Historical blending into environmental

[Soozie B]

Whilst out and about yesterday, I passed this old building for about the 100th time. I have been meaning to take pictures but never seemed to be armed with my cameras, until yesterday. This is the old homestead, and there is a couple of old sheds and rusty old machinery parts as well on the estate.

This old majestic beauty is now in such disrepair that it almost blends into the environment. To me it could make a perfect jigsaw puzzle, as it just has that look about it. Pictures had to be taken from roadside as the estate has been condemned so trespassing even in the name of art is totally out of the question.

Old Exford Estate

1.


Exford by Soozie_Lou_B, on Flickr

2.


Exford by Soozie_Lou_B, on Flickr

3.


Exford by Soozie_Lou_B, on Flickr

4.


Exford by Soozie_Lou_B, on Flickr

[Donald]

Pictures had to be taken from roadside as the estate has been condemned so trespassing even in the name of art is totally out of the question.

That's the annoying bit. It would be great to be able to get in and around that building. But given the restraints on you, this is a good set of images. I think your cropping of the first one works perfectly.

I always feel a tinge of sadness at seeing buildings in this state (and there are lots of them here going back to the 18th and 19th centuries when families were forcible evicted from the land). I imagine children running and playing around the house. Probably a rather over-romanticised view and life may have been very tough for the people who lived there.

[Soozie B]

[QUOTE=Donald;253476] I think your cropping of the first one works perfectly.

Thanks Donald, although I didnt actually crop it. I took the "big picture" then took a series of pictures breaking the scene down. I think I'm starting to get the hang of this?

[I]I always feel a tinge of sadness at seeing buildings in this state (and there are lots of them here going back to the 18th and 19th centuries when families were forcible evicted from the land). I imagine children running and playing around the house. Probably a rather over-romanticised view and life may have been very tough for the people who lived there.


Not over-romanticised at all. I had the exact same emotions when I saw it for the 1st time. In fact, perhaps the place is haunted, because I swear I can hear things as I stand out the front of the property.

[Shadowman]

Very nice. Were you tempted to get a bit closer?

[Soozie B]

Shadowman;Very nice. Were you tempted to get a bit closer?


Oh my goodness yes. After all how much danger can I be in if I don't go inside? But the road is fairly busy and basically I'm a chicken!

Besides at 5 foot 1 and a bit, I would have had a major problem trying to jump a fairly high barbed wore fence lol

[just me]

Hi Soozie,

I really like these photo's of your's.......

I myself take often photo's of these old homesteads, although I have not seen any which are in so much disrepair looking,perhaps there was once a bushfire ?
I mostly find only the 2 1/2 wall's are left standing, sometimes even all four, but they make me always wondering about the people who lived in them.......

Griddi......

[Soozie B]

perhaps there was once a bushfire ?

Hi Griddi

Thank you so much for the kind words.

This old homestead really intrigues me as well. I'm not sure what happened to it and why it is such disrepair. I have discovered that the area had a major bushfire come through in 1983 but unsure as to whether it reached this house.

I might go ask the local council or historians and come back with an answer for you.

Places like this hold such appeal ... or is it because I have a very vivid imagination which affects my perception of the world? lol

[Mike Buckley]

Considering that you've seen this place so many times, I gather that you live nearby. You might want to plan visits to it during different weather conditions and especially during very early and late light to display its various moods (for lack of a better word).

When Donald mentioned that you cropped the first one so nicely (I agree), he is referring to the fact that the aspect ratio (the relationship between the width and height) is not the same that your camera captured. So, it had to have been cropped.

I would be willing to bet that you didn't use a polarizer, as the leaves on the trees have glare. If you use a polarizer to reduce the glare, you'll get a natural increase in saturation in the leaves and all reflective surfaces that produce glare, including those gorgeous ruins. Yes, they're gorgeous in their own way.

Notice that each image has a different color cast that is a bit troubling when presenting them together as you have done here. As an example, the first image is much warmer than the second one even though both display the same ruin. The third one is closer to the first one but not the same. The fourth one seems to be very close to the first one but I haven't compared them side-by-side.

