One late July afternoon in 2022, I went scouting for images in the St-Barthelemy region, looking specifically at the agricultural fields. This region is an hour’s drive east of Montreal. The fields are flat, wide-open spaces that grow a variety of vegetables. They display a great range of colors, textures and patterns.

To get closer to the fields, I turned onto the Grand St-Jacques rural road, a narrow gravel road used by the farmers to get to the fields. I was totally surrounded by lines, and the colors, patterns, and textures I had been seeing. A true Line Festival! When I saw the big tree in the background, I parked the car on the side of the farmers’ road. I installed my tripod and a long focal lens. To compose the image, I used a row of vegetation as a leading line to the big tree. To compress the scene and compose the image, I used a 230 mm focal length (35 mm equivalent). To have a perfect histogram, I overexposed by 7/10 of a stop.

Clouds were low and flat creating a huge soft box that did not compete with the patterns.

I plan to return to this location one hour before sunset to see how the fields and sky look under horizontal light. As always, planning is important.