Ellen Bennett Photography
Kent Feeds/Railroad Street Mill is in Hastings, Michigan. Suzanne buys the horse grain and oats here and it is one of the last remaining working mills in Southwest Michigan.
The owners, John and Sherry Cheeseman, say the lineage probably dates back as far as the 1930's. As you will see, the equipment is evidence of that time passage.
There have been many owners of this mill, some of the outcrop buildings have changed, but the main mill remains where it was so many years ago.
For these photographs, there was but one light bulb on in the working part of the mill. You will see this bulb on several of the photographs. It was located near the door, which made shooting a challenge. The outside lighting was cloudy and murky, so I used artificial flash lighting.
I used my wide angle for most of the shots but used the Macro for more detailed stuff and the telephoto for the outdoor higher shots.
The lighting was tricky to work with and my equipment list is quite short for this kind of work.
I am intrigued not only with the evident history here, but the placement of objects, the smell of the sweet feed, and the dustiness of the surroundings. Quite a few of the lighter spots on the photographs which resemble 'blow out' are actually pockets of dust.
I wanted, as I always do, composition.
The owners, John and Sherry Cheeseman, say the lineage probably dates back as far as the 1930's. As you will see, the equipment is evidence of that time passage.
There have been many owners of this mill, some of the outcrop buildings have changed, but the main mill remains where it was so many years ago.
For these photographs, there was but one light bulb on in the working part of the mill. You will see this bulb on several of the photographs. It was located near the door, which made shooting a challenge. The outside lighting was cloudy and murky, so I used artificial flash lighting.
I used my wide angle for most of the shots but used the Macro for more detailed stuff and the telephoto for the outdoor higher shots.
The lighting was tricky to work with and my equipment list is quite short for this kind of work.
I am intrigued not only with the evident history here, but the placement of objects, the smell of the sweet feed, and the dustiness of the surroundings. Quite a few of the lighter spots on the photographs which resemble 'blow out' are actually pockets of dust.
I wanted, as I always do, composition.
Edit caption:
Edit caption:
Photo viewing size:
