Gates series—The Coach House Gates
It is a while since I did a posting in my gate series but I went out this morning with a specific gate in mind—the gates at the old Whitby Falls Coach House. I have done a posting about the Coach House before (here). Whilst it's last use was as a restaurant and events venue the so-called Coach House has had a varied life. Anyone interested in the Coach House might want to check my previous posting because there are a number of interesting comments with it.
But this posting is about the gates at the now abandoned Coach House.
By the time I got to the Coach House it was heavily overcast; it had rained lightly a couple of times on the way there. I was hoping for sunlit conditions but now that I was there I just had to make do with it being heavily overcast.
Here is the gate I was interested in photographing. I remembered it from my previous visit—but back then I was not photographing gates. In my mind I had the image of the gate with that old truck in the background. When I got there the old truck was much further away from the gate than I thought it was. Even so, and even with the overcast conditions, I think this picture turned out okay.
Now that my site is SquareSpace 7 I am able to post pictures 900 pixels wide. Compare this below to what this picture would have looked like on my old site.
Obviously people checking this posting on smartphones or smaller screen tablets will not see any difference. But those using a 'real' desktop or notebook computer with a 1600 pixel wide (or wider) screen will. Also, using the new SquareSpace 7 engine and without me needing to double post over on SmugMug as I would normally need to do, if you click on the first picture it will upsize to the size of your browser or 1500 pixels width—whichever comes first.
The EXIF data has been left on the image (for those that know how to check EXIF data on an image). For those that don't the key information is:
- f11
- ISO 800
- SS 1/400
- Focal length (full-frame adjusted) 31mm using the Pentax 18 - 135mm zoom.
I needed to go to ISO 800 in the heavy overcast conditions so I could shoot at f11 and get some good depth, but the sensor in the K-3 is so good with digital noise that I did not even bother doing any noise removal processing before posting.
Don't forget to click the main picture to see it bigger—assuming you are using a desktop PC with a bigger screen.
Following is another gate picture taken at the Coach House. I assume that when the Coach House was operating as a restaurant that this gate would have been the main entry.
It's a very cluttered shot but there wasn't too much I could do about that. One of the downsides of focussing on gates—so to speak—is that you have to take them as you find them. Just to add to the challenge there is a light post just to my right so I could not get much further back or it would have been in the shot.
Basically I have tried to make the three feature items (primary, secondary, and tertiary) the black gate, the white entry (I am sure there is a better name for it than 'entry'), and the yellow/orange flowers going down along the fence. But as I said; there is a lot of other stuff going on to distract from these. In fact if I hadn't told you there was a gate there you probably would not have spotted it.
Having said that there is a lot I like about the shot. The white paint fading and peeling off. The barbed wire wrapped around the gate and entry to keep people out. The big wood upright posts, the log across the top of the fence, and even the blue 12 gallon drum being used as letter box.
I took another shot from in front (shown at right) but it is just as busy and the gate still does not really stand out; in fact it almost disappears. The overall picture looks a little flat for some reason. Also I think the darker clouds in the background and the overall darkness in the picture above adds to the scene and makes the picture look better.
There is lots of interesting stuff within the grounds of the Coach House. Maybe one day I will look into the possibility of getting inside the fence.
Barry.