On Barns and Effort
Barn in Snow
Schladming, Austria
December 19, 2022
ISO 200, 150 mm, F/6.3 1/640 sec
Since moving to the Netherlands, I have a standing meeting with my closest friend every two weeks. I say friend, but the reality is he is family and I trust his thoughts and opinions implicitly. During this most recent meeting this website came up. We regularly discuss our hobbies or new interests in our lives, so I mentioned this site and why I created it. As he was browsing the site, he mentioned that he really liked the picture of the shack in the field (the picture at the top of this post). After I related the story of how and why I took the photo, he responded, “You should really be writing that down.”
He is absolutely right, so here is the story of how this photo came to be.
When we first arrived in Schladming, the ground was mostly clear of snow. The higher elevations had a dusting, but the town itself was completely clear. The barn was visible from our room, but against the backdrop of the Austrian Alps I paid it no attention at all. The first two dozen shots I took were all of the mountains across the valley from us.
It was our second night there that we received 10-12cm of snow. The next morning there were still some low clouds that obscured the mountains which shifted my focus to the valley below us. Suddenly, this barn jumped out at me, and I immediately started considering different compositions. I took a few shots with the telephoto from the room, but none of them worked. I needed to get closer to take what I anticipated being the best photo. Unfortunately, between me and that potential shot were railroad tracks, a river, a ravine and a fairly busy highway. I am a bit ashamed to admit that I just wasn’t willing to put the effort into crossing all of those for the shot. Maybe it is my inherent laziness, or the fact that we were on vacation to relax and not spend hours hiking for a photograph. Regardless, I just couldn’t strike up the motivation to put forth the effort required.
However, I was motivated enough to hike about 125m further down our side of the valley and take the photo you see above. I ended up standing in a field of snow at the ski entrance that leads to the lifts in the town. This was where skiers could ski down from the resorts to the main lifts rather than take the long walk or bus around.
It doesn’t exactly match the image I had in my head. I envisioned the barn dominating the middle of the photo, isolated on a pure field of white, in stark contrast to the nothingness surrounding it.t. I think this works, though I am not sure if the trees add to or distract from the main subject. I lean towards the latter.
There was one other shot that I had high hopes for that just didn’t work out. I believe it was the following morning. I was having a cup of coffee when I spotted a solitary figure walking on the path in front of the barn. For some reason it added to the isolation of the barn and I rushed back into the room to grab my camera. Unfortunately, by the time I changed lenses and got back out to the balcony the person had moved far enough along the path that it no longer worked. I wish I was able to get that shot as I think it gives the viewer more to consider and allows them to create more stories about the barn – and the individual.
