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It surely tells a story and leaves you to ponder about other untold stories.

I get a sense that you used an extreme wide-angle here.

This is Mr. Miller's house. Tom Miller. He hasn't lived here in about

a hundred years, though. Tom came to California for the same reason a

million others did... Gold. But alas, he never found any gold and

spent the better part of his life working on the railroad. Judging by

what remains of his house, Tom did alright.

This is one of my favorite interior shots, I used bounce flash with a

Styrofoam cup diffuser to fill in some of the voids and combined

elements from several exposures to create this. Don't let the fact

that it's one of my favorites deter you from expressing your opinion

about my photograph and post production. If you're having a hard time

forming that opinion, click on the picture, it'll get bigger and that

will surely help.

Your senses have served you well, Tony.  This was shot at 17mm on a full-frame body.

I like the light and I like the interior. It's clearly a place that have been lived - A real gem of a location. I'm guessing you want critique and or suggestions so here we go.

You might want to consider something even wider than 17 mm. Perhaps stitching several shots together. A more head on approach would give more of the wall and window to the left - alternately it should be left out in order to get more of the door opening to the right showing detail from that room too. It's the unfinished business that troubles me. Half a door behind the chimney, the cut-off spring bed, the cut-off window and doorway.

I hope this offers some suggestions or inspiration for improvement on this fantastic location.

Suggestions and critique are precisely what I sought and I truly appreciate your offering them.  I agree with many of your observations, some of which I'd noticed but accepted while others I hadn't.  Now to figure out how to put those recommendations into practice.

I had been wandering around photographing the house from the outside but it started snowing.  It was only 18ºf (-8ºc) and I wasn't as prepared for the cold as I should have been so I ducked into the house. The room is small, maybe three meters by four meters, and I had positioned myself just inside the front door.  Unfortunately, Mr. Miller's heater stopped working a century ago so it wasn't much warmer inside but at least I was out of the snow and wind.  While I sheltered there, waiting for the feeling in my fingers and toes to return, I took this.

This is great.  Wonderful mood.  Lots of really interesting stuff to look at, great textures.  I really like it.  It really tells a story and makes you wonder what it must have been like to live here.  Listening to your story of how you took this, it's clear you did a fantastic job capturing this given the limited opportunity you had to set it up.  As an alternative I also attached a version in which I boosted some of the shadow and brought down some of the highlights.  It brings out some more of the texture and detail in the wall and into the kitchen.  It also knocks down some of the light and shows more detail out of the windows - sort of HDRish.  Clearly not better than your original, just different.  Thanks for sharing.

I like your version, Charles.  It almost resembles a painting where the artists pallet is only limited by the paints in his box and not the dynamic range of his or her sensor.  It does stretch the boundaries of reality, slightly, which was something I tried to avoid.  It's not what I would consider excessive, though and I like the way it brings out a little more detail in the other rooms.  Thanks for taking the time.

Hi Jeff,

A wonderful image, both Artistically and as a documentary image to support your excellent description.

Best Regards, Mike

Jeff,

Firstly, thanks for your remarks on my photo, "rock poetry".

Secondly, I like this photo and your interpretation of the interior of Mr. Miller's house. It is as natural as it could get and the lighting aided by the use of bounced flash with Styrofoam diffusers and combining several images to come up with this is not an easy work. Beautiful details especially in the shadows and the chosen perspective is tops. Very appealing image, congratulations.

Lester