on the farm.

A few weeks ago the boy and I headed to his parents’ farm for a quick little visit. I have blogged about the farm before (here, here, and here, to name a few), but this place has started to take hold of a little piece of my heart. It can be rather desolate and empty at times; the only noises you hear are cows, birds, and the occasional farm equipment running, and the dirt roads around the farm seem to go on forever. Evenings and mornings there can be absolutely stunning, and even though I have photographed a decent amount there I feel like I have barely scratched the surface. On top of that, it changes so much depending on the season that there is always something fresh the photograph. Late spring and early summer are probably my favorite times to be there (which also tends to be true of most locations for me), and since this has been a mostly cool and fairly wet spring/summer so far, things were extra beautiful (aka very green and lush). Earlier this spring however, the weather was not so ideal. The higher temps and lack of rain left the wheat (my favorite part of the farm) very short and not as great as normal for photographs.

The day that we got there was cool and rather perfect early in the evening, so we sat out on the deck for a while before the sun dipped low and things got too chilly. Scott practiced guitar, and I wandered the farm taking pictures in the beautiful light. It was lovely.

 

The Thought Process

It had been ages since I shot a self-portrait before this one. I had some vague ideas that I was wanting to shoot but never seemed to have the time, energy, or motivation. This summer has been a bit of a slump for me artistically, but I’m hoping I can turn that around once the craziness of this month settles down.

Anyways, about a month ago I went home with Scott (the boyfriend) to his parents’ farm. They have some big wheat fields, which, as previously posted, are one of my favorite things. I had the itch for a self-portrait, though I didn’t really know what it should be. Before we left for their house (which is close to a two-hour drive) I had thrown in a bunch of tulle and other fabric thinking I could do something with movement and wind (since Kansas is ALWAYS windy). That evening, around sunset I decided to just go out and see what would happen. It was all very spontaneous and unplanned, which is often the best for me. When we were walking to the spot that I wanted to shoot at there were some hazy clouds covering the sun and light wasn’t very exciting. I was sort of bummed out and even debated not shooting that night. But, I decided to go for it anyways, and it paid off. The haze ended up lifting while I was shooting, making for some wonderful golden light in most of the images.

I have sat on these images for a while, unsure of how I wanted to edit them, and share them. Finally, as I am sitting in a hotel in Lexington, KY about to shoot a wedding I decided I was sick of having them sit on my hard drive. I will make another post with a few more, but this one was my favorite, and when the title popped into my head this morning I thought it deserved its own post.

Happy weekend everyone!

21/365 – Dream Sky

The clouds today were just unreal. I could have gone driving for hours finding new spots to take pictures.

Because they were just so great, and I really enjoyed two different pictures for different reasons, I thought I would share two today at once. Enjoy!

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And the second image. I wish there was something of interest in the foreground, but the clouds help makeup for it in my opinion.

 

204/365 – Country Driveway

**Still playing catch up…

This was from Sunday, 8-1. I was pretty frustrated because I was trying to find a location to shoot for my studio project, but couldn’t find what what I was looking for. And it was getting dark so I didn’t have much time.

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25/52 v3 – Untitled

And here is the last from this particular day. Ironically they are in the correct order in terms of what wil be the final product.

As always I would love to hear your interpretations and feedback!

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189/365 – Moo.

Yesterday I took pictures at the “Hangar Bash” for Sophisticated Living Magazine, and since I was already out towards the country I figured I would just go for a little drive to try to find something interesting to take pictures of. I turned down this one road that was basically a roller coaster (there was even a sign warning of the hills), and saw a group of cows right along the fence. I pulled over to take some pictures, but goodness these cows were skittish. When I shut my car door a bunch basically jumped backwards. Then when I held up my camera two calves ran a little bit away. It was the strangest thing. My uncle has dairy cows, and I could always walk right up to them and they wouldn’t even blink. But these started to run away as soon as I looked at them! Luckily I had my kit lens on (18-105mm) so I was able to get some shots through the fence without getting close and scaring them off too far.

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24/52 v2 – Breaking Away

This was taken on the same day as the last one (24). It would be towards the end of my self-portrait series that I am doing for class at the moment. I don’t knew the best way to deal with these pictures since on most shoots I shot at 2-3 locations, with different meanings for each. I was thinking about just using them for different “weeks” of my 52 week project, but decided that was cheating, so I think I will just list them as different versions of the same week (hence v2).

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24/52 – Reflection

Another self-portrait. I have been trying to crank them out lately, for my studio project. Unfortunately I still don’t exactly know how to achieve what I have in my head.

I have decided that the bear is no more though.

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19/52 – Stuck

Well the title is mostly because I was stuck on a title, but it also kind of fits the picture I think.

This is a picture that is for my independent studio project. It will be a series of self portraits. They are technically a progression so I guess this shouldn’t be posted until the end, but oh well. I really liked a few from this shoot so I will post a few more. I just wish the strobe would have worked the entire time.

165/365 – Barbed

I went to take pictures for my independent studio project this evening. Mitch (from a 365 a while ago) and I went out driving in search of a location, and had quite the little adventure. I love that these adventures; finding cool new spots is always great, but the journey to find them is almost more fun.

We were out by a bunch of farms, and most of them have barbed wire fences, and I have always wanted a good picture of one, so I decided to make it my 365 for the day.