Meanygate meanderings (and beyond) - a farmed landscape

[Ed Sutton]

Love the two sunset shots! The bog oak would be an interesting mini-project.

Thanks.

If I didn't have work to do and a UPS collection to wait in for I'd go and play around with that tree trunk while I'm in the mood today!

 

[Ed Sutton]

I managed to sneak out and spent fifteen minutes wasting my time taking photos of the tree trunk. Like most things I plan in advance it was a dismal failure.

This kind of thing ain't my forté!

 

[Boots]

I think the first is the strongest of the set, but I'm not really getting the "tree-ness" you captured in your earlier shot. Am I imaging it, or was the light softer yesterday?

 

[Ed Sutton]

I think the first is the strongest of the set, but I'm not really getting the "tree-ness" you captured in your earlier shot. Am I imaging it, or was the light softer yesterday?

Yes, it was more overcast yesterday.

My boredom threshold has been reached and I've lost interest in this idea now!

 

[Ed Sutton]

I've not got round to reviewing this project and am still carrying on wandering for want of a better option!

It's getting very dusty now. This was on the way out to the moss where the soil is more clay than peat The change is quite pronounced at the first meanygat, clay one side peat the other..





Continuing my habit breaking in an attempt to see things differently I took just my longer zoom today, and regretted it. Handy for tractor in field pictures but restrictive for closer subjects. I had a nosey through a couple of open doors at the greenhouses.



This door I have never seen open before.



There's no end to my fleece and bags album!



Then back to tractors.

 

[Boots]

Another nice set. Really like the first and fifth (fleece and bags).

Glad you are carrying on...

 

[Ed Sutton]

Another nice set. Really like the first and fifth (fleece and bags).

Glad you are carrying on...

Thanks. It's something to do until I get a more compelling idea!

 

[Ed Sutton]

Driving across the edge of the moss on Friday I saw some drain work had been going on, and although I had a camera with me I didn't stop because I knew that would be my cue to do some work avoidance! This morning I made a plan to drive out that way and walk back past the field if the work hadn't progressed. In the end I just parked nearby and took the photos then went somewhere I hadn't planned to go...




This southern end of the moss is mostly down to arable crops for some reason. Maybe the soil is different to the northern parts. Looks the same to me! Despite late plantingt these crops have shot up over the last week and the place is greening up.


There is still some drilling being done. These patterns reminded me of the bog oak.



Elsewhere fields have not yet reached that stage and I came across a load of what looked like half rotted turnips. I think they are due to be ploughed in.



I also took some 'architectural' shots. I have this thing about cropping to 5:4 and putting a white border round pictures. No idea why!



There could be a sub-series of pictures of empty yards to be made if it wasn't for my aversion to taking photographs to tick predetermined boxes.

 

[Ed Sutton]

More variations on the same old same old.









Three stages.

 

[ancient_mariner]

Nice geometry there.

 

[Ed Sutton]

Nice geometry there.

Yes. I think a couple of this lot will make it into my set of geometric pictures.

 

[Boots]

There is a lovely symmetry to this landscape, what the farmers do to it, and how you compose your shots.

 

[Ed Sutton]

There is a lovely symmetry to this landscape, what the farmers do to it, and how you compose your shots.

I sometimes feel like I'm repeating myself with these symetrical and geometric shots and think it's time to stop, but then I find something slightly different.

 

[Ed Sutton]

I got caught out in a light but persistent hails and rain shower this afternoon, which rather curtailed my activities. I was also just too late to photograph the planting of onions as the Rimmers were on the last run - and at the far end of the field.

.

Rather than have some indistinct activity in the background I went for another 'things in fields' picture. I've not seen the white trays before though, and he single red one breaks things up a bit an dadds a touch of complementary colour to the green of the onions. He said clutching at straws.



Plus the inevitable bags in a field picture...

 

[Ed Sutton]

It's been a busy week this week so no chance to get out for long. Weather has been iffy too, so when the sun was shining brightly and it was warm I extended my walk to the Post Office this morning. Foolishly I went 'old school' with just a 50mm on camera and a 28mm in the bag as I wasn't expecting to see much. There was actually lots going on. Natch!

I love these portable 'sheds' which go on a rear lift of a tractor to transport stuff around and keep it dry.



There was another one at the other end of the field where planting out was going on using one of the motorised contraptions. If I'd had a longer lens I'd have zoomed in on the planting as the silhouette potential appealed to me.



