As mentioned in my previous post I headed out to an abandoned farm just outside Trondheim with the goal of using all the lenses in my bag. I had worked my way through some of the more infrequently used (at least for me) and was ready for my workhorse lenses.
The workshop instructors had shown us some interesting photos around repeating patterns, and as I looked up on the barn wall, I saw that there were a lot of triangles to be seen.
Repeating triangles – Canon 70-200mm at 140mm
I also found an owl in the wall…
Owl in the wall – Canon 100mm macro
And as usual (at least for this workshop) I found that some of the photos could be combined into new and interesting photos during post processing…
WindowEnd woodAbandoned window
As I look through the photos, I see that none of the photos taken with my 24-105 workhorse lens survived the cut… Maybe I didn’t fully explore its creative potential? Maybe I have used it so much that I cannot see through it in new ways?
Just outside Trondheim lies a small farm called Holstvollen. It has been abandoned for some time, and although it is sad to see the farm in its current conditions, the dereliction gives a lot of photographic opportunities.
One of my sad photographic habits is to put a lens on the camera and stay with it, so when I headed to Holstvollen as part of a workshop (same workshop as my unexpected cricket and mud walking posts are from) I set myself the goal of using all the lenses I had in my bag.
First I started out using my 24mm f/1.4. I really like this lens for its shallow depth of field, something that is hard to get on a normal wide angle (such as a 17-40 f/4 or a 16-35 f/2.8). The contrast between the flowers in the foreground and the decaying bench and wall in the background piqued my interest, and after some work I managed to find a satisfying composition.
Decay and renewal – Canon 24mm f/1.4 wide open
The next lens I picked out from my bag was the Canon 8-15 mm fish eye. Here I found a part of an old wall that looked exactly like a snake eye or alternately two windows giving birth to a wall section…
The snake eye – Canon 8-15mm f/4 at 8mm
Note how you can see the entire wall in the photo (both ground and sky as well as both corners…)
Another fascinating wall was found in a portal, where the abandoned dirt made for intriguing patterns…
Abandoned dirt – Canon 8-15mm at 8 mm
As with the previous photos from the workshop, some of the photos didn’t really come through until in post-production. I was able to combine two photos taken with a 17-40 f/4 and a 100mm f/2.8 macro into a rough photo of an abandoned stove.
