What was I learning, twenty years ago? I haven't really noted it plainly or definitively, but I'm coming to understand that photographs taken in a certain slant of sun are blessed with a Midas touch. When dawn burnishes everything, it makes anything and everything lovely. Look, this picture wouldn't be worth a thing if it weren't for the golden touch of an early morning sun on a blanket of fresh snow. Is this a beautiful shot? There's no accounting for taste, so my answer may suit me but no one else.
But twenty years ago, after a blizzard, I went out to on an abandoned farm just a couple miles north of Lebanon, getting there early enough (these were shot December 15, 2005) to grab a bit of that gilded look that, in this place especially--an abandoned place--gives old junk a richness that's almost angelic.
That's what I was learning twenty years ago after a morning outing with my precious camera and enough of a blizzard to bestow quilts all around.
Have a look.
Are any of these pictures spectacular? Nope, but all of them are comely, made so by the gracious reach of an early morning sun.
This week, a chunk of land some place close to Orange City brought (take a breath) 30K an acre. You read that right--$30,000. Made headlines around the state.
I bring that up because these shots are hard to find these days; the land is so expensive that abandoned farms are all but gone.
That's sad if you fool around with a camera.
Here's the most interesting shot I took that morning long ago. Takes a while to "read" it, but it's my favorite at least, mostly because it's fun.
p.s. I don't think these files have ever been out of my hard drive before. It's kind of fun giving them an audience they've never had.
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