The Farmhouse in 2019—1
July 7, 2019
Last month for the third year in a row my husband and I were delighted to accept our friends’ invitation to a long weekend at the wife’s ancestral home in rural southwest Pennsylvania. Of course I took my camera. Earlier series of farmhouse photos begin here (2017) and here (2018). This time I took more detail shots. Patches of light have always attracted my attention—probably starting before I was able to even hold a camera. And gazing at and out windows seemed like such a lazy summery thing to do, befitting the ambiance of the weekend. We ate and ate, talked and talked, took walks, and completed two jigsaw puzzles.
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Romancing Reality 
As soon as I got to #2 Emily Dickinson’s words “There’s a certain Slant of light” came to mind.
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July 7, 2019 at 7:28 AM
You, too, Steve? That line from Dickinson comes to my mind so often. Not sure it did specifically for this photograph, but it has for many others.
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July 11, 2019 at 10:27 AM
What a great collection and fun to see the farmhouse again.
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July 7, 2019 at 9:03 AM
Thanks, Lynda. The next post will have the rest of the sharable farmhouse photos from our June visit, and then we go back in about a week, when I’ll gather more.
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July 11, 2019 at 10:30 AM
Excellent use of light and shadow, Linda. And you’ve achieved a good balance of indoor/outdoor exposure. Those are among my favorites in this group but I also like the sun/shadow on the floor shots.
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July 7, 2019 at 9:23 AM
Thanks, Ken. I don’t know if I could get that balance without Lightroom. What a great application that is, though I still disagree with the subscription policy. I’m still using standalone Lightroom 6. . . . Sun and shadow on floors and walls are some of my favorite things.
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July 11, 2019 at 10:33 AM
I went from LR 3 to the subscription service since I was unable to upgrade after the service became available. I don’t like subscription software but I will say that there has been a steady and constant improvement in LR as well as PS. It runs well on my old PC but I can see the day in the not-too-distant future where I will need to upgrade the PC as well as the 12-year-old monitor.
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July 11, 2019 at 2:43 PM
And I suppose I can foresee the day when I’ll have to succumb to the subscription. Ah well.
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July 11, 2019 at 2:52 PM
Beautiful! You have such a great eye for composition. And while there are objects and furniture in the pictures, they definitely tell a story about light.
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July 7, 2019 at 10:10 AM
Thank you, Clare. I try to compose in the viewfinder so that I don’t have to crop the photo after download, but sometimes I don’t get the good idea until later. . . . I do love light; maybe living in usually gloomy northern Ohio makes me appreciate the light I see all the more.
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July 11, 2019 at 10:38 AM
A still life is a portrait of a thing rather than a person. My definition. In that sense, these are beautiful portraits. I share your fascination with patterns of light.
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July 7, 2019 at 10:57 AM
I love your idea about portraits as applied to these photographs. I consider some of my photos of rocks or trees as portraits, but maybe, as you say, these qualify, too. Thank you, Michael.
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July 11, 2019 at 10:41 AM
I think they do.
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July 11, 2019 at 11:35 AM
Love the touches of old farmhouse details and light… it’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?
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July 7, 2019 at 11:13 PM
It is for me, Gunta, and must be for you. I’m so pleased that you like these.
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July 11, 2019 at 10:42 AM
Lovely reflections of light, Linda! I, too, have been fascinated by how light alters things for as long as I can remember. I tell people that I’m a “light freak,” that I don’t do well physically or emotionally unless I have a large dose of light each day.
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July 8, 2019 at 12:54 AM
Light makes a big difference to me, too, Hannah—and not just for photography. Glad you like these.
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July 11, 2019 at 10:44 AM
🙂
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July 11, 2019 at 8:38 PM
Absolutely beautiful set of images, Linda, I like them all. If I had to pick one, it might #3 – the texture of the carpet, the light on the wheeled table leg. Absolutely wonderful and well observed stuff! A 🙂
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July 8, 2019 at 4:10 AM
Thank you, Adrian. The third photograph is one that I had to crop after download—in fact, after I thought it was ready to go. Before posting, a little voice said, “Simplify,” so I cropped out some unneeded stuff at the top of the frame. Love those little voices.
