Stone Mills Agricultural Museum

7/21/2021

I was having a bad day, couldn't shake it no matter how I tried. I would get a little ambition to do something, but end up lying in bed before I got around to do it. Then I looked outside, saw the way the clouds were moving through the sky, and remembered a list I made a few weeks ago. 

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I'm a bit of a self obsessed person, in the fact that I'm always thinking about my own personal self improvement, not that it results in much of it. I occasionally listen to self improvement podcasts, and a suggestion I had heard was to make a list of things that make your ordinary day, a good day, so I did just that.

My list consists of many things, such as, working out, organizing something that has been disorganized, and obviously, making photos, and those clouds in the sky were looking like a pretty good photo to me.

By this point it was already after 6pm so I wasn't about to take any extended road trips to exotic locations, so I settled on a more local location about 20 minutes outside of town in the quiet little Hamlet of Stone Mills. 

Stone Mills is one of those places that's hardly worth calling a place, if you told me there were more than 20 houses there I'd be surprised. What it does have is the Stone Mills Agricultural Museum, now you may hear museum and think, well that's an exciting thing for a tiny little place to have, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. The Stone Mills Agricultural Museum consists of a sawmill, granary, school house, church, and many display buildings. Occasionally they'll have events there, craft fairs, a blue grass festival to name a few. It's an amazing local asset, but it's not some tourist attraction that brings in hundreds of visitors a day.

I'd driven by it in the past, and although there was no event, or people present, the gates were always open, so I figured if I could get in, today would be a good day to get some photos. Now I've tried this a time or two before and always lost my nerve, pull in to a privately owned museum in the evening and just start firing off photos without permission? I can't be the only one who would feel a little uneasy doing that, but the clouds in the sky and the promise of the sun breaking through shining light on all the old buildings was too good to pass up.

I drove passed the main entrance opting for the one at the rear, so as to not arouse suspicion. I scoped out all the potential photos I could be taking as I wrestled with the idea of actually getting out of the car, but I couldn't resist the allure of the old windmill, so I parked the car.

I grabbed my camera, and tripod, and walked approximately 20ft from my car when I heard another car pull in behind me, now in my mind there were only two possibilities, this could be another curious person just checking the place out, or the owner telling me to pack my stuff and head out. As the car pulled up to where I was standing, I was certain I would be packing my stuff up before I took my first photo. The woman in the car asked "can I help you?" A question that doesn't usually lead to a personal tour of the facility, but in this instance, she meant it. She was quite kind, and accommodating. I explained how I was only taking photos for personal use and she was quite alright with it. She told me I was free to move around the grounds and take as many photos as I like, after all, the gates are always open. My fear subsided knowing I could walk around the grounds without feeling like an intruder, ducking behind barns, and hiding from the neighbors.

88mm f/11 1/60 sec ISO 100

I turned my attention back to the windmill that first caught my eye and began framing up my shot. although I had several things I could have added to the photo, a small barn, a shed, a fence, this photo  ended up looking best with just the windmill against a dramatic sky.

Editing this photo included a lot of trial and error. after cycling through the built in Lightroom presets I settled on the red lift matte preset.

I like to use presets as a starting point or for inspiration, I rarely stop at simply slapping a preset on it and calling it a day. I played around in the HSL panel lifting the yellows in saturation and luminosity. I masked out the sky and brought down the highlights to really show the character in those clouds that drew me to this place. Finally I wanted the windmill to really stand out, I masked out the blades of the windmill and brightened up the shadows, additionally I warmed the color temp to distinguish it from the cool colored sky behind it.

22mm f/11 1/60sec ISO 100

After spending probably a little more time than I should checking out all the cool antique farm equipment located in the barn behind me, I made my way around to the opposite side of the fence. I had tried to include the fence in my initial photo of the windmill but couldn't make it work. the fence carried off to the left, the windmill to the right. it was all off balance. putting the fence on my left with a barn on the right really balanced the image out. I really like the way the fence looks with the afternoon sun on it. 

Editing this photo was basically the same as the first photo for continuity in the collection.

22mm f/8 3 stacked exposures ISO 100

This image is out of order, but I felt it fit best here. My initial attempt at making a photo with the fence on the right I used my long lens to compress the background and bring the windmill more into frame, but having switched to a wider lens I was now able to frame up the fence on right without worrying about the effects the windmill would have on the balance as it was no longer a dominate subject in the frame. looking at it now I do wish I had tried matching the leading line of the fence on the right, with the leading line of the drive way to the left. I feel like having them both in the frame equally would have been the best way to balance the image.
I edited this photo the same as the others with one exception, this is a stacked image. the scene didn't require any exposure stacking, I just forgot to turn off the function after using it previously. After getting it into Lightroom I decided to blend it anyway just to see what it would look like, and I was pretty impressed. I may try exposure stacking in unnecessary scenarios in the future.

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I had made my way around the old church and grabbed some shots of it just for the title picture. The sun at this point was behind thick cloud cover, and wasn't showing much promise of coming back out, but I waited around a little while, and behold, the clouds gave way and the sun came out with a vengeance. You might not think of photography as a fast paced action packed adventure, but when the sun comes out and you have a limited amount of time to create a shot, you start to feel the pace quicken. I had not planned this shot so I spent a good long while looking for the best angles, I went further back, more right, more left, adjusted settings, I even tried a low angle. By the time the sun had dropped below the tree line I wasn't even certain I had a photo worth sharing. I merged every cluster of photos I had, and 1 stood out most to me. 

22mm f/4.5 ISO100 3 Photos stacked

Editing this image was a treat as it lacks in defining edges and layers, masking out various elements was either done by hand or by using a gradient mask and then removing it from the areas I didn't want effected with the eraser tool. I took special care to boost the whites of the window frames as a dingy dirty window would really take away from the peaceful environment.

55mm f/8 1/20sec ISO100

Having now gone in a compete circle I ended up back at the windmill, the sun had set but the sky still alive with color, and now the moon had made an appearance with clouds giving way.

I couldn't resist making just one more photo of it, I mean if its just gonna pose for me like that. 

I had put off visiting the Stone Mills Agricultural Museum because I had discounted it as some back woods collection of old buildings and farm implements, but now I think I might just add visiting it to my list of things that make an ordinary day, a good day.