What is it about old barns? Are they beautiful? No. In fact, the more run down they are the better. Is it memory? No. Most of us did not grow up on a farm, unlike our great-grandparents during the turn of the century. Is it nostalgia? Absolutely. The old barn is a symbol, a trope, an archetype. It stands for a lost way of life – the family farm. It stands for hard work and honest work. It calls to our agrarian nature and our collective past life. During our Oregon trip, Mary and I drove around the Willamette Valley looking for interesting barns to photograph. In fact, the whole Oregon trip started with a barn near Sherwood that Jack Graham showed us. One of the fun things about this time of year, is the ubiquitous fields of red clover. It is a cover crop and only seen this time of year. So, no fall color, but lots of red clover.
In and around Newberg and Dundee we found several interesting barns. They photograph well both with a long telephoto and a wide-angle lens. We searched for both interesting foregrounds and an interesting barn. We also needed line of sight, someplace to park along the narrow winding roads, and we wanted to stay off of people’s private property. The following barns fit the bill. These two barns were photographed just outside of Newberg.
pamphotography 
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