Friday, June 26, 2020

Serendipity Is an Early Riser



Rock City Barn
U.S. Highway 165, Morehouse Parrish, Louisiana
Canon EOS-A2, 28-105 f3.5-4.5 Canon EF lens, Fujichrome 100 film.

One of my longest expeditions to make photographs for the Rock City Barns book was an eight-day slog under gray and dripping March skies to 30 locations scattered around Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi,and Texas. I found only six barns still standing. One of the most attractive was this small "mule barn" on U.S. Highway 165 in northeast Louisiana's Morehouse Parrish, which I first photographed under a leaden sky.



I knew there was a good picture here and I did my best to find it. The two pictures above are the best of the many variations I tried. But the light was poor and time was tight, so I pushed ahead on a two-day zig-zag across Mississippi which brought me empty-handed to nightfall at Greenville, 60 miles from the Louisiana barn. With the forecast still not looking good, I decided that if there were a visible sunrise, it would find me back at that barn. 


Blackberry vines, barn wood, and slanting sunlight.
The end papers of the Rock City Barns book.

 I really hate to get up early, so I was a little behind schedule. But not the sunrise, which beat me to the spot by ten minutes and radiantly blessed my efforts, including the close-up of sun-streaked blackberry leaves and weathered boards which grace the end papers of the Rock City Barns book. As I was making that photograph, I heard a rumble. I knew what was coming and dashed to get into position as it all came together -- barn, sky, and yellow locomotive.

Serendipity is an early riser. She loves to make good things happen, but you have to work on her schedule.

Blog Note: I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings at alifeinphotography.blogspot.com. I'm trying to build up my readership, so if you're reading this on Facebook and like what I write, would you please consider sharing my posts?

(Photographs copyright David B. Jenkins 2020)

Soli Gloria Deo
To the glory of God alone

2 comments:

  1. That's a great photo. Great timing, and I like how the barn is sandwiched between the cloudy blue sky and the dirt at the bottom.
    I'll add your website to the list of links on my website, but I'm not sure that will help you very much with my low readership.

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