November sky

This is the time of year that I find most difficult to get good photographs. It’s an in-between time. The leaves have fallen here in northern Illinois. The trees are bare. The sky is mostly gray. What sunlight can break its way through the clouds is cut short by the quickly decreasing length of the days. The snow has not yet fallen to blanket the brown, brittle grass.

As I searched through my archive of recent photos this morning, I came across this grain elevator that sat along old Route 66 near Amarillo, Texas. The original photo just seemed a bit too colorful for the feeling of abandonment that I wanted to capture when I first saw the structure and old truck.

I experimented with the hue and saturation and came up with three variations. This is the one I like best. This captures what I feel about this time of year. Abandoned by summer, autumn has passed by. Winter is yet to come.

Click on picture to enlarge. Photograph © 2006 James Jordan.