A Colorado Barn Photo

Photographer’s Note

A Typical barn found in Colorado

Scene
My wife and I were following some balloons in the Yampa Valley, on the east end of Steamboat Springs, when we came across this old barn. The barn was just on the edge of the road and offered some good subject matter.

Background
There many different shapes and styles of barns found across the United States and many of them reflect the cultural background of the builder or the landowner. The most obvious cultural barn is the Dutch barn with rounded roof gable. But, having lived in Colorado for almost 24 years I have noticed most barns in Colorado are of the style shown here; A-line roof, two stories, rectangular in shape, and no lean-to sheds on the side.

This was a chilly morning and there is some wood smoke in the air and is just slightly visible in the sky

ribeiroantonio, delic, Floydian, gunbud, Photo65Net, zeca, pboehringer, feather, plimrn, scobert has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

crhieatt (5143) 2007-09-19 16:06

John,
There are some quite nice details in this shot, particularly the barn roof, which is having a little texturama show all by itself, showing a good few years of wear and repair.
Whilst the principle of the composition is good, I also feel that the tree rising behind the post on the left of frame, closes off the view to the mountains, which leaves the impression of being in a "closed in" - which, by the looks of the space beyond the tree, this is far from being the case.
Nevertheless, enjoyable.
Regards
Colin

ribeiroantonio (21891) 2007-09-19 20:49

Excellent composition with that fence line creating two different points of interest and depth. The soft warm colours are a good indication that summer is coming to an end and soon it will be wet and cold. It is a very nice work. Well done.
Antonio

delic (6735) 2007-09-19 22:20

Hello John,
I can see that fall is just around the corner. I like the partially concealed view of the barn. I think some underexposure wouldn't hurt here. Regards,
Hakan

fleopold (1359) 2007-09-19 22:48

Hi John!
An excellent composition in high quality. The line of the fence gives the photo depth.
Greetings from Austria!

Floydian (30970) 2007-09-20 6:30

Hi John,
Not an easy picture with the light you had there. It looks hard and very flat, but thanks to the line of poles you created some depth which gives this image just that what it needs. It seems you did not used a pola, maybe that would enhance the sky and the green/yellow colours a bit.
Regards, Henk

gunbud (27789) 2007-09-20 8:14

Hi John,
Lovely capture of this prairie barn with the distant mountains making a perfect backdrop. Nice soft colors with a beautiful hazy blue sky.
Regarrds, Tom

Photo65Net (43084) 2007-09-20 10:45

John,
I like how you managed to get bright tones in this one. Your exposure is very good, and colors are so natural.
Very pleasant,
Regards,
JB.

pboehringer (770) 2007-09-21 7:29

John,
difficult light conditions to master this nice composition of the barn hidden behind those trees and poles. It seems to be quite harsh and I have to agree with Henk that a polarizer might have helped to provide some enhancement. I always use it even with the light in the back. Even the minimal effect that this provides seems valuable to me.
Have a good trip!
Regards, Peter

zeca (20026) 2007-09-21 17:04

Hey John!
Beautiful composition with a nice balance of elements. Farms are from my favorites subjects and its very nice to see images like this from the world, specially from this region. Well taken and thanks for sharing!
Cheers!
Zeca
Bback

feather (49858) 2007-09-22 4:19

I missed some! Here's me thinking you were too busy to post ;D. I like the way you composed this with the fence posts almost going diagonally across the frame. I don't find the light harsh at all and think the exposure is very well managed. It would have been so easy to over-expose the white walls of the barn. The image has an autumn feel to it with some of the leaves starting to turn.
Looking forward to meeting you soon.
Kath

plimrn (19602) 2007-09-22 19:40

Hi John,
I'm with Kath here, I like the diagonal line leading toward the barn; together with the detail in the FG grass they create excellenbt DOF. The colors look perfectly natural to me; they give a real autumn feel to the photo. Interesting comment about the straightforward barn achitechture, sounds very Coloradian to me.
HLJ, Pat

Davidwh (3652) 2007-09-28 9:47

Hi John,
Mmmmm....I'm not so sure about this one.The scene has lots of potental but I think you maybe pushed the compo.The fence has given us the diagonal and draws us in but then there is in my opinion no dominant feature.If maybe there weren't the trees then the farmhouse would be it in its lovely surroundings, but combined with the low angle behind the fence the scene has been rather blocked out for the beholder.Pleasant but lacking your normal quality.
Regards, David

jmcl (13721) 2007-11-03 14:47

Hi John

This is one of those images that isn't much of a thumbnail .. but is wonderful in person .. the angle and mood of those old fence posts is great .. the early autumn colors really compliment the white of the barn as well .. great depth in this image .. thinking about that sky .. if it were darker it might really muck with the whole pastoral rural feeling of this in a bad way .. I like it where it is.

take care,

John

scobert (5333) 2008-01-17 20:44

Hello John,
This is another excellent shot that you added to your repertoire. This isn't what most people think of when they think of Steamboat Springs. The most advertised venue is the skiing and most everything else is placed on the backburner as far as tourism is concerned for this town. As usual your composition is flawless and I like the soft almost French/Spanish rendition of your photo. It seems that your trip to Provence had a big influence on your style for this type of scene. Great shot! (You told me about your encounter with the photographer at the balloon festival. Take that clown and multiply him tenfold and you have the press photographers).
Stan