Train’s Coming – Berryville Farm Supply

So you and your better half have been out for a drive on a glorious October afternoon. There’s really nothing better than the light in autumn in the Mid-Atlantic area. The activity so many of us enjoy at this time of year is laughingly referred to around our neck of the woods as “leaf peeping” … where you hop in the car and head out to enjoy the brilliant colors of the trees on display so briefly, but so beautifully. On this particular day, as the car you’re a passenger in pulls into a convenience store for a quick couple of drinks, you sit … camera in your lap, of course … gazing at a typical small town scene.

You hear a distant hoooot-hoooot and turn around and your eyes fall on the blinking semiphore nearby. Suddenly you’re whisked back in time as you become aware of the Berryville Farm Supply store in Berryville, Virginia, right smack dab next to the train tracks. It might be the sounds of the approaching train, or it might be the fabulously old-timey look of the store itself … or maybe it’s that magic seasonal light … but you’re 6 years old again and you and your daddy are walking up to the general store you knew so well in your youth. The Berryville store and the one you remember look so much alike … from the overhanging porch, to the very colors of the old wooden structure itself. Sometimes it’s still true, that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

This is one of those images that I’ve looked at so many times, wondering if the composition is cool as a moose, or if it’s one that those artistically “in the know” would run from, screaming and pulling out their hair. All I know is, I have always had a love of lines and angles and color. Normally I’d have tossed this image. Telephone poles and wires, to me, are a photographer / artist’s worst enemy. But somehow, in this image, with SO MANY of them … I just pretty much fell in love.

Original photographic image taken with the Nikon D7000 and the 18-200mm vr Nikkor lens in October of 2014. Lots of versions in Photoshop between the time I took the shot and now, but none quite did it justice. I’ve recently been enjoying exploring Corel Painter 2015 with the help of brushes from Karen Burns, so I took the best of the lot of previously tinkered-with PS shots and plopped it in painter and had a fun go at it … totally digitally hand painted. Then back to Photoshop for the addition of a beautiful texture repeated in various blend modes from Cheryl Butler. My thanks to both of these talented ladies.

****

Just a reminder, a click on the image will take you to my website where the view of the pic is much nicer, and where you’ll find tonz a fun purchase options, from wall art to tote bags to throw pillows to shower curtains.  Yes, that’s right, shower curtains.  Also available for licensing … just send me a note and we’ll discuss.