Fields and Farms

The remains of a corn field, a few miles south of Mulliken, Michigan. Doubtless they'll plant beans here in a few weeks.

This version's cross-processed. Brings the sky out nicely, methinks.

I much preferred yesterday's bright sunlight. Not to be, I guess.

John Dow moved to Eaton County in 1837, settling on the edge of what was then Chester Township. He was promptly elected township supervisor. When the township was split a few years later he ended up in Roxand, where he was soon elected supervisor. Eventually he built a house across the road, in Sunfield Township. He became Sunfield's supervisor. For 43 years he served his neighbors as township leader, in three jurisdictions, without moving off his farm. Of course they named the town line road after him. His descendants still own part of the old farm. I think this is on the (former) Sackett property, the next farm north on the Sunfield side of the road.

This morning's sky, just south of town. (I was taught to spell gray that way. Might just be showing my age.) The full-size version of this photo shows the abilities of my new 6.7-13 mm lens, and the limits of what the Nikon 1 V1 can manage in dull light. The result's a reasonably detailed, but perhaps unacceptably grainy, capture of the farm buildings across the field. In better light the camera would have been fine, though it would have been a different sky. The lens is everything I expected.

Better light today, but I'm beginning to think the winter's gonna last into summer.

Same location and camera as this morning's Commuters , but a couple minutes earlier and with a different lens. Seems worth extending the recent discussion about my slightly-fisheyed porch photo : Did anyone think of this morning's image as distorted? I can remember a time I would have, but that time was half a century ago. These days I mostly don't notice that sort of foreshortening....

There are a few days each spring when the wheat fields look like big lawns. The impersonation's particularly effective when there's a farmyard in mid-field. After a week or so the wheat grows too tall to mistake for anything but a crop. And begins to take on a different beauty.

North of Eaton Rapids, Michigan. I've been wanting to take this photograph for several months, so today I stopped.

Just north of Eaton Rapids.

It's constructed like a very large wooden barrel. South of Hastings on M-43.

Showed you this farmyard a couple weeks back . This was taken at the same time, but it's 'bout a half-mile down the road.

And surrounding farmlands, of course. The drain itself is marked by the trees and underbrush but is not directly visible from this location. Some of the creeks around here have really stupid names.

I needed a break from the garden photographs.... These trees mark Freyer Creek.

We're getting on towards harvest, methinks.