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July 11, 2019 at 10:47 AM
Yes, love those little voices – and value them highly 🙂
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July 11, 2019 at 11:02 AM
Oooo, Linda, so many delicious scenes here! I am with Adrian, except I’d pick 4 for its sentimental value to me – I have always been so excited by that kind of phenomenon, and one rarely sees it photographed. I love the two chair pictures, each one, and together. They are so carefully seen and conveyed. #5 is somehow particularly evocative for me. The windows in #8 and #9 are so cheerful, but they retain the same stillness that the whole suite has, a peacefulness you always find in this place, and bring to us. Thank you for that. I can see your pleasure here, and that is a really good thing. By the way, your text is a delight too, especially the last bit that describes the rhythm of the stay – sounds great!
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July 10, 2019 at 9:54 PM
Thank you (as always) for your close reading of the post, Lynn. Number 4 was another photograph that I cropped after downloading to simplify. But looking at it online again just now, I saw that there was some interference in the far left of the frame, so I just cropped it some more. Sometimes, because of the aspect ratio of the viewfinder and sensor, you have to include stuff you know you don’t want, but sometimes you only realize you don’t want it—or haven’t noticed it—until later. At least that’s true for me. The chairs in this house are some of the things I love best. Thank you for saying you connected to #5. I almost didn’t include that one because I was afraid it was too busy. But, as with the others, I was drawn to the combination of light, shadow, and chair. I don’t move the furniture or other things I photograph in the farmhouse, just the way I (almost always) don’t move twigs, rocks, or leaves when I photograph nature. In the case of #5 I can imagine someone sitting on that chair with their feet on the window seat, gazing into the yard or reading. Otherwise, the chair is too close to the wainscotting to be comfortable. I’m glad you can see my pleasure at the farmhouse and touched that you take delight in the text. Unlike you, I think, I struggle with the words for my posts and am always not delighted myself.
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July 11, 2019 at 11:47 AM
I often crop photos later, and chide myself for not having gotten closer at the time, but oh well. I never remember that the aspect ratio can be changed in camera, one of the many settings that I don’t touch. But even if we switch that, we still may want to trim a little to simplify and balance the composition later, and that shows the eye is thinking, right? 😉 I can tell you don’t move the furniture, but at this point I don’t know if it’s because I know you, or because one can actually sense that from the photos – I like to think it’s the latter. There is the reverence for things as they are that we’ve talked about. (But I admit I will remove a twig if it strongly detracts from a photo of a flower, for example). For some reason I can’t identify, #5 really gets abstract – the picture plane is easily read as flat in that photo. The chair seat, the paint, the door trim, the light – all have equal weight so it becomes geometry. At the same time, there’s the story one imagines, like you said, of sitting there and looking out the window on a sunny, peaceful day. I like the inclusion of the bit of chair in the lower right, too.
Re the text, it comes across as very smooth, no signs of the struggle taking place in the editor’s critical brain! Personally I go back and forth when I write, sometimes feeling pleased with a turn of phrase, other times hunting in the thesaurus and rewriting over and over again. Like anything, I think it gets better as we do it more, but there are periods of time where writing flows easier, and periods of time where it’s a big struggle: the natural ebb and flow of life and creativity.
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July 11, 2019 at 1:13 PM
I don’t change the aspect ratio either, mostly because it suits me most of the time. I like your idea that later cropping indicates a thinking eye. . . . About the chair and other things: Yes, “a reverence for things as they are”! Thanks for describing how #5 reaches you. I see what you mean. It’s an unusual camera angle, now that I think about it. . . . You write so much more than I do—but not too much. I admire what you’re able to do in that realm.
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July 11, 2019 at 9:08 PM
The angle – I was thinking about that! 🙂 Stairs? Anyway, I love that one, and the whole series. 🙂
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July 11, 2019 at 9:39 PM
Not stairs. I was just looking down, standing fairly close to the chair, with the zoom set to 35 mm. So, a bit wide angle. Maybe that’s what did it.
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July 12, 2019 at 9:03 AM