Barns of Kentucky

It is the perfect day to share some of the many beautiful barns I have photographed throughout the Bluegrass State of Kentucky. Kentucky has my heart, as it is my home state. I have wandered many a back road and scenic byway in Kentucky stopping along the side of the road or at times even pulled into the edge of a driveway to snap photos of a barn on my journeys. I hope you enjoy this look back as much as I enjoyed creating it. Off we go!

Historic Manchester Farms, Summer, Bluegrass Scenic Byway, Lexington, Kentucky

Barn, Horse Farm, Late Fall, Bluegrass Scenic Byway, Midway, Kentucky

Barn, Horse Farm, Fall, Bluegrass Scenic Byway, Midway, Kentucky

Vintage Barn Adorned with Rock City Logo, Maker's Mark Distillery, Summer, Loretto, Kentucky

 Barn for Curing Bourbon, Summer, Maker's Mark Distillery, Loretto, Kentucky

Tobacco Barn, Fall, Bluegrass Scenic Byway, Midway, Kentucky

Vintage Barn turned Antiques Shop, Fall, Historic Glendale, Kentucky

White Barn Adorned with Quilt Logo, Fall, Bluegrass Scenic Byway, Midway, Kentucky

Red Barn, Visitor Center, Yew Dell Gardens, Crestwood, Kentucky

Barn, Amish Farm, Summer, Scottsville, Kentucky

Vintage Barn Adorned with Rock City Logo, Summer, Bardstown, Kentucky

There you have it. Some of the barns I have photographed over the years while traveling the back roads and the scenic byways of the great state of Kentucky. I have to say I am very partial to the Bluegrass Region for obvious reasons. I especially love it in Fall, but Summer is nice too.

I hope you enjoyed taking a look back over the years at the beautiful barns throughout Kentucky. My favorite photo is the first one of Manchester Farms in Lexington taken some 15 years ago. At that time I used a Pentax K1000 manual camera with Fuji Velvia slide film. It was difficult learning 'to shoot the light' using that seemingly antiquated camera. Interestingly enough, that is the camera they still use in photography classes throughout colleges everywhere. I can see why. Many a roll of slide film was used to create that beautiful photo. I hope you will share with me your favorite image(s) on this journey of old historic and vintage barns. ENJOY!

Linking to Barn Collective

Barns of Tennessee

Oh, but for the beauty of those old, abandoned and vintage barns that we all love to photograph as we travel, off the beaten path, and drive, the scenic byways, throughout our countryside.

Visiting my archives, I encountered numerous images that I began to collect in a separate folder titled simply Barns. Before long I had assembled quite a collection of barn images from across quite a few states. Each time I opened the folder the barns seemed to scream, 'please put up a post and feature me." I finally surrendered and now what you have before you is a collection of images from the Volunteer State of Tennessee.

Are you ready? Here we go with a few of those beautiful icons that dot our landscape.

Historic Barn at a Homestead, Cade's Cove, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee

Barn and Horse, Winter's Snowfall, Hendersonville, Tennessee

Old Barn, Summer, Leiper's Fork, Tennessee

Vintage Barn and Conveyor, Spring, Portland, Tennessee

Red Barn in Spring, Portland, Tennessee

Barn and Pond, Evin's Mill, Smithville, Tennessee

I hope you enjoyed my look back at some of the barns I have encountered in my travels across the state of Tennessee. I would love to know your favorite if you have one. I'll be back to post another collection of barn images I've captured across the beautiful state of Kentucky very soon. I hope your week is off to a wonderful start. ENJOY!

Linking to The Barn Collective

Vintage Barn

As I searched fervently on a winding country road for the rumored yellow Canola fields blooming just north of Nashville, I happened to pass this vintage and pretty dilapidated barn sitting near the edge of the road. As I stopped and turned around, knowing I had taken a wrong turn to find the Canola fields, I stopped a good distance from the old barn to capture several images.

It couldn't have been a more perfect day to stop and snap a few images of a vintage barn out in the middle of the countryside. I love the tan grasses in the field and the gorgeous blue sky with the white fluffy clouds. It's the perfect contrast. I like the way the old vintage conveyor was still perched up against the loft almost as though it had just been used. I don't think I have ever seen an old conveyor still in place. I wonder why the farmer didn't take it down. This area of northern Tennessee is filled with flat farm land and so beautiful. There's nothing like vintage America to make you appreciate times gone by.

It's a rainy, rainy weekend here which meant a postponed photography workshop. Aside from the last two weekends, every weekend for months past have been rainy here in middle Tennessee. This Spring has been exceptionally wet which has kept me from scheduling any other workshops and no meetup group outings. I hope May proves to be a dryer month so I can get outdoors a tad more. Enjoy your weekend all! Back soon. ENJOY!

