This is another post on App Stacking Recipes similar to App Stacking for Variations.   In response to The WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge, today’s iPhone 4 image is focused on renewal. For renewal to happen we need to recognize the need for it:  “I’m in need of transformation.” Nothing says this better than decay.

On a recent trip I found this old barn near the Kansas / Missouri border, leaning and sagging, almost ready to sit down with its roof beam across its floor joists. It has only a few years or one bad storm before lying down and is definitely in need of renewal, perhaps even transformation.

I was on KTA35, the interstate, and semi-trucks were zooming beside me at 75 miles per hour so I pulled off the road and into the verge. But I didn’t get too close because “No Trespassing” signs adorned the barbed wire fence.

I had zoomed past at dusk a few days before but on the opposite side of a toll road and separated by a median and 75 mph traffic. Despite its looks or perhaps because of its looks, I had returned to the barn, carefully watching for it on the return trip. I set the base in Snapseed by increasing Structure and Ambiance and darkening the corners and foreground through Local Adjustments.

Then I added 100% Watercolor filter in PhotoForge topped off with a warming touch of the Oil Painting filter.

It’s a very dark photo now and it’s too dark so I brought it back into Snapseed to brighten the building and posted the result to Instagram.

It’s still dark but the subject is more visible. There are many brighter and happier ways to edit this photo. This particular vision gives both a sense of the need for transformation and of the hope for it.

On a more personal rather than technical level, the image also reminds me of Brene Brown’s book, The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are where she writes about our need for authenticity over perfection. We feel at home with authentic people.  We feel uneasy with people who pretend that everything is perfect. This barn is authentically imperfect and beautiful at the same time. I’m like that barn. I am just as in need of transformative touch in my life as this barn is and quite possibly just as beautiful in that need.

On a personal side, What’s been renewing you lately?

On a technical note, what would make these “App Stacking Recipes” blog entries more useful to you?

Blog entry and images by Jennifer Hartnett-Henderson © 2012