28 Days

Close to 5 pm, for 28 days, the back doors of the barn, looking to the east. Every day I empty the wheelbarrow, then turn to close the barn doors. I see the sky, fields and woods. Some days – most actually – I think ‘Wow, I should take a picture of this.’ It’s different every day, with the light changing and the weather.

So I decided I’d do this for the month of February. In January, when I thought of it, it was close to twilight by 5 pm. Every day the light stayed a minute or so longer so the sky was noticeably different.

Slide Show

I didn’t think about the lengthening of the days making 5 pm no longer near twilight. And the weather at the beginning of the month stayed pretty much the same day after day. So the scene stayed the same too. Gray and a little overcast. Oh well, I had started my project. But after I looked at the first week or so of photos, I was surprised to see how much variation there was in what I had thought was the same.

Truly, I would need to take a year’s worth of photos to show the ever-changing light show that the sky gives us. The first few years we lived here, I was constantly taking photos of the sky at all times of the day. It’s not just the sky either. The light suffuses the fields, grass, trees – everything with a quality that you can almost touch. After taking way too many photographs, I stopped and learned to just look at the light and enjoy the atmosphere.

Colours

Some days last fall, on my trek back from the barn, I would look at everything around me – the picture – and think ‘you gotta knock back the saturation levels.’ I’m telling the sky that it needs to photoshop itself? But that’s how intense the colours are. Especially the reds of late afternoon autumn, with the sun setting and the reds and yellows of changing leaves on the trees.

Late fall days, after the leaves have fallen, can be monochrome. You think it’s a black and white photo, except it’s not. It’s reality as you’re seeing it, here at this moment.

However, this February is not the tour of extravagant weather light shows. A tame month, with beautiful blue hours that now occur after I’m back from the barn. A little snow, more rain, some ice. Quiet, mild colours. That’s reassuring in its own way.

Sameness or not

Two quotes I’ve seen this month in memes. A life should not be about doing things over and over. Yeah, ok, there’s value to seeing and doing different things. The other says nothing – even the same thing – remains the same. Also yes.

There’s value in seeing other places, doing other things. So too is there value in getting to know your place, and youself in it. Seeing it every day, you pick up the little nuances of change. For me, my barn view is that. Me seeing my place, in all senses of that.

I realized I was doing that when it struck me that I was checking the sky, the view, every day just to see what it looked like today. Not what it is telling me about the weather ahead, although it does that often as well. Just looking, checking in with it, same time, same station. The routine of the day, and days. Nothing wrong with that.

I took these photos with my little Nikon Coolpix. The camera has seen a lot of days itself, probably about 15 years worth. I tinkered a bit with these photographs. Autolevels and lighten shadows in Photoshop to keep it true to what I saw.

• Horse Keeping is about what else a barn teaches you. Shooting The Same Location Over and Over shows photographs of a lane in all seasons and some whys and hows for doing it.