Tag Archives: barn

Backup for peace of mind

Barn at Sunset by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

Barn at Sunset by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

As a photographer you are always being told to backup your files because your storage media will fail at some point. A good plan is so essential as I found out yesterday afternoon.

One of my 1 Tb external hard drives failed with no warning. On that drive was a 930 gig Aperture library with thousands of images. Fortunately I had just backed up that library the night before to an Aperture vault that I have on a Drobo storage device with four 1 Tb drives. I was able to restore my library to a new 1 TB drive that I had not been using. It took approximately 13 hours to complete the restore but at least I was able to recover the data.

I have always been concerned about a failure and am very glad that at least I have one level of backup that was helpful. This near disaster has gotten me to thinking that maybe I need a more complete plan than I currently have in place.

Here is a link to an article Backup In Progress by Any Ihnatko that talks about making a backup plan. This is just one such article on an extremely useful website mydl.me that is hosted by Scott Bourne and Andy Ihnatko.

Follow Scott on Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/scottbourne

Follow Andy on Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/ihnatko

I hope you will take their advice and also learn from my experience that a good backup plan is essential because at some time it will save you from disaster.

Getting Images Tack Sharp

Barn in Morning Light by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

Barn in Morning Light by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

When shooting a landscape most of the time it is essential to get everything in the image from foreground to background in sharp focus. This can be difficult to accomplish. Many lenses have their sweet spot at apertures f8 or f11. However to achieve a greater depth of field a smaller aperture like f22 would be useful.

An article entitled Tack-Sharp Images by Joe Johnson, the owner of Really Right Stuff, caught my attention. He discusses the issues and procedures for achieving sharp focus throughout the image. I enjoyed his discussion and suggestions and hopefully you will find the article informative and useful as well.

Utilize Local Resources

 

Afternoon Sun Lights Barn by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

Afternoon Sun Lights Barn by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

When visiting either a new or even a familiar region to photograph, I have found it very useful to connect with local residents. The locals will have a knowledge and understanding of the area that has been developed through their experiences of living and working there. This is especially true in the Palouse as many of the residents living in the small towns have roots to the area for three or four generations.

This past week, I spent time in the Palouse region mainly around the towns of Colfax and Pullman. I made several connections with local people that will prove to be of value to me as I increase my portfolio of images in that region. 

One day I went to a small cafe around lunch time and just interacted with several of the locals that were enjoying their dinner. By the time I left I had made several new acquaintances and also had the directions to a couple of barns that I had not seen before. In addition they suggested another individual who proved to be very useful in my search for old barns to photograph around that area. We ended up spending almost 2 hours together as he drove me around in his pickup to back country areas to look at barns. I ended up with his phone number and he said contact him anytime and he would be happy to help me explore once again.

Remember, getting to know the people as well as the area can be a very rewarding experience. Spending time interacting and asking a few questions about their town, work environment and the people living in the region will give you a new perspective of the area.

Between Seasons

 

I enjoy photographing the Palouse at any time of the year, but the time between seasons can give some interesting views. My favorite transition occurs between winter and spring. The beauty of the winter lingers as the anticipation of the spring and a newness is evident. 

In the image below one can see the patterns in the snow that were left by a rain the day before. This was taken on a very cold morning in late February just after sunrise when the temperature was 18 degrees. 

Snow Patterns surround a Barn by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

Snow Patterns surround a Barn by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

This is one of my favorite barns in the Palouse. It is located about five miles from Colfax, Washington. Just remember when you are planning a trip to the Palouse, look at a time that is not considered to be the prime season and you may be treated to a different perspective of this region.

Converting Images to B&W

 

Converting an image to black and white can create a different mood and sometimes add more drama to a scene. Many of the images you capture in the Palouse can be very effective utilizing this conversion process. I really enjoy converting images that have barns and a strong contrast between the sky and the rest of the scene.

 

Morning Glow on Barn by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

Morning Glow on Barn by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

 

 

The barn pictured above was the color image that I used to create the black and white conversion. The color version had been adjusted in Aperture to depict what the scene looked like as I captured it.

A great product that can be used for black and white conversions is Silver Efex Pro by Nik software. For my workflow it is the simplest and most effective conversion tool that I have found. The procedure that was used to create the black and white conversion follows.

In Aperture, I selected the Nik software plugin for Silver Efex Pro.  When the image opened I selected the high structure preset and added a red filter.  Slight adjustments were made with the sliders until the conversion was to my liking. The entire conversion process took about fifteen seconds. The original conversion is shown below.

 

Morning Glow on Barn b&w

Morning Glow on Barn b&w by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

Afterwards the image ws cropped to bring the barn into the foreground and let the sky become more prominent. Each version tells a little different story. The full version with the leading lines of the furrows shows the impact of farming in the photo. The cropped version emphasizes the drama of the sky.

 

Morning Glow on Barn b&w crop

Morning Glow on Barn b&w crop by GAry Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

The Palouse with its landscapes allows you to experience very dramatic and inspiring vistas. Hopefully this idea of converting images to black and white will help you to share a different perspective with others as you explore this area of eastern Washington.