There are several possible explanations. If you used different lenses, each one might have its own color cast. If you're using Auto White Balance, perhaps your camera's implementation is not very good. (My experience is that more recent models implement Auto White Balance far better than older models.) Perhaps there is something in your post-processing that is introducing different color casts. Regardless of the cause, you could produce a uniform color cast even now if you want to take the time to tweak it with your post-processing software.

[Soozie B]

Hi Mike

I thought Donald was referring to the breakdown of the shots against the first one which is the house in its entirety. Thanks for clarifying. Yes I did change the shot by cutting unnecessary stuff out of it. So thanks to both of you for the misunderstood compliment.

I dont own a polarizer yet, its on my ever growing wish list.

I used the same lens for each shot, but changed positions around the fenceline when I was sectioning the ruins up. So perhaps the shade v the direct sunlight played a part (I will now pay more attention to where I move to as opposed to the colour casts. My Canon EOS550D is usually set to Auto White Balance as I havent mastered the art of manual yet. And I did change the sliders in PP but again did not really pay attention to what I did.

As I still have the originals I will go back and see if I can make them all uniform.

This kind of feedback is invaluable to me as I would never have considered the points raised.

Thanks so much :-)

[Mike Buckley]

Soozie,

Considering that the shadows and the blue sky remain the same throughout the images, and now knowing that you used the same lens, I would be willing to bet that the color cast changed due to your post-processing. Auto White Balance can be problematic on older models in other situations, but probably not in this situation when the lighting seems to be relatively constant. So, if you have preserved your edit steps, look at all of them that would have affected the overall color.

I recommend that you match the color cast to the first image, which has a pleasing, natural warm look.

[CLK]

I am sure you hear the echos of the history of this place, it is magnificent. I would be tempted to get special permission from the owners for closer pictures, imagine the textures of rocks and woods from the aging. I also would probably end up with hundreds of pictures of the place just because it would keep calling me back. Wish I live in an area of older history or maybe I haven't dug deeply enough.

[Soozie B]

Thanks Mike

I will give it a go .... be prepared for a million questions along the way as PP is not my forte lol

[Soozie B]

Hi Connie

It is brilliant isnt it. Imagine what I could do if I knew what I was doing with my camera lol

[CLK]

Every time I use my camera I think, gee this would be fun if I could remember all of the important points before I get carried away with the location and subject.

[Donald]

Every time I use my camera I think, gee this would be fun if I could remember all of the important points before I get carried away with the location and subject.

And I'll bet that everyone on this forum, if they are not still in that phase of development, has been there.

And the answer? Practice, practice, practice. Until the day arrives when you realise that you are automatically and unconsciously thinking about all the important points. First, of course, you have to go through the phase of it not being automatic and you having to consciously think of those things.

I liken that to the routine that a pilot goes through before take-off. You have your check-list and you work through it methodically each time before you press the shutter. That also helps to slow you down so that you're not just firing off shots without really thinking what's inside the frame.

[Mike Buckley]

You have your check-list and you work through it methodically each time before you press the shutter.

In my earliest days of switching from film to digital photography, my wife would helpfully say to me each time we got out of the car, "Check your white balance, your ISO, and your Aperture Priority." Now that she has recently begun photography I do the same for her but add the reminder to check her polarizer.

I recently began using a speedlight in manual mode off the camera in my makeshift studio. I keep a written checklist there indicating the settings to use on my speedlight and my camera and how to access them. Even so, after making all the settings, I get complacent and forget to read the very last part of the checklist. The result is that the speedlight doesn't fire when I release the shutter. That's because I don't read the part of the checklist that reminds me to raise the speedlight built into the camera; even when it's configured not to fire, it must be raised in order to fire the remote speedlight.

[Coinneachmhor]

Nice images and wise words of advice in the previous posts, all of which I can either relate to or learn from. Look forward to seeing the images re run and I really like what you have tried to do with the series as I think this adds to the "memories" of the place we all feel without actually having been there.

[Soozie B]

Thanks Kenny. I hope I can do it justice. I'm also pleased you "get it"