.

Some great thoughts above Dennis. Thanks for sharing the info on the building and its history and traditions. I enjoyed, and learned from it. Love the simplified texture in the wood.

Dennis, what a great story! I think your creation does justice to the tradition and to the barn:S3: Great use of filters to convey your intent - I love the image.

Nice effects and composition, love the light streaming from the hole...agree about squiggley's...well done

Thanks to everyone for all your comments and for seeing the downside of the black squiggles in the sky. I almost always use Divide blend mode instead of Multiply in skies to make the squiggles white, there. Here it is that way.

Dennis, I do like it better.

Me too............

Dennis...very cool image! Thanks for sharing processing details!