Picture a Day: Day 1

So in an effort to become a better photographer I’ve learned that, just as anything in life, you have to practice. Marriage, kids, career and my other hobbies make finding time hard but luckily photography can take up those little bits of time in my day spent on less productive things. Case in point, I took this picture, the first in my “Picture a Day” series during a drive in the Iowa country side. Iowa is known for it’s barns and old abandoned buildings and you can’t drive on a gravel road in Iowa without seeing one. I took a number of pictures of the thing experimenting with the ISO levels and exposure. I was also using a polarized filter for the first time. For this picture I had to get out of my truck because there was pesky power line in my way. I enjoy the horizontal lines of both the corn rows and the planks on the building and how the tree even seems to have a horizontal feel to it. I think if I was any good at post-processing I would bring out the contrast in the dead, brown part of the tree with the deeper green of the part still living. I would have also tried moving 90 degrees to catch more of the scenic country side. I think I may have been able to take a picture with a valley in the background. Shame I didn’t think of it until now.

Canon XTi, 120mm, f/9, iso 400,