A friend of mine invited us to their family reunion on their 450 acre farm south of Utica. The barn dates to the 1800's, as many do in Upstate, and it was absolute chaos in there for most of the day as all the children used it for an unusual playground.

But in one serendipitous moment, I managed to catch this young boy sitting on the hay bales in relative isolation and silence. He was clutching a cat, and mesmerized by the sights and smells of the barn. The wonder he felt at that moment appeared to send him into a trance that made him completely unaware of my presence as I made this image.

Photographic Thoughts: If you think of a Black 'n White image as mono-chromatic, similarly, this image can be thought of as tri-chromatic. The wood in the barn, the hay bales, the sunlight, and even the boy's shirt all have orange-brown tones that simplify the overall color palette of the image. I like "minimalist" images of various types - with this one exhibiting "color minimalism".

The composition has been framed with the upper barn window in the position of an artificial "sun".