My sister-in-law, Mary, and I went on a great photo shoot Wednesday. The day was beautiful, and I hoped finally to create photos at a farmhouse outside of Orion, IL. Every time I drove to Orion, I'd gaze longingly at the lines of metal chairs placed around the house...groups of five chairs, seven chairs...all in beautiful bright colors from days gone by. Those chairs reminded me of my grandparents who had several of those on their patio; they certainly weren't very comfortable, but I remember bouncing on them and generally having a great time!

 I really wanted to create photos using those chairs at the subject, so on Wednesday, we drove there. A few weeks earlier, I had asked a native Orion resident, Suzi, who is part of the QCPC if she knew the owners of the farmhouse. She replied that she did, and then I asked her if she thought they would mind if I took photos of their chairs. She said that they wouldn't care at all and actually are very proud of their collection of these "antiques."

Knowing that, I felt pretty confident that we would be successful. When we rang the doorbell a few times and then knocked on the door, I realized that they weren't home. We didn't feel comfortable staying on their property without their permission, so we walked to a house nearby but was still on the property that I knew was a rental (from Suzi). Thank goodness the woman who lived in the rental was home and said that the owners were gone on vacation and without much thought at all said that they wouldn't care at all if we took photos. FINALLY I was going to shoot chairs and other objects that were scattered around the yard!!!

We found not only chairs but also colored horseshoes, two pitchforks, an old fashioned fan, a rooster...a very loud rooster, plenty of cats, but since neither Mary nor I are cat lovers, we just tried to ignore them, and various other farm-like tools.

To say that we were pleased is an understatement. Of course we couldn't leave until we attempted to track down the loud rooster and take some photos of him. I can't say that it was as successful as the chair photos; however,  Mary got a good one of him when we first went to the rental house, but when we went back, that darn bird hid behind bushes, ran around trying to avoid us, and would not stand still!! Oh well... we were in photo heaven and enjoyed our time there immensely. I would love to visit with the owners; I'm sure there is story behind the collection of the chairs.

Next, we headed to the Orion train tracks. I'll leave what happened there for a future post:)