Having Seen Better Days, a photo from Utah, West

Photographer's Note

I found this old truck while driving around looking for photos. I suppose that anywhere there are farms in the world, there is old equipment lying around.

As farmers modernize, one can sense a life-way fading away. We like to think of farmers as close to the land, sensitive to the ways of earth and weather and living things. This may still be the case, but with modern combines and high-tech equipment, it is just a bit harder to believe, perhaps.

In any case, it is fun and nostalgic to come across these relics that represent days in which the family farmer could eek out a living. It has always been difficult, but many farmers are now selling their land here in Cache Valley, Utah to real estate developers who make small units of houses called subdivisions. Indeed, this land did have a "For Sale" sign on it; it's right behind me here as I shoot.

I can understand any such exchange from the points of view of both farmer and developer, but it will be sad to see open space replaced with homes that all look, somewhat, the same.

PP: I really wanted to preserve the feel and textures here, but I also wanted for this photo to be very high contrast. So I experimented with b/w conversion, using things like the watercolor filter in small amounts, as well as the channel mixer, and finally converting it to bitmap to get the grainy, textured look. I kind of enjoy the look, and am in the mind that it captures not only what my camera saw, but what I felt as I took the several dozen photos of this place to find a decent shot.

Modeste, pitai, papagolf21, Fixfocus, singuanti, greg64g, greg, bullybeef53, PJE, RADEEH heeft deze opmerking als nuttig gemarkeerd

Critiques | Translate

fixed (3836) 2005-10-16 14:34

so strange picture David
nice work
well done
Arnaud

tontonjc (6623) 2005-10-16 14:37

Hello,
Un grain spécial .. tout comme le choix du N/B . j'adore cette image.

Bravo

Modeste (638) 2005-10-16 14:39

Excellent post-treatment, the grain fits well, the srong contrast also.
Sharp composition and smart use of the wide angle.

mrcrow (3993) 2005-10-16 14:42

thats what i would have done...although i havent hazarded doing b/w after all those years of colour films and transparancies
you did an admirable job and changed the whole mood from disused to interesting

torben (3100) 2005-10-16 15:01

I agree that even if the postprocessing is a bit away from the normal garden-variety, it can be used to accurately show the mood and feeling experienced at the place where the photo was taken. Photography is not a concise science, often the experience of looking a specific theme is determined by something that is outside the frame or even earlier in the day (or life). Then other means have to be used.
And your photo certainly has a lot of mood and feeling, it looks right and of course it also starts associations to a lot of other photography.
The contrasty and grainy look talks about nostalgia and the harder times those people lived through.
The pattern in the sky looks a bit like moire from reproducing a raster image fom an old book in another book, interesting effect..

pitai (3985) 2005-10-16 15:28

I think is to much post-procesing, but you definitely had manage to get a nice vintage look.

Homerhomer (4080) 2005-10-16 16:15

David, for me personally it doesn't work. The postprocessing is too strong to the point where it's difficult for me to get over it and enjoy the composition, which seems to be quite good.
Peter

jasmis (58653) 2005-10-16 16:48

It could be a good photo, but it is not. Too many experiments killed smart idea. Maybe you will try to repost?

Cormac (26565) 2005-10-16 16:54

Good idea and great processing. The black & white is a good idea with this, and the grainy, high contrast processing works very well with this. Well done!

papagolf21 (152607) 2005-10-16 16:56

Bonsoir David,
Un camion abandonné, des terres qui se transforment en résidence, c'est le monde qui tourne trop vite pour nous (peut-être ?).
J'aime cette prise de vue qui fait bien ressortir l'esprit de votre note.
I like it !
Amitiés.
Philippe

singuanti (15250) 2005-10-16 22:15

Hi David. I never thought of converting a shot to bmp as a post-processing step but that's a great tip. You PP treatment is perfect for this old photo subject. We have very fast development around me eating up beautiful country and it's so sad to see it go. I live in one of the fastest growing counties in the nation (Loudoun, VA) so I really know what you are talking about. Nice one David!

greg64g (11193) 2005-10-17 3:37

Hello David,

very fine job, i always admire your pp, there are always interesting, the high contrast turn the image very well.
Thanks to share your work.
cheers
greg

Fixfocus (9385) 2005-10-17 3:41

Hi David,
Normally I´m not a big friend of heavy pp-work,but in this case I think it works pretty well.It´s sad to hear what happens to the open farm land.
Greetings,
hermann

greg (2835) 2005-10-18 10:11

Hi David, I've just been reading Steinbeck's 'The Grapes of Wrath' - the small farmers pushed off the land by the big companies, and making their way west in makeshift trucks to ever greater hopelessness. You seem to have captured this idea so closely, I wonder if you didn't have the same in mind?

gebala (0) 2005-10-20 11:09

hello, another great foto from you, I like B&W here, I admire this old style, too. Rgs

feather (51130) 2005-10-21 12:24 [Comment]

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bullybeef53 (3365) 2005-10-21 19:40

You designed a very old looking photograph . It works very well .
PS I'm glad to know that someone of your caliber still needs to take several dozen photographs to get it right.
Your excellent compositions require hard work on your part . You are indeed a great photographer .
jim

PJE (20758) 2006-02-01 20:01

I love the effect on this rendition David. The grain adds to the aging look of this ole truck! Good work!

sengir (4956) 2006-02-11 4:16

I like this lost in time atmosphere that you've managed to create with your PS work. Maybe such cars are lying around on the farms all round the World, but somehow I associate such view mainly with USA - maybe because I've seen such pictures few times? AFAIK there are whole abandoned "ghost towns" in US

RADEEH (2802) 2006-02-24 9:01

Great shot.
I too have similar capture in my gallery, yours is far far better.
A great composition to learn from.
Thanks for sharing.