For over a year, I’ve had a subject on my mind to photograph. I’ve seen it at different times of day in different lighting, in different seasons in different weather. My favorite time of day for the old barn on what used to be part of the Hale Ranch has always late evening as the sun was setting. The warm light hitting the lofts and doors of the dilapidated structure with the contrasts in the lines in the rusted corrugated tin mimic the lines of age of an old familiar weathered face who’s purpose may have been forgotten, but not its presence. But to get to it and capture it in a meaningful way requires a decent hike through tall prairie grass or an even longer hike around the park grounds of Brazos Bend State Park and I’ve always been too tired or too hot to make it out to the barn on the way home. Besides, it wasn’t going anywhere.

The theme for the Houston Photographic Society’s special assignment for June was “Abandoned, Deserted, or Left Behind” so on a late afternoon, with lines of white puffy clouds in the sky, I made the trek to get set up to wait for the light. I was confident I had some great images. When I got home and began to work on processing them them, there was one I really liked. It wasn’t my original intent to show the image in black and white, it was always the warmth of the light that attracted me, but I hadn’t counted on the red prairie grasses figuring so strongly in the image. Applying a red filter, I was pleased with the overall tones of the image and the impact on the sky and clouds. I went on to burn some problem areas and increased the contrast to enhance the lines in the tin facing. I sharpened for print and was as sure as I had been of any of my images that I had captured the mood and story of my subject.

But confidence doesn’t always result in success in competitions. Sometimes it’s a matter of the tastes and styles of the the judges. Sometimes it’s the number and quality of the competing entries. In HPS’s June Print Competition it was both. The theme for the HPS special assignment assignment category is open to all skill levels in the membership and there were a larger than usual number of really great entries. My entry didn’t place this month.

The judge recognized and commented favorably on all the technical details I paid so much attention to, but in the end I spent so much time on the details, I overlooked some global compositional considerations. The judge felt the drama of the clouds distracted too much from the main subject, the barn. I don’t think the composition would convey my intent in the way I wanted had I made the changes the judge recommended, but I do recognize the points he was speaking to. I did try some of the framing suggestions in Lightroom, but while compositionally correct, it didn’t convey to me what I saw. When I go out in the future to photograph the barn again, I will try out some of the other suggestions to see how I like the results.

My entry in the Color category at the Bronze level took second place. It’s rare to catch one of these Lotus flowers about to bloom before the heat and wind beat them back. The strong back lighting from the late evening sunset really made it shine like a jewel against the darker blue water.

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