Ohio Farm in the Early Morning Hours
Richard Yost – Photographer / John Fraim – Editor
Peace Piece / Bill Evans
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I received two photos from my friend Rich taken in the Ohio countryside on January 5th of 2024. Rich took the photos with his new iPhone 15 in the early morning near Mechanicsburg, Ohio on his drive to Dayton on business. The early morning hours are what photographers call the “magic hours” between night turning to day. The two photos had an immediate power to me and I decided to process them in Photomatix Pro 6 software used to create High Dynamic Range photos.
I turned the color photos into black and white ones as I felt B&W best expressed what I saw in the images. I brought out the drama offered by B&W by sharpening the photo and putting a small amount of color into them with the saturation adjustment in the software. I sharpened and brought the color saturation up in both of Rich’s photos.
Ohio Farmland in the Early Morning Hours
Richard Yost – Photographer / John Fraim – Editor
As many of my friends know, I’ve had a long-term interest in symbols and symbolism and written and published on it extensively. For me, the two photos represent symbols. And, symbols coming at the beginning of 2024 which looks to be an important year for America.
The photos are taken in photography’s “magic hours” of light between darkness and light. Yet the photos also seem to be in a magic place between color and black and white. Rich’s new iPhone 15 captures greater detail range of pixels in images than his previous iPhone 8. The greater number of allows my editing software much more to work with.
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There’s that saying (attributed I believe to Mike Tyson) “everyone has a plan until they get smacked in the face.” I think it’s somewhat like this with the symbols and images appearing in one’s life. In this sense, one might say that everyone lives a planned out life until some powerful new symbol “smacks” them in the face and they see life in a new way.
It is always like this with images for me. Rarely do I find an image I go searching for. Rather, it finds me rather than me finding it. Arriving – unannounced – on my doorstep at any time. Like the two photos from Rich at the beginning of 2024. They were, first of all, shot in the gorgeous colors of the early morning magic hour of Ohio in January. The basic color or black and white reproduction of a photo allowed for creating a new type of photo for me. I applied this technique to Rich’s photos. But I had photos in the gorgeous colors of the new iPhone 15. And they were framed beautifully and needed little work. Rich was moving from good to great.
Always interested in what my great friend Rich sends me from his travels. Always off the grid of the average off the grid person. He continues to take photos on all his travels like he talks about in his email (below) to the two above photos.
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Of course I continue to follow the growing photography of Rich. Will continues to explore the above form of editing the photos in Photomatix Pro 6. Great software and been using it for very long time. From the first, since the early days of High DynamicRange (HDR) photography and film.
Interesting mixture of two artists working together to create a work of art. Here, my friend Rich is the Photographer or the creator of an image or symbol put forward. I am the editor who take the images he send into Photomatix Pro 6. The “symbolic and dramatic carwash” as I often kid with Rich. The images come out looking like the above.
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Photographer’s Notes Behind the Two Photos
Richard Yost
Friday morning January 5th traveling from home on Dublin Road just north of Home Road from wonderful Rathbone, Ohio heading towards Dayton, Ohio. My appointment was 9:00AM. But I like to get to my locations early and also try to avoid traffic as best as possible. Indeed it was dark when I left Rathbone. I traveled Route 42 and then right on Route 161 in Plain City. Finally making my way onto Route 4 heading towards Mechanicsburg, Ohio. The morning was transforming itself beautifully today. I always enjoy the proverbial crack of dawn time and the images it presents.
In photography the hour before dawn is known as the blue hour. The blue hour is the period of these mornings around the nautical stage when the sun is at a significant depth below the horizon. The earth’s atmosphere solely receives and disperses the sun’s shorter blue wavelengths and scatters the longer, reddish wavelengths. When the sky is clear, the blue hour can be a colourful spectacle, with the indirect sunlight tinting the sky yellow, orange, red, and blue.
So, traveling along Route 4 heading from Northeast to Southwest the darkened sky began to become painted with a wonderful mix of reds and oranges interspersed in a backdrop of mostly blue with a smattering of grey. Being a shutterbug of enthusiast proportions I began taking photos while driving (I know…. Please do not try this at home… or wherever your travels take you). And while I knew there were some good photos being accrued I kept passing this object or that scene in my homunculus viewing and recanting to my self, I would say Self… stop and get a good shot now. Finally my homunculi prevailed and I had to stop. Well actually I had to turn around and head back to a place I had noticed and thought to the Self… that would be a great photo. I noticed just ahead a drive where I could pull into to turn around and head back to this magical place I had passed just moments before. And as fate has it… as they say, I pulled into a farm replete with two concrete grain silo’s, and a metal silo along with a couple of barns. On a light post a light was on just in front of, and the light itself appearing centered over the metal silo. A tree to the right and electrical wires running in differing directions. I thought to get out of the car and position myself to take a good shot. But with my eyes viewing I saw the picture locked in my head and I decided to roll the window down and sit right where I was to take this sight I was experiencing. Done.
I backed up and went back to the sight I thought would make a good photo. After traveling past my eventual stopping point I turned around and went back to the sight I originally wanted to take the photo of. I stopped right in the middle of the road as no traffic was visible in either direction. Again from the car I rolled the window down and took the photo being careful not to get any of the road in the viewing area. I wanted the fence at the edge of the road and the pond with the trees reflected in the water with the sky’s orange and red striations mixed in the blue and gray overhead. Towering above the pond is a larger tree and then another larger tree off to the right. Up high in the sky was a remaining star still lit for good measure.
My friend John then used his prowess for photo enhancements to give both photos a new life and story. The farm being reminiscent of a 1920’s or 1930’s image. America long ago and distant in a time that may be simpler and maybe even better if indeed a harder life to live. And the pond scene has breathed a newer more detailed life the was not available in its color version. The pond is more visible along with the reflected trees. Importantly the roadside fence jumps out and the ground details topography of rocks or shale in the lower left corner that again was not present before.
Both photos begging to a more serene time in the mind and the want to capture as best as I could the feelings I felt as I passed and could not keep going.