2024—As Time Goes By

As time goes by, abandoned buildings fall into decay. This decaying building is known as the Weber House on the Palouse. It was once a family homestead in the middle of fields of wheat, garbanzos, and rapeseed. While the building is not lived in now, its unique character makes it a popular place for photographers to visit. On a visit here several years ago, we met a family member of the original homeowners and they continue to live nearby and still farm on the Palouse. Although the home is no longer used, almost every inch of farmland surrounding the decrepit building is in use. One of the Palouse’s major crops, rapeseed, from which canola oil is derived, is planted there and a current crop surrounds the building. Moose suggested a long exposure for this image, something I hadn’t done in quite some time so I followed his lead and took several images over the next hour and a half as the sun began to set. The clouds were scudding through the sky over top of the building and the long exposure, in this case, 12 minutes (720 second shutter speed) created cloud streaks instead of cloud puffs. The 12 minute exposure was made possible because I had attached two neutral density filters to the lens that reduced the amount light entering the camera by 16 stops. This allowed me to use a long shutter speed and blurred anything moving through the frame. The long shutter speed created a visual illustration of time going by.