barnyard adventure

I was on a mission yesterday to get some good fall photos.  I had a certain place in mind, a spot we had run across when we missed our turn going to the twins' flag football game a week or two ago.  I told Stevie Wonder to remember the spot, because I wanted to return when I had time to get some shots.

This spot looked idyllic.  A barn and some asses.  Well, to be exact, it had some asses, horses and a cow.  It was the reddest barn I had ever seen in my life, a real beauty.  I mean, I've traveled by car all over the United States since I was a small child, and I've seen many barns.  Square barns, round barns, red barns, green barns, barns that were rotten and falling down.  I love barns, and wanted to photograph this one.  I planned it for a week.

So after the game, we told the kids we were going to go by this place to take some photos and would meet them at a favorite Mexican restaurant in a local town when we finished.  I've learned to be fast when I photograph for the same reason I am fast when I shop with Stevie Wonder.  He has no patience.  We also had Maddie with us, so I was just going to take a few shots.

We found the spot, I got out and marched back up the road to the end of the pasture I had wanted to shoot from.  The animals looked at me.  I looked at them.  It was perfect.  They were scattered all over the pasture, but close enough together that it would make the perfect shot.  I got these:

Pretty idyllic and almost perfect...makes me wish I owned a farm just looking at them.  I decided I could probably move around and get some more shots.  The animals didn't seem to be shy.  So I moved a bit farther down the road.  Then I saw a couple vehicles pull up beside our truck.  We were parked in the owners' driveway.  I wondered what was going on, then realized Jen and Wretch had followed us.  They decided they wanted to see the spot, or maybe they wanted to make sure I didn't spend too much time taking photos.

The only problem was that the animals noticed Wretch when she climbed out of her car and walked over to the corner of the pasture near the fence.  I could hear them talking but I didn't know what they were saying.  The only problem was the animals heard them too.  It turns out these animals not only weren't shy, they were friendly, and nosy.  And so the asses drifted away.  Then the horses took off running.  And this is what happened to my perfect pasture scene:

Pretty soon I was left with this:

And this is what Wretch captured with her iPhone camera:

That little blue speck in the distance is me.  They got tired of staring at Wretch staring at them, and began to notice where I was.  So this is what happened next...


















And I ended up with this:

That's the cow in the distance watching.  She was the smartest one, and barely moved, just turned her head from side to side watching the comedy.  She resembled a spectator at a tennis match.

It was funny to watch.  And a weird kind of experience.  We added some excitement to the barnyard's day.  The owners were up on a hill in the distance watching us and probably laughing.

Oh well, the best laid plans of mice and men.  And asses.

~cath xo
Twitter @jonesbabie