The old barn at Dunsbury

Today I decided to pass by the old barn at Dunsbury on my way to work. I had been there a few times back in March to photograph it, usually around 8:00 a.m., when the sun illuminated the front of it somewhat directly. There is a large tree very close to the front entrance of the barn, and at the time the sun was casting some shades on the front facade as it had to pass through the tree to reach it.

35 mm prime lens, ISO 110, f/2.8, 1/250

Though I was annoyed with the shadows, I liked those on the barn's wood, which gave some depth to the wood pattern:

35 mm prime lens, ISO 400, f/8, 1/100

And the portion that was completely illuminated by the spring sun acquired a really nice color.

35 mm prime lens, ISO 450, f/8, 1/200

Though I liked my photos, I decided that I should come back on another season and see if I could get better light and less shade on some parts of the barn. I then spent a lot of time traveling and a lot of time trying to catch up and only today I had the energy to go back there. The sun now, rising from the East, illuminates the left side of the barn, which is not accessible to the public, and passes right over it, apparently never illuminating the front directly.

I did not have my DSLR with me, only the iPhone to take a picture for my 365 project. I took only two photos, one of the door, which I put on Instagram, and one of the left window, which I did not. The equivalent door photo from the DSLR is below:

35 mm prime lens, ISO 400, f/8, 1/125

And here is the iPhone photo. Post-processing in Jpeg, minimal, lighten shadows and sharpen in Photoshop Elements

Iphone picture.Post-processing “clarity filter”

This really reassured me of the importance of coming back to places nearby where we live to find the best times to take the best out of light. This would be much more difficult to do when traveling, or just passing by, which is the situation when most of us amateurs will have a camera in hand and the energy to take photos...