Bicycle and Haybale (Constructive Criticism Please)

[Farmclicker]

I normally do not do Black and White Photos, but for some reason this one just seemed to beg for it. I have a color rendition too, but I thought it looked drabby in color, but for some reason, black and white seemed to make the photo a little more interesting. The fine digital photo shop masters on here can be the judge however.

The photo is of a bike I found in my Grandmother's old sheep shed, while the basket came from her old garage. The flowers contained in the basket were cut that morning from flowers on her yard and the hale bales...though I am a farmer, the hay bales are not mine. We only do silage on this farm, and so the hay bales came from my neighbors farm early one morning last week.

Thanks for any and all feed back.

[/URL] Bike and Haybale BW by tsj5874[/IMG]

 

[Derrel]

I do not really "get" the pairing of the old-looking bicycle with the new,modern, round hay bale...to me these new round bales are...super-modern....the first advance in hay-handling since the tedder made it to North America, and before that the "bale wagon"...I dunno...I suppose if the intent is to pair the OLD (the bike) with the "new" (giant, massive round bales) then the shot has some merit. As far as the B&W conversion...well..it has a LOT of gray tones in it. I think maybe one of the B&W creative filters, likie the green filter, or red filter, and some contrast tweaks might have given it a bit more differentiation among the strong, predominating gray tonal values. To me it needs a bit more of what is called local contrast. Compositionally, the bike and the bale both seem just a wee bit constrained within the edges of the frame...maybe a bit more of a relaxed framing would help???

 

[Parker219]

To me, black and white pictures of "old" things look cool, but they are much better when it looks natural. This looks very set up and staged, so it takes away from the photo. This, plus what Derrel said. ^

 

[unpopular]

BLECH!

ok. that wasn't very constructive.

For me this image is a kind of faux old-timey photograph. I am left kind of wondering what the point is. It's not about anything genuine or real, rather a romanticized "simpler time". It's an appeal to tradition, a pictorial fallacy that has no bearing in the world we live. The b/w kind of exaggerates this.

For what it's worth, the color version is better.

Curious. What part of the state is this?

 

[FanBoy]

For me this image is a kind of faux old-timey photograph. I am left kind of wondering what the point is. It's not about anything genuine or real, rather a romanticized "simpler time". It's an appeal to tradition, a pictorial fallacy that has no bearing in the world we live. The b/w kind of exaggerates this.

Well put. This is always what I thought about some B&W photographs; I always thought it was "just me."

 

[Farmclicker]

Thanks guys, all were well said and completely understood and this is why I asked for CC on this, I want to get better.

If I may, and I am not sure how to put this so I do not sound like a newbie fighting back, because I do not mean it in that content at all, because THIS WAS A STAGED PHOTO, but in my town, you actually see big round bales and old bicycles a lot because of the huge Amish Colony here. They pay use regular farmers to put up their hay for them and seldom use horses for farming much...a far cry from what I thought they would be when they moved here. BUT, if people look at this photo who are not from here and do not know that, then well they get the same idea as you...these things just do not belong!

As for the Amish, they are weird neighbors to have for sure, but I suppose considering the alternatives of say gun toting, drug dealing, gang prone neighbors that some people might have, well the Amish neighbors of mine aren't all that bad really. Sure I have to dodge horse poo in the road everyday, and there is the occasional blinking red bicycle light after dark that you suddenly have to swerve for so you don't end up with an Amish woman as a white hood ordainment on your car, and of course the severe threats given to my three daughters about crossing over the rock wall and having the possibility of festooning a horse drawn carriage with "Just Married" paraphernalia on it while her Amish husband totes her away...besides those almost unbearable things, they aren't too bad to have for neighbors.

(As a side note, it was actually funny when they first came here as they learned pretty quickly about us, the farmers that have been here for a few generations (for me, I am a 10th generational farmer here, this farm being in existence since 1746). Anyway, as I said, the Amish borrow a lot of tractors from us traditional farmers and one October when it was really warm for Maine Standards, they were out haying. Well the tractor they borrowed had a problem with the transmission and something broke. The Amish driver went down over the hill, crashed through a rock wall, went out into a swamp and then hit a tree, literally snapping the tractor in half.

So as the Amish do when they feel they might be threatened, they gather in a group, went and got on their Sunday best and went and saw the farmer. Standing on his stoop they swore, "as we speak, we are getting teams of horses together and going to get your tractor out of the swamp and just as soon as we get the parts, will get your tractor fixed."

The Old Maine farmer looked at them with an inquisitive grin. "Now boys, that tractor isn't going anywhere, what you need to do is borrow my other tractor and finish up your haying. We can fix that tractor this winter."

The Amish were shocked that he would simply let them use his other tractors and later said they moved to the right area. Such as it is here. We all get along, and just like in the photography world, if you can help out a struggling neighbor, you really should because you never know when you might need a little help. So thanks for the help on making my photos better.

 

[Derrel]

Good post Farmclicker! I had no idea the Amish would ever borrow mechanized equipment from "the English". I still find those huge, round bales to be the absolute antithesis of traditional haying...I never saw a round bale like that until I was in my 30's. Great story about the Amish and the tractor!

 

[timor]

..I never saw a round bale like that until I was in my 30's.

That because this technology appeared some 40 years ago only and was not for gathering the hay but stroh. It became popular as equipment like tractor mounted forklifts became stronger. Nowadays it is the fastest and least laborious (single man only ) system.

 

[LaFoto]

"Talking subject" or not, and maybe a juxtaposition of old bike and modern style straw bale - I feel this b&w conversion still is a tad "muddy" and could actually do with some more clear whites. I feel a lack of those. It goes up to a light grey, but no whites. Or am I all wrong and true whites wouldn't have shown in old, manually copied, black and white prints? (Depends on the paper used, too, if I remember right, though my memories of being in a darkroom have become quite hazy).

 

[Farmclicker]

Could it be that I took this photo too early in the morning? The sun barely got up when I took this photo?

 

[LaFoto]

That could well be, though for me it is in the conversion: I am sure you could have make this turn out differently when you converted it. I don't know if you converted by going to "desaturate" only?

 

[amolitor]

I am so pleased with this thread! The commentary all focuses on the important stuff, like, does it work?

All that's left for me is the unimportant technical junk This is the kind of image is super at-risk for looking oversharpened, so be careful there. The shadow under the bale seems gone, and I think it would be a small improvement to push a hair if detail/texture in there. I love the contract of textures, the bike against the hay, and the composition feels balanced.

That said, I agree with what the other posters have said about the content and ideas. This looks like a postcard, with all the good and the bad that implies.