Baled and Ready: Cotton is all in, baled and ready for transport. The process is highly mechanized now, and much of it is distant from the fields. Yesterday's structures

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

Cotton is all in, baled and ready for transport. The process is highly mechanized now, and much of it is distant from the fields. Yesterday's structures - workers' homes, gins, barns - often sit empty and collapsing. I shot a bunch from different angles, and wanted to get today and yesterday in the image, but not sure if it worked.

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Racin17 Loc: Western Pa

I havent seen cotton bailed before. Thanks for posting.

wayne-03 Loc: Minnesota

When I was a kid in Oklahoma and starting into the first grade, I had to pull cotton to pay for my school clothes. At that time I got $2.00 for one hundred pounds of cotton, rough way to make a living.

Nice picture, great color, too bad you couldn't get a little closer to the old house.

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

Racin17 wrote:

I havent seen cotton bailed before. Thanks for posting.

Glad you enjoyed it!

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

wayne-03 wrote:

When I was a kid in Oklahoma and starting into the first grade, I had to pull cotton to pay for my school clothes. At that time I got $2.00 for one hundred pounds of cotton, rough way to make a living.

Nice picture, great color, too bad you couldn't get a little closer to the old house.

Thanks. I remember helping pick on my grandfathers farm. I was given a little brown paper sack and told to dump it in an adult's cotton sack when it got full. That stuff will tear your hands up!

I did take some closer to the house, and all up and down the bale row. None showing what's to the left though, a bunch of junk. Right or wrong I chose this perspective of close to the bales, far from the house. It's a weird composition, wondered what folks might think of it...

Nightski

Minnie, I like this. I think I could love it if you got right up on that cotton so it's detail is smacking me in the face. Do you have an ultra wide lens? This is a situation for that. The other option would be backing off a bit and getting more road leading up to the bales? You could do with much less sky. I think you do not even have to have the whole tree .. just the whole house. It's so close .. but a little more drama is needed. I really hope you work this some more and post again.

Country's Mama Loc: Michigan

I like that you chose the one with the bright red cover. If you were so inclined a little photoshop magic could bring that house closer. :)

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

Nightski wrote:

Minnie, I like this. I think I could love it if you got right up on that cotton so it's detail is smacking me in the face. Do you have an ultra wide lens? This is a situation for that. The other option would be backing off a bit and getting more road leading up to the bales? You could do with much less sky. I think you do not even have to have the whole tree .. just the whole house. It's so close .. but a little more drama is needed. I really hope you work this some more and post again.

I may post another shot to see what folks prefer. I actually shot from near several of the bales, some closer and some further away from the little shack, also on a different day with dreary sky rather than bright blue sky. There are bales on the other side of the "road" too, and some shots have both rows but they weren't aligned with the house (amazing that the baling folks weren't thinking about photography when they lined those things up :P )

For reasons I don't now remember, I didn't bring the ultra wide on this trip, but I am not sure it would have worked well because what was to the left of the shack.

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

Country's Mama wrote:

I like that you chose the one with the bright red cover. If you were so inclined a little photoshop magic could bring that house closer. :)

Thanks, the colors and shapes of the bales and their shadows are what I first stopped for, then I saw the old shack, and that wonderful old tree. In a way, the two halves of the image are so totally different. I wanted to see how it came across to others.

Not sure I have the skills to move that house! I may try just for the experience. I do have some with the house closer, just chose this one to post.

dave sproul Loc: Tucson AZ

I believe you are asking for comments on how to work this site. Assuming this is true, my input for working this site is the following:

Move to the left (maybe 10 feet) of the position this picture was taken and maybe back a little to keep the same items in the frame.

The intent is to have exposed more of the sides of the near bails and placed a little space between the first set of near bails and the second set of distant bails.

In doing this make sure not lose the building in the distance which means you may have to move the camera down some so the distant building and some sky can be seen under the tree branches on the tree on the left side.

When all this moving around is done, take care such that the tree in the distance center should still have some space between it and the large tree on the near left.

Country's Mama Loc: Michigan

minniev wrote:

Thanks, the colors and shapes of the bales and their shadows are what I first stopped for, then I saw the old shack, and that wonderful old tree. In a way, the two halves of the image are so totally different. I wanted to see how it came across to others.

Not sure I have the skills to move that house! I may try just for the experience. I do have some with the house closer, just chose this one to post.

I don't think this is a fail. With the composition the way it is the bale is the subject. But the house in the distance draws your eye in and makes you want to see more. I am not so sure the composition would be more compelling with the house closer. Obviously you felt not as this is the image you chose.

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

dave sproul wrote:

I believe you are asking for comments on how to wo... (show quote)

Thank you so much for these detailed comments to help me think my way through the scene, which held such a diverse set of elements that are only connected by cotton. I'll look back in my images and see if perhaps I took some from there! If so, I may work up an alternate version and see how it comes across. I might not have got low enough (I usually don't mind crawling on the ground but the ground was too muddy for me to be willing to wallow :D )

There were some constraints due to the arrangement of the bale rows and a bunch of agricultural junk on the left. I couldn't shoot everywhere I wanted to but I do have about 20 frames to pick from. I doubt I'll be able to get back up there before the bales are hauled away but maybe I've got something better.

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

Country's Mama wrote:

I don't think this is a fail. With the composition the way it is the bale is the subject. But the house in the distance draws your eye in and makes you want to see more. I am not so sure the composition would be more compelling with the house closer. Obviously you felt not as this is the image you chose.

But most regulars here know how guilty I am of keeping too much in the frame. Maybe I should have just the bales, or just the house (I did shoot some those ways). But my all-in approach, rightly or wrongly, made me want both in the same frame.

smith934 Loc: Huntsville, Alabama

wayne-03 wrote:

When I was a kid in Oklahoma and starting into the first grade, I had to pull cotton to pay for my school clothes. At that time I got $2.00 for one hundred pounds of cotton, rough way to make a living.

Nice picture, great color, too bad you couldn't get a little closer to the old house.

I went to school in a small farming community. School started back after summer in early August, then was out again in October for cotton picking. Seems I remember about $2 a hundred also. Definitely hard work.

Great image and I like the perspective you chose. Also what works for me is the contrast of the old (perhaps a share croppers shack) and the new (method of picking and transporting to the gin). Also I wouldn't move the shack closer as it's position now lends more to the feeling of the past to that part of the image.

smith934 Loc: Huntsville, Alabama

Nightski wrote:

...You could do with much less sky....

Perhaps it's just me being a bit nostalgic (never thought I'd use that word about cotton picking) but unless you've worked those big southern fields it's hard to understand just how huge that sky appears, not at all like the little bits of sky you see in the city. To me it adds realism to the image.