© Marc Koegel
Canon 5d Mark II 338 seconds at f/5.6 at 100 ISO with 16-35mm Ff/2.8 L @ 17mm
I shot this image as part of my Canada Prairies Series in September of 2010. This series of black and white photographs is geared to document the vanishing farm architecture of the region, focusing on old wooden grain elevators, farming equipment etc…Many of these structures are being taken down and demolished every day, and with them, a part of Canadian history is vanishing.
I have been photographing for this still evolving series for the past 2 years. Esthetically, I choose to work with wide-angle lenses, often with tilt and shift capabilities. Most of my images, including the one pictured, are assembled from multiple photographs merged into one large panorama. Using these techniques, I can achieve a perspective otherwise non-obtainable. It was important for me to show large sky areas, as these regions are often called the ‘lands of the living sky’. Furthermore, I utilize very long exposure techniques, which results in the dramatic cloud formations. Images are taken with exposure time of 5 to 30 minutes and longer, using very strong ND filtration. The long exposure technique captures the clouds in motion, but the structures remain still. Each image represents a fraction of time and thus history of each structure I capture. I hope it will do its part to conserve the all important memory of this region.
Images are captured in RAW and converted to black and white in Adobe Photoshop CS5. ~Marc Koegel
Darwin Wiggett 