Old Barn Window and Fallen Planks

This barn has lost the outer layer of horizontal wood planks. The nails that once held the planks are still there and visible when you look closely. A few splinters of wood and one last plank, half fallen to the ground are left, but the building still stands straight and tall, as if defying gravity and time–but only for a little while longer.  You can still see a lighter colored horizontal stripe  where the diagonal plank in the bottom right corner of the photo once was attached to the building.

I love the contrast of the straight planks with the horizontal planks that are uneven and rough, having been weathered, split and rotted away by sun, rain and wind.

I felt that the last hanging splintered pieces of wood and the last falling plank added character to a photo of otherwise relatively straight vertical and horizontal lines of old faded wood.  The rusty metal sheets at the bottom and the green grass add some color and texture contrast to the photo.

The sky was mostly overcast and it was evening. I chose to use the shade white balance, the equivalent of a warming filter and shot two thirds of a stop down when capturing this shot. A little saturation work in a graphics application and the final result is what you see here.

Overall, I was quite pleased with the result.

An Old Barn

While taking another evening walk, I found this old barn, unused, fallen into extreme disrepair. The wood is old, weather-beaten and the outer layer of wood slats have long since rotted away, fallen off or been torn off by the wind.  I’m guessing that the farmer that once owned this land used to store his tractor here, this was probably his tool shed as well. It has a raised floor and is too small to house anything but some chickens, if any livestock at all were kept here.

A lot of interesting features still remain. Roll-away outer doors, license plates nailed to the outside, corrugated tin used to repair the lower section of the structure and windows that open into a mysterious, dark interior.

The plants are beginning to overtake the place which still somehow manages to stand on its own and not lean to one side in a slow crash to the ground as old barns are often wont to do.  I spent a solid hour photographing it and when I got the pictures home, I found things in the pictures I completely missed when I was in front of the barn.  I think its been too long since I was taking photos seriously and my photographer’s eye has gotten a little myopic.

Still, it’s a nice shot.   Enjoy!