How I Made This Shot: Barn In Snow

by | Sep 21, 2022

Today’s Post by Joe Farace

The earliest first snowfall in the Denver area is usually around the beginning of September while the average first real snowfall is typically mid-October. Last year on December 10, Denver finally got its first snowfall of the season, shattering an 87-year-old record for the city’s latest first snow. Daisy Hill is located about 30 miles or so outside of Denver  the city. It sits at an elevation of 6,100-feet, above Denver’s famed 5,280-feet and it’s not uncommon that we have snow here while it’s raining in nearby Parker (at 5,869-feet) but this season, we’ve had no snow, at least so far.

How I Made This shot: Whenever I get a new camera or one I would be reviewing for the former print edition or Shutterbug or this or our sister blog, JoeFaraceShootsCars.com, I like to test it by photographing a favorite location. Since moving to Daisy Hill more than eleven years ago, I drive into Parker, Colorado and walk around O’Brien Park often photographing the gazebo there.

Previously I lived in a more rural area near Brighton, Colorado, which is located 20 miles or so north of Denver, and there was a farm that I went by on my daily walk. Over many years that we lived there, I photographed the farm many times, including this snowy image that was shot using a four-megapixel (big for 2000?) Olympus E-10 DSLR. The camera was part of the company’s Four-thirds system, predecessor to today’s mirrorless Micro Four-thirds system. For my take on megapixels and camera systems, take a look at my post My Thoughts on Changing Camera Systems when you have time. The lens used was Oly’s awesome 9-18mm f/4-5.6 (at 9mm) with an exposure of 1/640 sec at f/5.6 and ISO 80. Image was first processed in Vivenza, then converted into (sorta) monochrome using Topaz B&W Effects.


Photographing barns, as regular readers of this blog may know, was part of an ongoing self-assignment but this was the one that I photographed the most over the years.

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