We spent a recent Sunday morning trudging through an abandoned farmstead north of Chicago with our photo friend, Jay.
The day was dreary, which seemed to fit well with the feeling as we photographed the old farmhouse and barns that remain on the property.
When we looked at the images in Lightroom, color just didn't seem to fit the downcast mood that permeated the place.
So we shifted to Black and White.
We like the results.
Any comments?
For more images, visit www.ernestjschweitphotography.com. You'll need to navigate to the Midwest Barns portfolio.

As nice as this scene is, it almost never saw the light of day.
We almost missed the place as we drove through southwestern Illinois recently.
It sits below the road and as we drove by, it took a second look before we spotted it.
And it  took a third look at all the images from our trip in Lightroom the other day before we noticed it. Now that its out there, though, I think the wait was worth it. For more barn images, and other images from our  portfolio, visit www.ernestjschweitphotography.com

The skies were clear, the sun was hot and the corn was pretty far along when I discovered this scene in western Illinois, south of Macomb, the other day.
We were on a Sunday drive just for fun with my son, who had recently graduated Western Illinois University, when this place appeared on the horizon.The last four years, we have made many images on trips to see my son, but now that he's graduated, there won't be many journeys to this part of the midwest.

We organized a barn shoot the other day for some of our students from Harper College in Palatine, Ill.
Our destination was the Fox River Grove/Barrington Area, where we found this wonderful red barn in a huge meadow.
Truth is, we had shot this barn before, so we challenged ourselves to find a new perspective.
We grabbed a 28 to 80 zoom, our trusty tripod and went to work. Here's the result.
For more of our images, visit our new web site, www.ernestjschweitphotography.com or "like" us on Facebook at Ernest J. Schweit photography.
More photos from the Harper shoot in the days ahead.

I'm not sure why, but I've always been fascinated by old barn doors. There's something almost mystical about the grain of the old wood, the rust of the joints and locks and the reflections of the window glass.

Here's our latest barn door find, the one on the side of an old barn near Lincolnshire, Ill., northwest of the Chicago.

The entire farmstead--or what's left of it--is below.

I'm always on the lookout for old barns to photograph, so if you know of any, send me a note, OK?

The suburban sprawl has eaten up most of the farms northwest of Chicago. But here and there,  you can still find vestiges of the area's agricultural past. 
We found this one in Lake County near Lincolnshire. This tattered barn and silos stand near a huge high school and subdivisions with large, fancy homes.
It is doubtful that moms in their mini-vans driving to soccer games or teenagers heading to school are aware of the history that this farm, and others like it, recall.

On a weekend vacation in Wisconsin, we stumbled upon this round barn in Grafton. We struggled with how to capture its beauty on the rainy early spring day, but settled on this panoramic look that placed its in its environment, nestled in some pine trees set back a bit from a rural two lane highway. Round barns had their day in this country as experimental buildings promoted because, at the time, they were thought to provide more efficient use of space. They are usually found near agricultural colleges where academics  promoted their use. See more of our work on Facebook at Ernest J. Schweit Photography