Happy New Year!

Happy holidays!

A fresh snow had fallen the night before we made this image on a country road in Lake County, Ill. The snow covered trees made for a nice framing device and the light from the clear blue winter sky still makes me feel cold.
Consider this my holiday gift to everyone who stops here; especially those who do so on a regular basis as followers.
Have a great holiday and a happy and healthy new year!

Farmhouse of mystery

The old farmhouse looked scary, almost like a haunted house, when we found it on a recent fall morning. Of course, the muted light from a  rain shower passing through McHenry County didn't hurt the effect. An abandoned house like this --with its prevailing sense of mystery--seems to pose more questions then it answers. But that's fine. It might look ugly to some, but I see a beauty in it that rivals one of those the big houses with a longest drive-way.

If this old farm could only talk

This old, rundown barn sits on an abandoned farm in McHenry County, Ill. Surrounded by dead grasses turned brown by the fall, it might seem ugly to some. Not to me.
The old place has a certain mystique about it, like a thousand stories of former inhabitants waiting, but unable, to be told.
It's a shame farms like this one are falling into a state of disrepair, although there is hope. The restoration movement is saving a few, but the process is long and can be expensive, even though financial aid is available.
We visited the farm on a rainy day, which only added to the lonely feel to the image. Another shot from the same farm is posted below. We'll post others in the future.

Abandoned

My good friend and photog, Jay, shares my passion for barns. Luckily for him--and me, too---he lives in a country-fied area of Northern Illinois where there are lot of them. Unfortunately, many are falling down, like this one, which is actually part of an abandoned farm in McHenry County. Jay took me there on a recent Sunday morning and we had fun fighting the rainy cold fall day to capture a few images.

This is one of my favorites, captured from what I'm guessing was once the dining room of an old farmhouse. 

This is one of the first images I made with the new Nikon D700, a really sweet camera with a full sensor that I hope to master in the not too distant future.

We'll post more images from that shoot in the days ahead.

Hope you like it, too.