Days Gone By 105 megapixels 20083 x 5221

This photograph was really the start of two areas of focus in my photographic journey. It was one of the first large-scale panoramic images I produced and was also the start of my serious pursuit of grand scenes that included rural abandonment.

On a multi-day exploring trip across the Canadian prairies, I found this location on a rainy evening in June. The grass was green and lush and the setting was surreal. Never would I have imagined finding such perfect placement of all things rural from days gone by: a cute little abandoned house, a lone tree, a rundown shed, and, most amazingly, a perfectly positioned old red pickup truck parked out front. With heavy rains, I could only marvel at the scene as photography was out of the question.

And with that began another common occurrence with many of my photos, having to return to the same location some time later. With commitments elsewhere, I was forced to move on from the location on that rainy day in June. But I thought about the location constantly and at the first opportunity, about 5 weeks later, I headed out on the five-hour drive it would take me to be there again.

I arrived in late afternoon to find the heat of summer had parched all the grass except for a few areas sheltered by the old red pickup. I set up the special equipment I would need to create this VAST photo, waited for the sun to start its run toward the horizon, and captured this wonderful scene.

As night fell, I decided to stay on location and sleep in my vehicle, so I could try to capture sunrise as well. I still remember that very hot night with temperatures in the 90s and with clouds of mosquitos so thick that opening a window was not an option. After a sleepless and dehydrating night, sunrise came but, in the end, it was not as impressive as the previous sunset. But no matter, it occurred to me that I was probably the first person in 50 years to spend the night on this little farm. I felt a real connection to the place.

As I headed home, I was very excited to get to work on assembling the images for what I hoped would be a great photo. As it turned out, this photo was my entry point into creating very large resolution images and the start of my hunt for similarly iconic, grand, rural settings ever since.

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