Earl Moore Photography
Water Mill Race - Mabry Mill, VA


If you can’t bring the mill to the water you have to bring the water to the mill and that’s just what this early mill race does. It channels water from an uphill source down to a mill eventually driving a waterwheel. The cross members along the top keep the side boards vertical under the weight and force of the flowing water. This is how water flows to Mabry Mill I posted photos of a couple of days ago.

Earl Moore Photography
Water Mill Race - Mabry Mill, VA

I felt the rough wood texture, interesting lines and background forest would make a good b&w study. I was shooting with a Canon S90 under very bright sunshine so the sun highlights overwhelmed the sensor but it turned into an interesting effect, IMO. I even provided a little push during post processing in some areas.

Friday again, so everyone have an inspiring weekend.


13 Comments

  1. I wouldn’t have been able to resist that structure either and I’d have got quite excited! Historical relics like this one are fascinating and it would have been high on my list to photograph too.

  2. The mill race makes a fine subject for this black and white. The textures in this are excellent.
    The S90 does a fine job of capturing detail. Well done.

    • Don, thanks. The s90 does a decent job on details but has some trouble with handing a wide tonal range. But that’s something you just have to make allowances for.

  3. I like the high contrast on these, Earl. Some folks may not like the loss of detail in the highlights of deep shadows, but there is a lot of texture and detail here that more than compensates. You made the most of the S90’s limitations and made it work for you.

    • Ken, yeah, there wasn’t a lot I could do on these, especially the first one, with the blown highlights the camera gave me…even adjusting the camera exposure there was a good bit of data loss on one end or the other. When I imported them into LR3 and I knew the only hope was to try and work with it. Thanks!

  4. Great example of taking a camera’s limitations and using as a “feature” Earl. This worked out quite nice. Normally with so many blown highlights one would think the image is destined for the trash bin, but you have certainly proven otherwise.

    • Mark, thanks, I appreciate that. Of course when I look at these images I’ll always see the blown highlights no matter how hard I “sell it” otherwise. :-)

  5. I appreciate all the lessons in this image as well as how striking and satisfying it is on it’s own. I fret about the limitations of my G7, and only occasionally manage to make my peace with it’s limitations rather than stewing. You have shown the way to make limitations work. Wonderful work, as always and I am another who sincerely appreciates historical references. Now, I have yet another challenge.

  6. This is the third blog I have visited today with b & w I guess I have to get with it. Really nice old mill, I have only seen and photographed one back in the 70’s.

    • Hi Don, yeah these “trends” seems to run in cycles. I’d use the old saying “great minds think alike” to explain it, but in no way does that explain why I’d part of the bunch. :-)

  7. I love your black and white treatment and how it brings out that amazing textures in the wood. Thanks for the interesting story too.