PHOTOGRAPH INFO

This photo was taken on Monday near Mongo, Indiana, on my drive back from Chicago. The horse got a big Granny Smith apple for modeling. :)

Post-processing: Shot with the Canon EOS 5D and the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L lens at 24mm, ISO 100, shutter speed 1/500s, aperture f/2.8. Curves for contrast & saturation, color balancing for tone.

I'm pleased to announce that A Walk Through Durham Township won Best American Photoblog in the 2007 Photobloggies Awards presented in Chicago this past weekend. Congratulations to all the nominees and winners this year; I'm humbled to be in your company.

Thank you for visiting Durham Township!

--Kathleen

yeah, but did he/she sign a modeling release?

congrats on your award.

and thanx for always posting your shooting info. i find it difficult to make things be in "focus" with this stupid digital camera. is the hi shutter speed the trick?

Looks like you've captured both the house and horse being "put out to pasture".

This is wonderful! I really like the old house in the background along with the red buildings in the distance. This is just such a perfect scene.

I am really wishing I had been able to go! I've seen some really wonderful photos of the event and the road trip and I see I've missed a lot of great stuff.

Ok...you know I've NEVER critiqued one of your images. In this case, however, I feel the need to chime in. :)

The color palette you created with the horse, house and dirt is wonderful. The light, as usual, is great too. However, compositionally you've positioned yourself in a way that doesn't fully exploit the depth of this great scene, and you've cut off the horse's legs. What I think I'd rather see is a portrait orientation shot from a slightly lower angle and slightly to the left. This way you can include the legs to anchor the animal in the scene, and also capture more of a 3/4 angle on the horse to give it depth and lead the viewer into the scene and up the steps of that lovely, decrepit old house.

Hope you're enjoying your tour of the States. :)

I've been coming here for, I don't know, almost 3 years and I think this is my favorite shot so far.

Okay, so how did you get the horse to pose for you like that? Charmed him, I'm sure. :) Very nice.

CONGRATULATIONS on the award!!!

Excellent shot ... Love the colors, tones and of course the composition ...

It was a pleasure meeting you Kathleen, your photos have been an inspiration to many ... It was nice to meet the person behind the awesome photoblog named "Durham Township"!

Great composition. I love the colors and the camera shy horse.

Congratulations on your win--well-deserved! Mongo! I love the name of this town. Seems to fit the house: "This house is going mongo!"

Nice warm colors, and great detail on the horse.

I understand what Alec is saying, but because the feel of this is like an old timey snapshot, I think it works with the horse's legs cut off! IMHO.

That house sure has seen better days. Lovely light here.

nice light in the horse ... brings out that nice shiny coat!

No wonder you didn't get back home until 3 am! ;-) I have to admit that it ain't a road trip if you can't stop and shoot every once and a while!

And I really have to go with Ruth. The horse's legs being cut off doesn't compromise the composition of this shot one bit. And the colors are absolutely lovely.

This is one of those "find the funny things in this picture" picture.

1. The "relatively" ugly red boxes on the left compared to the delicious "Mellow Yellow Banana Mansion" in the mid ground.

2. Kathleen's decision to crop the gable ridge point tangent to the edge of the image,(bravo!)

3. The way the corner of the white cubical thinger on the porch is similarly tangent to the horse's head. (a pattern here?)

4. Square black thinger on horse's nose. Wa-zat?

5. Architectural disparity between the well seasoned plank siding (some global warming in evidence) and the wafer-board room addition on the extreme right.

As for the horse being cut off at the knees, consider the positional relevance of the elements (not all 105 or whatever, just those key to this image) and imagine the top-heavy weighted effect that would be created by adding enough foreground to include the horse's feet thereby shoving the Mellow Yellow Banana Mansion into an awkward upper third of the frame and turning this into a horse portrait with the MYBM playing second fiddle. Not good. Not that the horse does not have good feet, I'm sure they are nice horse feet, but not required for this story (although they do play a supporting role.)(sorry)

How anybody can set out to drive from Chicago to Bucks County and swerve into a picture like this beyond me......I've driven similar distances many times and have yet to end up with a picture that is even remotely comparable....but then KC isn't just anybody.

