Agriculture Under The Stars
Good Day Everyone!
This week I decided to take a break from The Wildlife Series as I wanted to share about an adventure I am embarking on. I never thought my photographs to be good enough for contests other than on PhotoCrowd or Viewbug which I used in the past. Now, with the love and support from both family and friends, I feel a confidence coming to me to enter one of my first very official photography contests ever. The excitement and anxiety I am filled with is beyond what I can describe so I want to share the story behind the photo I will be sharing today.
Agriculture In The Winter
Where I live here in Alberta, we are known for the vast prairies and the big ongoing sky that changes colours constantly. In the community I am from, we are known to be a farming community with whole bunch of cattle and small farms surrounding this beautiful town of mine. I always had a love for the beauty of agriculture from the farm animals to the wonderful colours of the machinery and buildings. Fields both in the Boreal Forest and the prairies are covered in old buildings, silos, grain elevators, and so much more that resembles the agriculture community. So when I saw a contest for agriculture in the winter, I was filled with inspiration and excitement. With the deadline looming up so quickly as February comes to an end and the weather heating up, winter is quickly melting away to turn into spring. I still want that vast white snow to resemble the winter that we had for agriculture this year but I don’t want it to look like every other photo that can be submitted. So I took a different approach to my photo submission idea.
Title: Westmore
Photographer: Paige Brenneis - Lost For Photography
The Story
Agriculture is both beautiful in the daytime and the starry night. Knowing most people will submit agriculture in the day or the Northern Lights, I wanted to take a different approach that can tell a story. With disappearing old farmsteads and wooden buildings that resembles a different time, I figured to get agriculture at night in the winter. There is a few places around my town that I wanted to try. The image above is of Westmor owned by the Richardson International company. A giant and functioning grain elevator located just along a CN railroad with the rail cars beside it. I wanted to try and capture this beautiful building that has long since forever been part of our community. It has been around for as long as I can remember and I love it. Unfortunately my first attempt to capture it under a starry sky didn’t go so well as you need a long exposure to capture the stars which also allows lots more light into your lens and sensor. I blew out the silhouette I was going for of Westmor but still an image I am proud of, not the image I am submitting though. It doesn’t tell the story I was going for. Believing that this attempt was going to be much more difficult, I decided to go to another location I photographed before and give my shot a try there. A couple of grain elevators along a farmers field, no lights except for the distant farm down the way, and the starry sky above. Now I got some cool shots of these silos with the long exposure and I was having some great fun with what I was seeing.
Title: Fly Through The Stars
Photographer: Paige Brenneis - Lost For Photography
Clouds were rolling in constantly as I tried to photograph the night sky. I did manage to get my starry night I was going for but as I saw these clouds rolling in, I thought to have some fun with them. Positioning myself along the side of the silos, a 10-24 wide angle lens and a National Geographic tripod, I was ready to go. The image above is one that I am pretty proud of on how it turned out. The clouds were fun to photograph, tells a story of immense snow in the winter, and the storage of agriculture for the winter. No this is not the one I am looking at for the contest as this one was just for fun. The one I went for that was inspired by the contest is just below. I positioned myself just on the other side of the silos, further away with the same lens to get that vast open sky feel, and with a long exposure, I was able to capture not only the stars. I captured the violets, purples, and blues of the night sky, the solid white snow below covering the farmers field, the silos off in the distance. This tells a small story and is only a start to the journey of agriculture in the winter and agriculture at night that I am planning to embark on. I want to capture this beautiful side of my community in all its glory. So without further anticipation, I bring you my featured image. Please enjoy!
Title: Agriculture Under The Stars
Photographer: Paige Brenneis - Lost For Photography
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