On to the moss proper and a distant dark sky looked ominous.



Here it comes.




Five minutes after taking the shot below the rain and hail arrived. I was able to shelter behind the green houses for ten minutes while the shower passed over. The Rimmers went for an early lunch!

 

[Ed Sutton]

I'll be glad to get back to the sheepdog trials soon. It'll be less tiring than walking miles round the flatlands!

It's rained most of the day but it's needed after the dry April. A little of it lying on the fields but most has soaked in.



There often seems to be something to photograph around the greenhouses for someone who likes geometric pictures...



.. and random patterns. The dried plant stalk seemed to me to go well with the dribbled whitewash.



The trailer of irrigation pipes is back in place.



I got funny looks from a couple of dog walkers as I made many attempts to line up the vertical bit of pipe with the dip in the tree line while keeping the field edge visible and parallel with the lower pipes. Would anyone have noticed if I'd failed?



The inevitable insect netting and poly bags.



Either side of this ditch they have been building the field levels up over the last few weeks.



This time my venture out with three single focal length lenses worked out. OK. Probably because I had plenty of time to swap lenses as there was no 'action' to photograph. What I like about 'primes' on the flatlands is the much reduced distortion of the horizon they seem to give compared to even top quality zooms. They're just a bit impractical at times.

 

[Ed Sutton]

The first tractor driver kindly stopped for me to take a photo, although the light was a bit off it would have been rude not to take the shot anyway.



I wondered what was in the crate on the back of the second tractor.



When I'd walked three quarters of a mile across the moss I found out.



No fancy pieces of equipment here for laying out insect netting, this is how it's done on a budget.





The insect netting isn't just to protect from insects, it serves to keep other gredy creatures off. "There's a lot of hares about. In the past they had a drive in spring before planting started to thin them out."



On my way I actually waited for the light to change to make a dull picture a little more interesting. I could see a band of sunlight approaching on the strong but cold southerly.



Every so often, I have to concede, it is all about the light!

 

[Ed Sutton]

Bloody equipment malfunction with work turned what started as a good day into a bad one so I went to the moss! The 'contraption' was abandoned. As the toolbox was open on the trailer and the growers reappeared after I'd walked I wondered if they might have had an equipment malfunction too!

 

[Ed Sutton]

How many way can you photograph a hoe? At least six!

As I first saw it.




Try a vertical.



Get lower.


Go back horizontal.



Open up the aperture and get some background in.



Overhead.



Which works best? I think they could all work well depending on context within a spread on a page or in a sequence depending on what accompanies them. I like the overhead one as it shows most clearly the cobbled together nature of the hoe.

 

[sirch]

Looks like a hoe down

 

[Ed Sutton]

Looks like a hoe down

Hoe, hoe, hoe...

 

[ancient_mariner]

Dirty hoe?

 

[Boots]

I think #4 works best for me

 

[Ed Sutton]

Sundays are quiet on the moss as far as work being done is concerned but the sun was out and it was supposed to rain later and I had nothing better to do.

Another go at the mylar strips.



Some bigger (drainage) pipes to go with the other stack.



More netting.



Some with a smile!



I'm not clued up on machinery. This is a red thing. I was taken by the pattern of green plants behind the red triangle.



The whole thing. Power harrow?



Not a great picture but a better try at capturing mist rolling over a field as the warnming sun burns off the rain from the night before.

 

[Ed Sutton]

 

[Ed Sutton]

I think it's time to draw this to a close as something to be pursued on a regular basis as it's got hard to find anything to photography lately which adds to what I've already shot. I've been out three times this week and twice returned home without taking a photo worth keeping. One time I didn't take any pictures on the moss. This morning I did at least find two things to spend some time on.

One subject was just a closer approach to one of the bird scarers, but what I thought looked good on the back of the camera didn't live up to expectations blown up on the computer.









The other subject was only a different looking kind of veg.



There was some lettuce cutting going on, but by the time I got close enough to take photos they started packing up and leaving...

Thanks to everyone who's followed along, liked and commented, it's all helped to keep me going. What I do with the pictures now remains to be seen. There's a zine in development of some of the geometric crop pictures and I'll make a few prints to give to one of the growers. Everything else will probably just clutter up my hard drives until I pop my clogs and they go in a skip. I do wonder why I bother at times!

