I did a series of “in the barn” photographs recently featuring antique egg carriers, farm fresh country eggs, pitch forks and what not. I didn’t go to an actual barn but rather created one in my studio. The walls and floor were stained rough, rustic wood. The props came from antique store trips but the special ingredient was feathers from a couch pillow and some chopped mulch hay.
I also included a set up with Tiki the Wonder Westie who played the part of a farmer collecting fresh eggs from the hen house.
Funny thing happened today, a representative from the chopped hay company, Lucerne Farms contacted me on the old telephone. They had seen some of my farm fresh egg still life’s and love them. They were about to license them from Shutterstock and wanted to make sure that the product in the photos was their chopped hay mulch product. Which it was. I picked up a bag of their mulch for the garden at a local garden center (Long Acers in Lebanon) and used it around my tomato plants. A bucket of extra bits I saved for my barn set up in the studio.
The chopped hay was the perfect touch for a realistic barn set up where bits of hay and forage always end up on the barn floor to be swept up later.
Here are some examples of photographs in which the Lucerne Farms chopped saltwater marsh hay alternative did the trick in creating a realistic barn scene for photographs.
Lucerne Farms is promoting a new product aimed at chicken coop owners called “Koop Clean” and is currently featuring one of my farm fresh eggs photographs on their Facebook page.