At dinner with Jacob, I enjoyed the local photos on display at the wonderful Love Lane Kitchen, on the wall just behind where we are seated. I mentioned this to our server and she said “Well, tell the photographer, she’s seated right behind you!” So I did. I told her I particularly admired her sunflower photos. But I also liked the barn she shot with an American flag painted on its side.
The next day, Jacob and I happened to drive past the very same barn which was featured in her photos. I decided I’d head back one night to try to create a similar photo. It turned out to be hard to get the photo you see above, because it doesn’t get light from the sunset. Indeed, at sunset it looks like a silhouette.
Initially I gave up and drove away. Instead, I found this other barn, just a bit down the road. The light was brighter on this one, so I snapped its picture.
Then I decided to check out the Mattituck Inlet, about a 5 minute drive away, and just a short stroll from Love Lane (the main street of Mattituck), where Jacob and I had our delicious dinner. I snapped this photo as the sun went below the trees at the horizon.
Nearby, two young girls were jumping off a fishing boat and swimming in the salt lagoon. Just beyond the girls, an older couple was drinking wine on their boat and watching the sunset. All around me, snappers were jumping out of the water to eat their final meal of the day. I hoped they were eating lots of the gnats that were attacking me.
Although the sunset was not yet over at the Inlet, the gnats were annoying, so reluctantly, I left. Next stop was the historic Hallockville Museum Farm, for this windmill.
I wondered if I’d have time to make back to the inspirational barn, which was about 5-10 minutes away. I decided it was worth a try, especially since I noticed an odd phenomena. The sunset had already peaked on the horizon, but it was still getting better directly overhead. Indeed, when I arrived, the sunset was terrific right behind the barn. But I still would have to solve the silhouette problem.
At the time I took the two photos of the barn, above, the sunset was bright, which made the barn look completely black. Yet in the Love Lane Kitchen photos, you could see the white side of the barn and the painted flag. To get this effect, I exposed for the sunset, but then later used Capture One to selectively expose only barn and foreground much brighter. Miraculously, even though the barn originally looked completely black in my photos, the white barn and the flag were still “recoverable” in my RAW files.
Which picture of the barn do you like better? I think the top one is a bit more moody; I think I like it better.
On the way home, I passed a road sign and I liked its title, as well as the flowers and the row of American flags. I turned around and went back to get take its picture. It was getting quite dark and I didn’t have a tripod. So I shot this photo with the camera sitting on the grass.
I decided to try another one with the camera on the hood of the car. I realized the camera could see the lights of the cars on the road and went for a long exposure to blur the headlights and tailights into lines of light.
