Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 18 mm — 1.5 sec, f/8, ISO 320 — full exif
Sturdy
Circa 1830s

Earlier in the summer I posted about an old Ohio farmhouse. The house was expanded sometime during its life, but the original part dates from about the 1830s or so, long before plumbing and electricity and, apparently, bolts. In the original attic, you can see that wooden pegs were used to tie a horizontal beam to its vertical support.

Here's a closeup...

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 55 mm — 10 sec, f/20, ISO 320 — full exif
Wooden Pins
securing two huge beams to each other

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 17 mm — 2.5 sec, f/9, ISO 320 — full exif
Wide-Angle View

It looks as if the wall and roof planks have been replaced over the years, but the huge beams seem original, still showing marks from having been made with, I think, an adze. Here's the same beam as before, but to the right of the pegs...

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 20 mm — 13 sec, f/9, ISO 320 — full exif
Big Beam with Adze Marks

Most of the flooring area was covered with old carpet or something, but the area immediately in front of the window was clear, showing the old warn floorboards that are likely original. I thought it might make an interesting desktop background, so I tried to get a clean shot straight down....

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 17 mm — ¹/50 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1250 — full exif
180-Year-Old Flooring

Desktop-Background Versions
Standard: 1024×768  ·  1440×1080  ·  1600×1200      Widescreen:  1280×800  ·  1680×1050  ·  1920×1200  ·  2560×1600

I took the shot with a desktop-background in mind. Over the years I've created and posted a bunch of desktop backgrounds ( desktop-background photostream  ·  desktop-background posts ), although it may well be only me who thinks something like this would be interesting..... because I've yet to receive a single comment about someone else actually liking these.

Luckily, the person I write this blog for (me) likes them, so I'll continue. 😉 Links to various sizes / formats are above.

Getting this picture was comical. In order to get my feet out of frame, I had to lean waaaaaaay over, bracing myself against the sloping roof with one hand, trying to hold the camera steady with another, dripping sweat the whole time in the boilerroom that was this old farmhouse attic. Bonus points for not impaling my skull on one of the many roofing nails protruding from the ceiling.

The area was immediately in front of the window, which caused the boards to glow bright with reflected light, so I used a polarization filter to reduce the reflections and enhance the rich appearance of the wood's grain / patina.

Unfortunately, a polarization filter also acts to some extent like a mild neutral-density filter (e.g. a dimmer, like slightly smoked glass), so that increased the challenge of the shot. Despite being right by the window, there really wasn't that much light. The window was small, and once I got rid of the glare with the filter, it was actually pretty dark, photographically speaking. Note, for example, that the shot just before this one was a 13-second exposure.

In the end, I had to go to ISO1250, which is more than the Nikon D200 is really very good at. (Had I had my Nikon D700 at the time, this kind of shot would have been so much easier).