Click for the money shot
Thats an easy mistake to make. This sort of scene regardless of whether it’s out in the sticks like here or down a back alley in suburbia or ‘downtown’ are easy to wander past without a thought for modelling. But one of the things that can differentiate the ‘drive by’ to the ‘observer’ is what can be seen and taken away for modelling in this simple view. With this wide screen shot we can tell several things about what we’re looking at;
It’s cold, frost on the ground, clear sky, no leaves, autumn/winter subdued colors to the foliage.
It’s either sunrise or sunset, (rise actually), long shadows and a warmth in the colors, despite we know it’s cold.
The telegraph wires, not straight, sagging, neither are the poles straight either, but its only apparent from this angle, view from the side of the valley, they all look upright.
A fence post surrounded by brambles, drain sections, opposing ends showing, they’re tidy, but they’re not tidy.
The gentle rise of the lane away from the viewer, the lanes not flat it slopes off to the left, the deep ditch between the lane and the hedgerow, with long grass spilling onto the lane.
A trailer parked by the gate, not been used in a while, that can’t show us anything, or maybe we should have a look …
Click for the money shot
It hasn’t moved for a while that much is certain, possibly for at least one summer.
The load is overgrown the grass has had time to establish itself and grow to a height of 2-3ft and the trailer is full.
Theres no tyre tracks, (they’re inflated though) but the running gear isn’t overgrown, theres also no towing loop on the drawbar, just the mounting. We know the trailer will be used again, why put the drawbar on a log to keep it off the ground otherwise?
The string still has color on it, (it’s not totally bleached). At some time the left hand side (as we look at it), of the trailer has been in shade, the green showing on the drawbar tells us this even though this is currently in unobstructed sunlight.
The chassis still shows us its original bright red, the trailer body a bleached blue. The floors dropping out though, see how the floor is curving over the top of the wheel on the left hand side, and some of the earth is falling through.
That body holding the floor in, (only just), most of it is rust, but look at the color variation in it. The blue showing through at the centre behind the curled over brake hose, is the paint protected by the hose, or do the outer edges naturally get more trashed from spray and damage off large tractor tyres?
No, nothing to see here, nothing at all, it’s just a trailer parked by a gate …
Albion Yard 
I think the tyres are different too. However it might be a shadow?
It just goes to prove how subjective the opinion ‘nothing to see’ in fact is. There’s a whole range of interesting details and information in that shot when you learn to look at it closely and subject it to a proper process of thought.
It is in fact a rather appealing vista and it does make me want to consider an Autumn or Winter setting for my own project.
Nicely observed, Paul.
The other thing that struck me about the scene are the concrete pipes laying in the field to the right. They have not been there for long – the grass is short around them, but they speak about works in progress off renewing drainage – I would suspect somewhere out of shot there is evidence of trenching, possibly spoil heaps or a slight dip in the ground where pipes already and the ground has settled…
Abandoned things like this litter both the country side and towns – they are not scrap – just unused. I suppose the thing to avoid then modeling this sort of scene – is to resist the temptation to incorporate too many of them.
And the animated snow effect is pure genius.