Home Forums Gear Photography Some photos for 2021

Congrats on the Canon.

Good job and like the pup. Depth of field is a bitch (pun intended) though, and Cookie struggles with such mostly on her deer images. Eyes are great, but nose and antlers are a little blurry. Mostly a big lens and low light issue that's hard to overcome.

I assume spring in the air there? Have some swans and snow geese showing up, but not great numbers yet.

Yes, migration is in full swing. Lots of Canada geese, snow geese and sandhill cranes.

The shallow DOF is fun to play with but I usually shoot at wider apertures for sports and wildlife. If it gets dark and you need to be wide open it can get hard to get everything in focus. New camera seems to handle the higher ISO much better.

We have been trying to take one day a week to drive out in the country on roads not yet travelled. Looking at older buildings - Abandoned Alberta (FB site) as we both have ties back to farming and a person needs a break from the lockdowns. The majority of sites are from the late 1890's to early 1900's. Very distinctive changes in the building types in areas settled by Eastern Europeans vs those settled by Scandinavians at approximately the same period. Here are a few recent shots from this year.

Nice shots. I love seeing old barns in various stages of repair/disrepair.

Very nice, Hugh.

Fewer every year with lots turning to ashes when we get a landscape level wildfire.

Up here large older farms when sold off many times the older buildings are pushed up into burn piles. The connection to that piece of land is just not there with the new owners. Hopefully over time some can be saved.

I find the workmanship on these old structures incredible to think on for how they made, tools used, design, where the materials (logs) came from. Squares, strings, levels, hand saws, axes -- no power tools.

Some of these homes (grey 2 story below) are in aspen only areas so the logs were hauled in from quite a distance. Buildings at times started small based on what the man / men could build for that season (2nd picture) and then larger homes were built over time in new and better locations. I know where there is a very remote home built from field stone and will try to get back in there this summer. It was built and abandoned in a period of time less than 10 years. Very harsh conditions back then to make a living and raise a family. Injuries or illness --- who knows but the site was walked away from. Very good workmanship on the home so obviously a person that knew stone work.

All pictures are from roads and some at quite a distance as we do not tresspass.



This one has an interesting history as it was converted to a 2 story pig barn at some point in its past. The animal chute to the 2nd level is evident, same for the added wall vents and the larger central exhaust duct.

Lots of history in those old structures and lots of hard work too.

Hugh--great shots.

HughW: Great pics and thanks for capturing such treasures. We have a few such places in eastern Oregon, and yes, some of serious substance were built and abandoned within a decade. Seem to see more in the Palouse Prairie region often out in the middle of wheat fields. Likely substantially more folks around when they were trying to scratch out a living on a paltry 160 acre claim. Good scale for eastern bottomland with 30+ inches of precip and a perennial stream. Not so much out west with 12 inches of winter precip and no surface water.

Nice gobblers!!

Awesome landscape

Southeastern AZ

Cool birds. I would always worry that with those beaks, they would get a chunk of my finger as well!

Gobblers, mountain sky lines and the Az desert ---- nice. All stuff we missed this year. Great to see those even if it is through the lens of others.

Resting in Time