Thanks for all the comments and interest guys/gals.
Originally posted by yucatanPentax I was torn for a while, but I've got to say Color for Both. I just feel the color has more impact, particularly the sunset. And using that one for color and the other B&W (which I put up on a larger monitor) just seems discordant (to me - others may disagree).
In my past, I've driven through eastern Colorado many times. Vast open spaces, much of it farmed now by monster machinery that can cover 100s of acres a day, guided by GPS, and operated in air conditioned comfort.
And there, in the emptiness, you'll see a lone abandoned farm house and wonder about the people who pour their hearts, their dreams, their soul into building that house and running that farm.
Look at the house you photographed. Someone really worked on that. It's a fine example of craftsmanship. The dressed stone foundation covered in stucco. How much work was it to square cut each stone, haul it into place, cement it to last? The lath on the interior, carefully covered by now missing plaster -- look at all the time it took to nail each strip of wood, lay the three or four coats of plaster, install the fine windows. A nice front porch to see the sun come up and a back porch for the sunset. It's not a small house either, for a family back then. Bedrooms for kids, mom and dad. Probably empty now for 40-50 years, what happened to those folks and their dreams?
Did the kids live through the harsh winters and the thin years when farming didn't bring much to get by on? Did they make it through school and get drafted? Or did everyone just give up on the farm and move away? Or did mom and dad stick with the farm alone, all those years on the empty prairie, enjoying each other's company until their last days? What happened to the people whose dream was once that house?
A million thoughts like that used to run through my mind on those long, long trips in the car. A few months ago, I shot a couple pics of a stone farmhouse in Kansas. We couldn't hang around until sunset or get inside the house. So, I shot into the sun and got something to look at. But your photos are both art and story. You ought to win.
I like the color. It makes the decay seem in stark contrast to the life around it The blue sky seems to be living, while the house is almost black and white anyway, abandoned, forlorn, falling apart with each wind, each freeze and thaw.
Yucatan, wow, what an amazing comment. I can't tell you what a perfect description that is of how I often feel when entering these places. I will see little reminants of what life once was for the people that lived and died, an think to myself how many different dreams and asperations, hope and laghter, hard times and bountiful harvests, took place behind these walls. It is haunting and beautiful to think of this, to really feel it first hand, and see the orderly creations man gently forces on nature being taken back by the often fractal-like order expressed and ultimately imposed by nature itself.
Honestly you really captured many of my thoughts and truly get why I love shooting this stuff so much.
Originally posted by dcmsox2004 add another 10 shots like these and you'd have a winner of a calendar... (i'd like the 1st copy please )......
Thanks DCMsox, I actually have many more than ten shots of similar subject matter, as I drove through eastern CO, nebraska, south dakota, and wyoming last summer, and even going back the summer before, when I first discovered the true contrasting beauty of these high plains ghosts. I'm actually planning on putting together an gallery showing sometime this summer, and maybe a coffee table book or a calendar wouldn't be a bad idea either.
Seems like most are starting to lean toward the color versions. I could always desaturate them just a bit more, to get a bit of the best of both worlds...