Documenting the landscape on a small scale with a large camera---any ideas?

[John Kasaian]

My Bride has found a piece of property we'll probably buy---the financing has already been approved anyway---and its a rather unique piece of ground 15 minutes away in driving time but 100 years away from the city: no gas or electric, no trees, no well, no cc&rs, on a dirt road. Five acres. It is a north facing hillside facing the sierra nevadas, on range land where cows and coyotes have the run of the land. It is not native range, as there is evidence that it was once dryfarmed, maybe 50-60 years ago. To get there you cross a cattle ranch, go through two gates, and cross a creek over a bridge made from a railroad flatbed car. From the top of the hill, looking towards the west, south and east, you can see houses and farms in the distance.

Sounds idyllic---except the cash flow situation will severely limit my aerial photography project (for this season, anyway) but it poses a new opportunity: to document this piece of land with my LF camera! Development will be minimal: a fence and well, a garden, barn and small house is what is being planned.

"So get to the point!" OK! Can anyone provide any thoughts on how to best document this? Do I mark a place and take photos periodically from the same vantage point? Perhaps there is a more creative approach I'm unaware of. I'd be grateful for any thoughts(no, were're not getting buffalo---never did find out the fate of that texan on photo.net!)--------Cheers!

[Bill_1856]

No problem. Subdivide into five-one acre lots, and use the money on something really important, like your photography project. Since there is no sewer sevrice, I recommend that you take the lot at the top of the hill.

[wfwhitaker]

Take aerials.

[John Kasaian]

William,

I've got an aerial---circa 1950's courtesy of the UC Agricultural Extension Soil Survey. Thats how I found out that it was once dry farmed.

[Tim Curry]

Find a location to shoot after you have done a plot plan. Previsualization of the land with buildings and the correct perspective will give an interesting progression of shots as you grow on the land. It may help with design. Congratulations on your own pesonal kingdom, best of luck.

[Mark_3632]

I assume you have a permanant right of passage or right of way on the road to this place. I know someone whose property was blocked off by a rancher who he pissed off. Took years to get that settled.

As to the project. I have been doing this on my parent's place over the last few years. Whenever my wife and I go up there are three places I photograph from. SOme people are anal about marking the spot but I figure I know where I am going. I do this maybe 4-5 times a year unless the weather is real dramatic. My Idea was to document the building of the house they worked most of their lives to attain. They are on a slight incline so I shoot above the living area, below and I shoot past the house towards their favorite view to document the change in that as well. It is documentation so I am not trying to be artsy about it. I got the construction of the house of course.

good luck. Sounds like an adventure.

[James Venis]

John, I had a commercial client that hired me to do "before" photographs of an 18-acre industrial site then scheduled for demolition and redevelopment. (Aerial photos had already been done; my work was to be from the ground.)

There were many concerns, including the impacts on the surrounding neighborhoods and transit corridors. Beyond the usual documentation needs, my client needed to have some backup in case, for instance, a homeowner later sued for blocking his view of the sky--some of the structures knocked down were taller than the buildings planned to replace them. The point is that the horizon line was expected to change so much that accurate before-and-after views would be difficult to create.

I created a database for information about each of my "before" shots. For each view, I recorded a GPS reading, took a compass bearing for the direction in which the lens was pointing, measured the height of the lens center above ground, and text notes describing the spot I was standing on. This, of course, was in addition to the equipment and exposure notes on lens focal length, use of camera movements, date and time, and so on. Where possible, I included features in the scenes that were not expected to change--a notable building, a water tower, the alignment of a street or power line--but I'm not relying on these features. After all, new building may easily block those features from view.

These are just a few thoughts that may lead you in useful directions. You may want to check with your state or other historical societies for tips on how to document historic sites photographically.

[jnantz]

hi john:

from a historic preservation / lanscape preservation perspective ... you might consider documenting the notable features on the property. both lanscape ( lay of the land - like they did in yosemite in the 1800s ) & information from the aerials you have ... as well as the man made features like the gate, rail car &c ... their relationship to the "big picture" - abutting property & distant property ..

as you build on the property keep the features & survey images in mind that you already took in "phase 1" and keep the new structures "newly made" context in mind.

sounds like a lot of fun

-john

ps. you could also just do random photography in a not so random way

[tim o'brien]

I might try a 360 degree pinhole camera setup, with a permanent mounting point (and removeable camera) to continually shoot the progress on a month to month basis. After you have all the negatives for several years, I would import them into the digital world and get a morphing program to build you a 4 dimensional (x,y,z, and t) image of the homestead birthing. A couple of lasers and you would have the ability to transform this into holograms.

Of course, I would never do such a thing, but it is a neat idear.

Congrats on being able to get a little further out of the rat race...

tim in san jose

[Rob Tucher]

Hi John, I've been commissioned to photograph a 1760s farm just over the border in Pennsylvania. I am going to take a freewheeling approach overall, but will pick a number of views that really intrique me. Once photographed, I will mark the center point of the tripod legs (with a big nail in the soil) and note down, direction, lens, exposure info., etc. so it can be recreated exactly (with the help of the previous shot in hand too). Then I will go back in varying light, seasons, weather, etc. and even whenever the mood just strikes me. Lots of my photos will be just what struck me at the moment but I will also have this growing archive of visual transformation. Rob