Photo Challenge – What’s the Story?

Old Barn

If you follow this site there is a pretty good chance you like to read about photography and ways to improve your already great photographing skills.  You probably have at least two or more sites you consistently check to see what advice or tips they have for you each day.  I’m willing to bet that you’ve got a lot of good information already stored in your head and filed under photography.  Here is a chance to share some of what you know.  I’m not going to tell you a story about the photograph above or give you pointers on how to do this or that to capture a similar photograph.  Photography is an art, art is creativity, part of being creative is the ability to interpret and share… so share!

Your photo challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to write the story behind this photograph.  What does it say?  Does it follow any rules?  Can you teach someone something with it?  Use the comments below this article to give us your two cents, don’t be shy.

 

 

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2 replies on “Photo Challenge – What’s the Story?”
  1. says: BeckyDeSantis

    Hi John, first I want to thank you for posting all the wonderful photos and educational articles on photolistic life. As a sort of thank you I am accepting your challenge and will share with you what runs through my head when I look at the above photo.
     
    First a title popped into my mind – something along the lines of “Seen better days – all but forgotten.”  Even though this photo is of decrepit conditions, it still maintains a sense of beauty and mystery about it. I love the subtle bluish coloring on some of the boards. This photo has a tendency to push you away and then draw you back in.
     
    I am going to say that given the tack sharp appearance of the areas in the foreground and the blurriness in the background and the low light conditions, your aperture was fairly wide open (small DOF) ; the shutter speed was probably adjusted upward to compensate. Shooting against the light of the windows would necessitate metering close up on the old stall area and then widening back out thereby decreasing silhouetting. 
     
    One last thought, I find it amazing that the blinds are somewhat intact and all at the same length. If you placed them that way, it is still amazing that they even worked – now that said, in my mind these are those pull down vinyl blinds but maybe they are just pieces of some type of window covering hanging there. In any event, they helped to block any overly bright light that may have been coming through those open areas.
     
    Oh and hey, if this is all wet, please don’t hesitate to let me know!!   Thanks again for all the learning opportunities.

    1. @BeckyDeSantis Becky,
      Thank you!  You are correct, the aperture was f/5 and my shutter speed was 1.6 seconds… I opted for the slower shutter speed rather than pushing the ISO because I felt like the image needed to be as sharp as possible. 
      In this photo everything was right where I found it, the “blinds” were actually old cardboard strips that look to have been there as long as everything else.  I’m not sure what purpose they served other than just keeping the sun out.  And you are correct, I actually spot metered right off the metal loop that the rope is fastened to.  
      The title you came up with is awesome, that depicts exactly what I saw through the viewfinder.  I felt as though I was looking into the past, as if everything was going to brighten up and life was going to wash over the place once again.  It was a really neat place to photograph.
       
      You accepted the challenge and nailed it right on the head, thank you!

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