Not too pretty

Farm near Edwardsville, Illinois
Photograph by Tom Atwood

I have railed against pretty before in this blog. It's not that I don't like pretty pictures, it's just that I don't like to take them. If a scene looks too pretty, I lose interest. The photo of this farm along Staunton Road has some beautiful (or "pretty") elements, including the sky, which I would describe as more magnificent than pretty. But what makes the picture interesting to me, something you might want to actually look at for a while, is what is not especially pretty: the unpainted, failing fence; the large, jagged trees (were they damaged in an ice storm?); the metal trailer sitting between the wooden house and barn. I believe a photo can be better than pretty. Shutter: 1/40; Aperture: f/5.0; ISO: 100; Focal length: 18 mm.