The Rural Landscape
By Steve Huff
In 2009 and 2010 I photographed a ton of abandoned houses, factories and rural scenes in Illinois and Missouri. Using a Leica M8 or M9, I sometimes drove 200 miles in a day searching for interesting subjects for this series, and the ones you see below are my favorites. I plan on continuing as it is an ongoing project. Enjoy.
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The 1st image of the house below was shot with an M9 2 year prior to the one below it which was shot with the M 240
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Your portfolio sounds fascinating, Steve! I agree that capturing abandoned houses and factories can tell powerful stories about the rural landscape and its history. It’s impressive that you drove such long distances in search of compelling subjects; your dedication truly shines through in your work. I look forward to seeing how this ongoing project evolves! Thank you for sharing these insights and your beautiful photographs.
Very beautiful photographs..I love mostly landscapes with trees.could you please upload more landscapes for reference to paint, being an artist!.. Thanks and congrats!
Very beautiful photographs..I love mostly landscapes with torres.could you please upload more landscapes for reference to paint, being an artist!.. Thanks and congrats!
Your work is amazing and your reviews keep me coming back. I am wondering what percentage of this portfolio is shot with your Leica gear? The images are just stunning.
95% were taken with a Leica M9 years ago. A couple with the original Leica S. (first one is with the S). Thank you.
Love the photos. I see plenty of similar things here in Tennessee.
Hi Steve,
my faves are your home sweet home, countryside (!), bird on tree & last one – nice post processing! 😉
regards
Marc
The birds crossing the road…. Incredible photograph. Don’t stop shooting landscapes!!!!
Ross Tetrault
Gonzalo said it well. I too FEEL these places. You are able to capture the essence of the scene. Great work.
Artfully inspired!
Hi Steve, This is the type of shooting I’d like to do with my new Olympus EM10; which lens would you pick for that camera to handle this type of photography please?
Id go with the 17 1.8 or the Panasonic/Leica 15 1.7
Wow impressive rural shots! I live in Rural Heyworth Illinois and I’m always driving around looking for old abandoned buildings. i’ll have to share one to your inspiration page.
This is a very compelling collection of images Steve, I can really “feel” these places!
Love this gallery of mostly forgotten memories. There are so many ghosts in these photos of people who lived and loved here. Those who built memories carried with them throughout their. And now the memories are gone. The laughter and tears faded away as the birthplace of memories slows fades itself. And, here are captured the forgotten memories we can never know.
Very nice images, thank you.
I enjoy the birds flocking onto the road! Very Hitchcock!
I guess call me sucker, but I have a tendency to see the beauty in the old houses. What they still could be. Keep up the good work.
I like the one with a lot of migrating birds!
I feel to do landscapes a person usually likes solitude.
Not so much a people person, more an introspective.
You a people person Steve .. that’s why you Seal photos are marvellous.
Great shots, I enjoy your Work. I Hope I can do that. Magic Photography
Cheers From Perth Western Australia..
just..wow… !!!
you take the picture not only with your camera, but with your soul too…
i would like to learn more to take a picture from you..
I am curious to what your favorite lens(es) are for this project? Thanks.
Since you set up a blog with replies I was expecting you to be a little more interactive rather just having folks say “WOW!”
Im interactive when I need to be. I reply to about 200+ e-mails a day. Every day. I do not have time to reply to the hundreds of comments that may come in throughout a day as well. Just not possible to do it all as I am a one man operation. With that said, I thank everyone who comes here and I appreciate all of the comments. This site and the comments are for the community to use to discuss, debate and share. It’s not all about ME but about EVERYONE who comes here.
Thanks. I appreciate your reply. I am looking forward to visiting your site more in the future.
The photo with the birds is one of my favorite photos now….period. Just fantastic.
Steve,
I love these photos. I returned to college to obtain my degree in photography and also have my own business. I love your work.
superb photo’s Steve. My favourite is the Autumnal scene with the leaves, simply beautiful.
Oh my god. Mate, I just died looking at some of these. Just first few blew me away, the square building with stairss, and the shot with the flock of birds mid flight.
Crazy “nutty” stuff!
Great shots, I envy you. Hope I can do that too. Gonna buy my first camera to start.
I find your photos inspiring. Thank you very much.
I can honestly say that these are all great shots! I really appreciate not only your reviews, but your eye.
can I have one of your landscape images printed so I can hang it on my wall?
some cracking shots there steve but I think I would have chosen a better way of displaying them, maybe side to side viewer so that each is displayed on its own
Thanks Tyler. I am kind of limited with this blog layout but may search for a plug in that can display them side by side as I agree with you 100%. Thanks!
Hi Steve,
Check out this slide show plugin. http://wpgallery.tribulant.net/ I use it in a webpage for a club web (htttp://www.mipc.org.au) with the same theme as you have. For a lot of photos I use Adobe Lightroom with flash and supply a link. By the way amazing shots and great web page. I have to send your link to my Leica fan friend.
Steve, I’ve never commented here before, but I find the third photo down to be masterful. The symmetry and composition, along with the coloring, just blows me away!
I like your shots Steve. I specially like Home sweet home, number 7. Can I ask you something? How do you process to get those borders to stand out like that? I’ve tried to get B&W like those but I can’t. I’ve tried with some filters to overlay the black borders over the color but it does not look good. Can I kown how you do it?
Thanks! 🙂
…something else, I love the metallic look of that picture, that is what I want to learn how to do. Is it curves?
Thanks again!