Well I guess we can safely say this was taken a while ago. With the state reeling from bitter cold temperatures over the past week this shot from Halloween looks down right tropical.

Barring the Sandhills, driving across Nebraska you can’t help but see fields and fields of corn stretching over hills and to the horizon. It’s the country’s #3 state in corn production, and leads the country in irrigated acres. (Nebraska Corn Board) Corn for grain makes up more than 20% of the total ag production economy of the state.

All that means is that I can’t drive along Highway 34 without taking pictures of corn.  This fall has been tough for farmers to get into the fields. With a colder than normal October, the corn couldn’t dry. This pushed harvest into November and the crop making the crop more susceptible to disease and fungus.

So an ear in a field ready for picking  in late October is the photo.

Okay, I’ve got a bad habit at times.  I’m lazy. This little project is shot while I’m on my way between Grand Island and Lincoln. Between work and home, or home and work. Eveyday on that drive I go by this massive ball of a silo near Aurora and I’ve even photographed it before.  But things were never quite right because I always shot it in the morning.  Which means the sun is in the east and on the wrong side of the staircase for cool shadows.

No for my lazyness.  Do I go out and make a special trip to photograph it in the evening? No.  That’s my lazyness.  However, I’ve got another habit of persistance. I recently had my camera (the right one that) was on that road going to Grand Island from Aurora and the sun was in the right (or left) side of the sky.  Eureka!

There’s something about old barns that I can’t resist.  Especially with flags.  I lucked out with the dogs in the frame as well. I was a little disappointed with how it turned out with the blown out highlights. I dont’ even remember seeing the white door, I think I was focused so much on catching the dog running, that I missed some other details.  I still enjoy the photograph.

What are your thoughts?

Tucked away in a valley along the highway is a grove of trees.  I’ve been wanting to try and shoot the grove, because it’s characteristically Nebraska.  Back in the old days, trees were primarily found near water. This was the plains afterall and not Michigan.  I hopped out of the car and looked for a way to shoot the woods and the dappled light and nothing looked right.  So I turned a little to my right and saw the sorghum field between the farmhouse and the trees and the picture fell into place.

I’ve begun a new project to keep myself occupied.  Every day I drive from Lincoln to Grand Island or the other way, and the next day I reverse it.  I’ve become very familiar with the scenery along Highway 34 and decided to start up a medium format project to illustrate what I see.  It’s a landscape project, or maybe an architecture project or even a people project. It all depends on my mood and what I decide to shoot.

At the moment it is still in it’s begining stages and I’m mostly focused on the major things I see.  I haven’t really delved into detail shots and I haven’t been shooting long enough to show seasons.  So here is the first image to be shown, and one that kick started the idea for the project. A neat barn with a flag and date. Nothing special, but it caught my eye. And the more I think about these old barns I realize they aren’t going to be around forever and will eventually be replaced by quonset huts that are far easier to maintain.

When I rolled up, I had the image of just the barn and the farmyard, but then I saw the mailbox and thought the old rusted thing added a nice touch to the frame.