This past Sunday Annette and Woody Garthwaite lead a field trip for the Harrisburg Camera Club to Anderson’s Grist Mill in Mercersburg, Pa. The member turnout was good and the photo opportunities were very plentiful, in fact there was really too much to photograph in just one outing. Everyone I talked with expressed an interest in going back.
The Owner…
When we got to the mill we were introduced to the owner, Mr. Harry Anderson. Harry’s father, Chester Anderson purchased the mill around 1917 and after he passed away, Harry ran the mill full time from 1973 to about 1981. Harry is very knowledgeable about every aspect of the mill and it varied contents. After a brief explanation and tour of the mill Harry let us roam around and photograph at will. More about the mills history can be found here, Steam Power Water Power Grist Mills .
Inside The Mill…
The inside of the mill is illuminated buy sparsely placed incandescent lights and bright sunlight streaming in through the many windows, doors, holes and cracks in the exterior walls. It was a mostly dark, high contrast environment so I chose to photograph primarily HDR images. My photographs are here Grist Mill.
The photo above is just one of the interesting things that I saw at the mill. This, as Harry explained, is a calf weaning collar. The farmer would strap this on the calf when it was time to wean it from it’s mother’s milk. Ouch….!! Very effective I’m sure…
Many many thanks to Mr. Anderson for access to his wonderful property and many many thanks to Annette and Woody for leading us to this great opportunity…!!
At the time of this blog I am still processing my images so please check back for additional photos. All comments, questions and criticisms are welcome.
I have recently been made aware that there is perhaps a feeling out “there” that a photographer utilizing HDR techniques has an unfair advantage over a photographer using more traditional techniques. Anyone have an opinion on this…?
Albums | HCC Altoona Field Trip | October Snowfall
Anderson Grist Mill – Images
Jim Crowley
14 Oct 2011Dinene, thankx for your complement…!! That presentation was totally off the cuff. We just needed to fill kill sometime after Chip spoke about the website. I feel like I need to go back and do it again in a better prepared fashion. Thankx again…!!
Dinene Wolf
14 Oct 2011Hi Jim, I’m a new member of the club and very much enjoyed your photo presentation on Tuesday night. In regards to HDR, I like HDR when it is used as a tool to combine bracketted shots. I love to see all of the tonal and contrast ranges in a photo. I was not able to join the group on the field trip but would love to go if there is an opportunity for another field trip to the mill.
Jim Crowley
13 Oct 2011Randal thankx for the reply. I agree with your position, it is another tool. I showed and talked about some of my photos at the meeting on Tuesday to fill in time after Chip finished his website talk. I was asked if a seperate HDR group was going to be created for competitions and I learned of some other comments that I would generally describe as negative towards HDR. I have a few followers of my site and I just thought I’d through this out there to get some comments. Thankx again…!
Randal Lathrop
13 Oct 2011Jim, nice pictures. I’m sorry I couldn’t make it on Sunday. The pictures look very nice. Here is my two cents about HDR. It is a tool like any other one in a photographer’s toolbox. We wouldn’t begrudge someone for using a graduated ND filter to knock down a bright sky to capture the full dynamic range of a scene. So why should we treat HDR’s any differently. Having said that, I am not a big fan of the over-processed, unrealistic HDR images that are being made. I use HDR the same way I would use a graduated ND filter, to make an image that is visually representative of what I see when I am out in the field. No overly saturated images, etc. Our eyes see things differently than what a camera sees. HDR helps to even out the lights and darks, similar to how our eyes process light and dark in any scene. I do like how HDR processing brings out stunning detail in clouds on an overcast day. See for yourself with this image taken on an ordinary overcast day.
Randal