Photograph info: This photo was taken last week. Baling hay may be more complicated than you think - so there'll be a quiz after this!

The first cutting usually takes place in late May or early June during a stretch of dry weather but due to excessive rain this year local farmers were forced to wait until July.

First a big mower is attached to the tractor and the hay is cut. The mower is then replaced by a machine called a "tedder" which goes back over the cut hay and fluffs it up so it can dry better. A few days later a "hay rake" forms the dry hay into "windrows" (very long rows). Finally the baler (seen in the photo) and a hay wagon (just outside the photo) are attached to the tractor; this combo is driven over the windrows where the baler sucks up the hay, compresses it into bales, wraps the bales with wire (or twine) and shoots them into the hay wagon.

In this photo, Jakey is driving the tractor but keeping an eye on the baler to make sure it's working correctly; he's also making sure the launched bales (you can see one in mid-air) land inside the wagon. (Occasionally they miss!)

I was running alongside the hay wagon with my young assistant who was telling me when a bale was about to launch so I could get the timing right with the camera. Took awhile but it was a great workout! (Actually I think writing this description took longer than the photo.)

Now Jakey can chime in and tell me all the things I got wrong here ...

If you have a large monitor I highly recommend the humongo version - it'll take a little time to load. :)

Camera settings and post-processing: Shot with the Canon EOS 5D Mark II and the Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L lens with circular polarizing filter at 17mm, ISO 200, f/4, 1/640s. Curves adjustments. Deep blue sky is the result of using the circular polarizing filter.

Thank you for visiting Durham Township!

-- Kathleen

p.s. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JPH!

K -- gorgeous!

Question -- why the polarizer -- for the sky?

-=-Joe

Joe: I was chasing the tractor both into the sun and with the sun behind me -- so the polarizer was on for the shots fired into the sun. I just wasn't coordinated enough to remove it when I changed directions!

What a great summer photo! Love the way the clouds lead your eye--from Jakey to the flying hay bale. Really fun. I can hear & see you running alongside with your "young assistant" yelling as you clicked away. Just wish I could smell all that cut hay too.

I have to tell you that the deep blue sky and the vignetting is more to do with the wide angle and little to do with the polarising filter (particularly if you were also using a lens hood)!

Ed: Would have to disagree based on my experimentation w/this lens and filter combo over the years.

I wasn't using a lens hood -- the hood for this particular lens is shallow and seems almost pointless for this type of work.

I deliberately rotated the circular polarizer to deepen the sky - rotating it the other way around results in a much paler sky and a more deeply-colored field.

Kathleen - thank you for another wonderful photo and for the baling lesson! I hope you didn't put yourself in any danger for our benefit?

JPH: It will take some doing to come up with a poem on haybalin' after the birthday bash. Does Heinz make it 57 ?

I remember running a baler when I was younger. My cousins and I would bale for their dairy farm in Washington. Beautiful shot. Lot's of energy between the colors and the captured motion. Nice work and I am sure work-out chasing that around for the shot.

Very nice shot; I particularly like the scattering of the straw as it comes out of the baler.. If anyone was driving by the field as you were photographing, it must have been comical to see you running next to the wagon snapping away.
Thank you for the terminology. I've watched this for years, but never knew the terms. Now I can sound like I know what I'm talking about :-)

Down on the farm Jakey is now making hay,
Sunshine and dry weather necessary this day.
Skillfully he commands tractor, baler and wagon Consuming the windrow, with appetite not laggin'.
Kathleen and assistant following along as it went
Catching the right moment to chronicle the event.

Bingo, Victoria!

It sounds like you have everything about right. Just one thing you forgot. "My Assisstant"!!! If you blow the picture up to a bigger size you can see a brown spot on the tractor deck to the left of the seat. That is my dog Amber, as seen in "Jakey and Amber", posted on May 15th 2008. If you look closely you can see her head sticking out between the left tire and the fender.

As for Gator... You are welcome to come and smell the hay whenever you want, stranger.

ahhh I've been missing Jakey, your blue skies, and some good ol' farm learnin'.. thanks for the great shot and info

If farms operate like ranches, I can conclude the newest farmhand is assigned the task of standing on the trailer to catch and stack the bales.

So many elements working together perfectly here, as is often the case!(Dear Tec Dept., I just assumed the vignette effect was the result of your shooting through a tinted windshield to avoid UFO contact, but the polarizer thing could make sense too I suppose.)

Whoa!
Today, I stacked 200 bales by hand from my field!

That's a really cool baler. The ones we use just drop the bales onto the grass, and then a stackwagon picks them up. This is much better for pictures, though :)

Unbelievable colors! I love the wide angle!

I like the very strong colors and the summer feeling.

Brilliant capture - so perfectly vibrant!

Ah, what a great picture, this brings back memories. During two summers while I was in college I worked at a horseback-riding camp/farm. A couple times each summer I got to take my turn on hay duty: catching bales off the baler, passing them back, and stacking them in the wagon, then of course, unloading into the barn. I can still hear the farm owner's wife in my head now, she was worried those bales were too heavy for us girls, she'd always tell the boys to set the baler to make small bales. I liked to catch the bales off the baler, but stacking was easier. The bales from the August cutting were dryer and lighter anyway. Thanks for prompting this bit of memory of my youth. If I close my eyes I can smell the sweetness and feel the scratchiness of a long day's work.

I completely agree with Betsy Barron's comment

Another stunning image in your collection! Love the rich colours!

I was just thinking about when Jakey would make his appearance...it has been a while. It is good to see him!

This is fantastic. What a great and artistic documentary photo. Perfectly timed. You obviously have a very capable assistant.

I have experienced the same deepening of the sky when using a circular polarizer with most if not all my lenses. It is particularly noticeable when I use my fisheye lens which has a "polarized" coating on the lens itself, which is clearly visible, since using a filter on that lens is not possible. If I look at the lens you can see the dark coating very clearly. That lens makes the most amazing blues.

I totaly love the colors of this one!
:D

amazing capture! very nice colors!

wow! its gone airborne!

I love the dynamics :-)

un momento muy bien captado, me encanta!!