Grandma's Place

[Dennis Bishop]

About a week after I took the series of photos late last August that resulted in this image, Schlessman Seed Co. celebrated its 100th year in business. They call this part of their operation in northern Ohio Grandma's Place. I don't know why, but the company has been family-owned since it started. They are major world-wide suppliers of hybrid seeds -- mostly sweet corn, field corn, and popcorn. These are the only four buildings on this site: three storage buildings and a silo.





Nikon D3s, ISO 200, f/22, four-exposure HDR at one EV increments, zoom lens at 14 mm

processing highlights

• warped background to remove distortion in the wooden buildings
• enhanced the sky with a reduced-opacity Flypaper Textures sky texture
• Topaz Simplify -- saved watercolor preset, reduced opacity and some masking to restore important details in the wooden buildings
• Alien Skin Snap Art -- saved watercolor wash preset, Hard Light blend mode
• Fractalius -- three saved black-on-white presets; Multiply, Divide, Multiply
• two layers, each, of Simplify and Snap Art saved black-on-white edges presets -- Divide (for white lines) on sky, Multiply (for black lines) everywhere else
• Alien Skin Exposure -- photo border
• two Flypaper Texture textures for aging and fold line -- Multiply and Linear Burn

[Nancy Bell]

Awesome perspective and your signature great processing! I would probably remove the middle horizontal fold line. It cuts the image in half when those distorted sides of silos/buildings draw the eye up so dramatically. I like the simple graphic lines of the red barns and even the grass portions. It certainly looks like Americana, 100 years ago!

[Hazel Grant]

Agree with Nancy re perspective, etc. Like the shadows on the buildings. Keeps them from being flat. I think I"d smooth out that white cloud (?) at the very top. Love the angled perspective.

[Anita Bower]

Love it! When I looked at the thumbnail, I thought the framing was curtains, a la Grandma Moses, but barn and silo work just as well. Immensely creative. Great variety of shapes. Love the straight lines of the barns, the textures of them, the shadows. Excellent processing!

What was your thinking behind the fold line?

Which are your favorite textures? Flypaper?

[Dennis Bishop]

About the fold line . . . I visualized someone with fond thoughts about the farm or their grandmother and wanting to carry this with them because of the memories it evoked. In order to do that, they had to fold it. It may not be apparent that I always put the date and place on my images -- usually in an inconspicuous way. In this case, I made it much bolder because that was consistent with the story.

Favorite textures . . . It used to be that Flypaper was hands-down my favorite. Some time ago, Jackie mentioned in one of her posts how much she liked the Belle Fleur textures. I tried them out and became hooked. It's hard to say if one or the other is my favorite. Which I choose is based on the image to some extent. I also like Photomorphis but for certain images. I tried Shadowhouse long ago and liked them a lot. I'd probably use them more if I worked up a database with keywords. Really, it would save lots of time -- once that was done -- if I included all the textures I have in a database so I could filter it for specific colors, effects, etc. One of these days.

[Anita Bower]

About the fold line . . . I visualized someone with fond thoughts about the farm or their grandmother and wanting to carry this with them because of the memories it evoked. In order to do that, they had to fold it. It may not be apparent that I always put the date and place on my images -- usually in an inconspicuous way. In this case, I made it much bolder because that was consistent with the story.

Favorite textures . . . It used to be that Flypaper was hands-down my favorite. Some time ago, Jackie mentioned in one of her posts how much she liked the Belle Fleur textures. I tried them out and became hooked. It's hard to say if one or the other is my favorite. Which I choose is based on the image to some extent. I also like Photomorphis but for certain images. I tried Shadowhouse long ago and liked them a lot. I'd probably use them more if I worked up a database with keywords. Really, it would save lots of time -- once that was done -- if I included all the textures I have in a database so I could filter it for specific colors, effects, etc. One of these days.

I hadn't noticed the dating on your photos. Thanks for pointing it out. I really would enjoy seeing the images in print so that all these details showed more clearly. I think the fold would be more understandable if there were some wrinkles in the rest of the image.

Thanks for info on textures. I use Shadowhouse a lot. I completely agree with you re. organizing textures. I have mine organized by creator and/or color, but intend to do more.

[Cheryl Slechta]

Hi, Dennis, this is a great image. I love the perspective and the old-timey feel to it. It looks like it could be on the front of a seed catalog. After reading your thinking on the fold line I feel better about it but I agree with Anita that some wrinkles might make it easier to understand.