Mingus Mill, Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Mingus Mill located on the far eastern side of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park near the Oconaluftee Visitor Center in North Carolina is still an operating mill to this day. In the late 1790's, the metal turbine was considered a modern marvel compared to the old wooden waterwheels used up to date in the milling industry. The Mingus Family opened the mill in the 1790's and later built this structure for a mere $600. At that time the mill was surrounded by fields and crops.

Today, surrounded by the national park itself, the Mingus Mill is quaintly nestled in a grove of trees a short walk off the entrance on a winding path which crosses over a narrow creek called Mingus Creek. When you begin your walk back to the mill, the trail is actually the Mingus Creek Trail head with the mill itself about one tenth of a mile in. This trail is also part of the Mountains-to-the-Sea Trail which stretches 1,000 miles beginning at Clingman's Dome and ending at Jockey's Ridge at the Outer Banks of North Carolina. At this point on the path, this is when the mill begins to divert the water from the creek itself to the mill. I have photographed this site once before and decided to stop by during my recent visit to the park and attempt a new perspective to include the building. Hope you have great plans for the weekend. ENJOY!

Linking to Barn Collective

Historic Tipton Place, Cade's Cove

Every now and then you take a chance as a photographer and take what the scene has to offer and use it to your advantage. As I approached the Historic Tipton Place which is situated almost at the very end of the Cade's Code Auto Tour last week, I saw a great many obstacles in photographing this beautiful old two story cabin while still attempting to capture the Fall foliage while still tucking everything into one frame.

As I stood along side of the road, it occurred to me that I simply must do the inevitable and photograph dead on with the brush laden fence line in the foreground and the entire back side of the cabin in the background. It was actually the best decision I could have made in my attempt to capture the essence of this beautiful old two story cabin with the woods and the trees surrounding it as though protecting it from the elements from one year to the next.

William Tipton bought this land in the early 1800's, the first land acquired in the Smoky Mounains, taking advantage of Tennessee's land grant program. In the late 1800's Colonel Hamp Tipton, a civil war veteran, built the cabin that still stands today.

The historic homestead was located in what was, at that time, very remote Cade's Cove. Several outbuildings make up the homestead and while I hadn't intended to capture images of all of them, I felt today was the day I should spend a few moments and photograph images of each one. After all, the story would not be complete without them. Before you reach this homestead, however, as you make your way around a very sharp bend in the road, your first encounter in the homestead is the old blacksmith shop which sits just to the right of the cabin.

Then just to the left of the cabin, across the gravel road, sits the double cantilever barn. What is a double cantilever barn you ask? Well, cantilever barns are reminiscent of eastern Tennessee farm structures, and oddly enough are only found in two counties in Tennessee. The barns were also built in North Carolina and Kentucky. More often this structure was built by farmers who wanted to maintain a totally self-sufficient farm where seed, corn, feed, livestock and equipment storage was needed.

Finally, having passed the old blacksmith shop sitting next to the narrow stream is the old smokehouse situated directly in front of the cabin. At this point in the journey you realize the resourceful of Colonel Tipton and what his vision was in making a home for his family in this remote area of the world surrounded by mountains. Pops of red and yellow Fall foliage definitely made the setting more poignant. One has to ask though just what these farmers did for entertainment in this remote area considering so many modern day luxuries had yet to be invented like the automobile. ENJOY!

National Lighthouse Day

In honor of such beautiful historical landmarks as our lighthouses that are found throughout the United States, this is Grand Haven Light in Grand Haven, Michigan.

Hope you are having a fabulous week. The weather here in the Bluegrass state is nothing short of 'can this really be August in Louisville'. ENJOY!

Historic My Old Kentucky Home!

There are many historic places situated "in my backyard" besides those beautiful horse farms in Lexington. One of those historic places is My Old Kentucky Home State Park, once home to Stephen Foster. Amazingly enough it's a mere 25 miles from where I live. After driving to Bernheim Sunday it was only a ten minute ride on in to Bardstown, Kentucky. I hadn't been to Bardstown in 4 to 5 years so I decided to make a quick visit. Here's a few photos I took. I thought perhaps you'd like a peek.
Walking up to the front of the house.

My Old Kentucky Home with fall leaves.



An old out building sits in front of the house down towards the highway.

Taking a stroll back to the rear courtyard.

The courtyard behind the house.

MY FAVORITE IMAGE! ISN'T SHE GRAND!

Hope you're having a good week. ENJOY!