Amber waves of grain ... and a bit more

For a long time, I've wanted to find a farm landowner in rural Indiana -- anywhere in the countryside -- who would let me loose to photograph whatever captured my imagination, whatever I could compose or would strike my fancy.

I didn't pursue the concept with vigor until the opportunity presented itself on Sept. 26, when I got access to a farm and surrounding country roads in Henry County, Ind., not far from Summit Lake Reservoir and State Park and Nature Reserve.

I brought my Canon 6D, Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L lens and a tripod. I used a B+W polarizing filter on the lens to ensure rich blues in my skies and help reduce glare on any water I might find. I also bracketed all my compositions for treatment in high-dynamic range (HDR) software during post-processing. All of the images you see in this post reflect HDR processing.

In the time I was allotted to shoot, I concentrated on farm structures, juxtapositions therein, roads, framing and the fields of soybeans and corn crops, although in the area I shot, the crop was mostly soybeans. I sprinkled the soybean images throughout the images in this post.

A full gallery of images from this shoot can be found at my online site at SmugMug.com.