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.

 

Rise and Untitled (and behind the scenes)

Here are two others that I liked from the shoot a month ago. I have found a new obsession with fabric in my self-portraits, and have a couple more images in mind with it. Hopefully I can get those shot in the next few weeks.

Rise

Untitled

And a few behind the scenes shots for you all. And a chance for me to introduce you all to the greatest photo assistant of all time, Scott. He was willing to sit there wrapped in tulle while I figured out my composition and such, and still managed to look manly 🙂

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!

Farm Life

A couple of weeks ago I went home with Scott (the boyfriend) to meet his parents for the first time. His parents have a big, beautiful farm in central Kansas, and even though we have been there a few times now I still haven’t even scratched the surface of what I would like to photograph there. Here is a small sampling of images that I shot over the past few visits.

They are surrounded by seemingly endless, gorgeous wheat fields. I have a small obsession with them I have realized. In the spring they are a stunning green, and then come summer they turn an amazingly rich gold. The texture is awesome for photographs, and watching as well as listening to a wheat field in the wind has to be one of the best things ever.

They have lots of animals on their farm, though I haven’t photographed most of them. This cat is absolutely precious, though extremely sick. She has taken a liking to me, and the last time I was there did her best to follow me around as I was shooting.

Last weekend while we were there for a short visit I was able to shoot a self-portrait that I am quite excited about. I am currently in the process of editing that, and when I get it done I will post it here, so be sure to check back!

18/52 – It hasn’t felt like this before

Another from my evening with Manuel. Is it cheating if I use more than one from this shoot as a 52 week?

The title is from one of my favorite songs, “The Fear You Wont Fall” by Joshua Radin.

The True Summer

Here are some more from my adventure with Manuel the other day. This is truly how summer should be lived.

155/365 – Summer Is Coming

Yesterday was such an incredible day. My friend Manuel texted me around 5 and suggested we go drive and take pictures. I would normally love to do that anyways, but I had rented an absolutely incredible lens for the weekend and hadn’t used it yet so I thought this would be a perfect chance to play with it. So I drove to his house, and we played Rock Band for a little, and then hopped in the car and started driving through the country. We eventually found a spot that didn’t have a fence, and man, it was the perfect spot. There was a creek, and a barn, and a big wheat field that we walked into and just laid down and talked. It was so wonderful. More pictures to come, including some self portraits.

Straight out of the camera (SOOC) except for conversion to JPG. In fact, all of the pictures from this shoot will be SOOC.

The title is from the song “Summer Is Coming” by Matt Pond PA, which was a song Manuel introduced me to forever ago.

I decided this weekend I wanted to live my life and not worry about uploading on time. I took all of the pictures on the right days, I just didn’t get around to uploading them.