Thank the Mellow Yellow Banana Mansion Preservation Society, the Mellow Yellow Banana Mansion Pony (who is copper and not yellow--explain that Kathleen!), and the best Mellow American Photoblogist!

Wooo boy, some great dialog going here. I love it! Ok, I don't usually do this because I like everyone to come up with their own interpretations of the photos, like people do with songs, but I'll chime in on this one.

On the trip back from Chicago, I got off the main highway, I-80, just to take pictures. Justin Gaynor rode with me on our long journey to and from Chicago, bless him. Anyway, with Justin as my witness, I slammed on the brakes when I saw this scene, threw the car into reverse and parked on the opposite shoulder.

Why, why? To me the house and the horse were one and the same. Forgotten, sad, abandoned. Once alive and powerful, now left alone with no one caring for them. I was fascinated by what was going on behind the horse and the house, too. Two bright red, cheery, well-maintained buildings, thick green grass around them, fenced off so the horse couldn't get at the grass.

So I framed the photo by cutting off the horse's legs (arguably his most important asset) because the horse may as well have no legs. He's stuck there. He's a prisoner and the once-beautiful house is a prisoner, too. But, of course, there is the glimmer of hope that someone could restore both. The glimmer is right at the base of the horse's left ear.

I hope the apple cheered him up a little. He took it so gently.

charley: Not sure which kind of stupid digital camera you have, but generally speaking, the faster your shutter the less blur you'll have. Unfortunately, the less light you'll have too, so it's a delicate balance. :)

otto k: He was just a natural model. I wanted to spring him from that place and take him home, believe me.

Alec: Thanks for getting this discussion going. Now get back to your second honeymoon and off the computer! ;)

David Tinnon: I have no idea what that black square is! Haha... it was something on the ground behind Mr. Horse and I'm not much of a 'cloner' so I left it. (You kill me.)

Rats, your photos are better than mine, your stories about your photos are better than mine!
So chime in anytime young lady, I find your spontanious situational processing to be every bit as fascinating as their digital results, (and equally enlightening).....and please promise you won't take up painting landscapes through reflex viewfinders, or car windshields......really.

Not sure which kind of stupid digital camera you have, but generally speaking, the faster your shutter the less blur you'll have.

thanx for the response Kathleen. it's a 30D. and naturally what you say is true. with film i could handhold easily at a 30th. not so much with digital. i complain too much.

I'm not sure why, but I've fallen in love with this photo. Perhaps because it encompasses 3 things I love...horses, an old home and red.

How funny! I saw this same subject, from this very out-of-the-way location, on another blog at: http://www.fourteenplacestoeat.com/archive/000710.html#000710 -- from May 2006. I've been to Mongo several times and it's a very quaint, quiet place where you can come to relax and enjoy the river and nature. The horse must enjoy it there very much.

Wow. That's so strange. Kay from Fourteen Place to Eat had this exact same location on her blog. Even stranger since you both just attended the Chicago Photobloggers meeting a few days earlier.

So how was it that you "found" this very very remote - out of the way location again?

Jackie and Tim: Thanks for letting me know about Kay's photo! I am a HUGE fan of Kay's work, have been for a couple of years, and was privileged to get a HUG from her in Chicago at the NAP meetup. What an honor! I got to meet one of my idols. Sadly we didn't have time to talk much due to a busy agenda but I plan on driving out to see her this summer.

I'm sure I saw Kay's photo of the same place last year. I guess my memory for that kind of detail isn't so good because I didn't realize I was in the very same spot on my drive back from Chicago.

Talk about a crazy coincidence! I found this by getting off the main highway and driving around on some back roads. I live for driving around on unknown back roads! That's why I drove 28 hours round trip to Chicago! :)

Simply beautiful shot, Kathleen. The horse's coat just glows!

Kathleen, today is my first time to visit your site and I am blown away. PLEASE tell me if you are on any sort of online group for photography or post-processing, that I could join? I live in Delaware on the Pennsylvania border, and I have Canon's 30D with many of the same lenses you use. My work isn't 1/100th as good as yours, though. Help? Thanks!