The Red Barn

Tell me what you think

Very nice work...congrats...LJ

Roger, the next photo in your portfolio that has caught my eye. Has everything going for it. Number one: color . . . well handled, beautifully saturated without being overdone, green tree over on the right subtle and sneaky. Number two: composition . . . love the harmony created by the two smaller structures on either side of the big barn, love the white fence, the perfectly placed bare trees, the whisp of clouds in the upper left quadrant. Number three: of course, the lighting . . . soft, warm, sweet, catching the roof so beautifully in sections, echoing the orange of the foreground as it sets. Now don't laugh, but I do have a favorite part, and that's the hint of green grass in the very foreground of the shot. I think most folks would have cropped that out and I'm surprised no one has already suggested that you do. Me . . . I love it, and often find myself doing the same thing, keeping something at the edge of a frame to help add depth to the photo and also to imply that there is more beyond the frame's edge, a world out there, that we are not seeing in this particular photo. I think it's a nice detail and was really glad to see it. Finally, it's a place I'd like to be. It feels safe, secure, open wide, and like interesting lives are lived around here. --Fred

Thanks, Fred. Great critique as usual. Thanks particularly for noticing the grass - I'm starting to wonder if this stuff at the edge of frames is something I'm doing instinctively, or in this semi-consciously. There was a large band of green grass in the original and I definitely decided to crop to a few blades, don't ask me why.

Sometimes those instinctual habits don't need a verbalized reason. They just happen and come from a place that needn't be questioned.

Traveling back in time, I stopped at this barn. Of course, Fred had already moved in and unpacked an eloquent comment summarizing everything I was thinking. Fred loves the grass, but I love the green tree to the right. It's the only hint of something in a different color scheme. A gorgeous (and sadly overlooked) shot.