 

[Boots]

Thanks for posting your images of a part of the country I don't know. It has been interesting to see the seasons pass, and the farming activity.

 

[ancient_mariner]

I've appreciated how you managed the project and learned from watching the process, so it's doubly beneficial.

 

[superpippo]

Everything else will probably just clutter up my hard drives until I pop my clogs and they go in a skip. I do wonder why I bother at times!

It's being so cheerful that must keep you going

 

[superpippo]

But on a more serious (?) note, I have enjoyed following this thread.
I think that you have been doing it for over a year and so you have captured the season's weather, plantings and cropping.
I think that is is a very good record of a year in the life of the farmland in a particular area of the country and, if nothing else, just shows the sheer amount of work in producing crops in the open.
I think that your photos have got better over the year, giving a whole picture of what has gone on and you have demonstrated your good eye for the abstract, the quirky and the patterns in the planting/landscape.

 

[Ed Sutton]

It's being so cheerful that must keep you going

"I don't like work - no man does - but I like what is in the work - the chance to find yourself. Your own reality - for yourself, not for others - what no other man can ever know. They can only see the mere show, and never can tell what it really means."

Joseph Conrad - Heart of Darkness

I think that sums up the creative process. We do stuff not for what is produced but to learn about it and ourselves. So it doesn't matter if it ends up in a skip.

 

[superpippo]

"I don't like work - no man does - but I like what is in the work - the chance to find yourself. Your own reality - for yourself, not for others - what no other man can ever know. They can only see the mere show, and never can tell what it really means."

Joseph Conrad - Heart of Darkness

I think that sums up the creative process. We do stuff not for what is produced but to learn about it and ourselves. So it doesn't matter if it ends up in a skip.

 

[Ed Sutton]

Thanks for posting your images of a part of the country I don't know. It has been interesting to see the seasons pass, and the farming activity.

I've appreciated how you managed the project and learned from watching the process, so it's doubly beneficial.

But on a more serious (?) note, I have enjoyed following this thread.
I think that you have been doing it for over a year and so you have captured the season's weather, plantings and cropping.
I think that is is a very good record of a year in the life of the farmland in a particular area of the country and, if nothing else, just shows the sheer amount of work in producing crops in the open.
I think that your photos have got better over the year, giving a whole picture of what has gone on and you have demonstrated your good eye for the abstract, the quirky and the patterns in the planting/landscape.

Thanks for the feedback. Much appreciated.

In other news I have two versions of my zine done but can't decide which to go with. Or if I should blend the two. I probably need to get a dummy made/printed.

Growing Patters 2

Read Growing Patters 2 by Dave Lumb on Issuu and browse thousands of other publications on our platform. Start here!

issuu.com

Growing Patterns

Read Growing Patterns by Dave Lumb on Issuu and browse thousands of other publications on our platform. Start here!

issuu.com

 

[sphexx]

Just at a first glance through, I think I prefer the first version, but I looked at that first and liked it so that may have biased me. I think I‘ll have to look again.

 

[Ed Sutton]

Just at a first glance through, I think I prefer the first version, but I looked at that first and liked it so that may have biased me. I think I‘ll have to look again.

Thanks for looking and commenting. I'm still sitting on them both and pondering. I might go for four more pages and a mix of the two.

 

[Boots]

I think version 1 has more impact - though if you asked me why, I probably couldn't tell you why.

 

[Ed Sutton]

I think version 1 has more impact - though if you asked me why, I probably couldn't tell you why.

Maybe because it's a tighter edit?

 

[sphexx]

Still prefer 1 after looking at them again a couple of times in ‘reverse‘. Like @Boots, not sure why. In one the the images seem more ‘connected’, maybe that’s your ‘tighter edit’.

 

[Boots]

I think the additional images in #1, and the image in #1 that is used instead of the final one from #2 are especially to my taste.

 

[Ed Sutton]

Still prefer 1 after looking at them again a couple of times in ‘reverse‘. Like @Boots, not sure why. In one the the images seem more ‘connected’, maybe that’s your ‘tighter edit’.

I think the additional images in #1, and the image in #1 that is used instead of the final one from #2 are especially to my taste.

I'm getting confused as to which is being referred to as one and which as two! (I should have renamed them more clearly.

Do you both mean two is the one with 2 in the link name with 20 pages? Or the other way round with one being the first link posted?