How far can restoration be pushed? Mining Photograph

[Prouty99]

I had a look at the tif but on the face of it, for me at least, couldn't see that there was any more information to glean than has already been shown. Nevertheless it has been an interesting thread to follow.

Hi Handypandy

I hope I will get some more info about this photo over the next couple of days so lets see if we can glean any further clues

In the meantime I have spent quite a while staring at the negative to try to figure out the orientation of the person I thought was a woman in the back row and as I believed at first that 'she' was sitting on something with 'her' skirt flowing to the right.

I think now that it's just an illusion, and now thing the flowing skirt isn't a skirt at all. I think they are wheat sacks

Ok I have taken a little artistic licence here and put the wheat sacks in as well as dressing 'her' in a period correct farmers smock, it gives a little better insight into the way my thoughts are going with this

Just wish I could bring out some detail with the faces but facial features are for the real quality artists, I wouldn't even attempt it with my limited skills

[Prouty99]

Also, remember that object that I thought was another frame above their heads (That was also suggested to be photo damage)

I'm now thinking that maybe its a large hay rake held by the person I thought was a woman

I had never even seen one of these before, but good grief that's some rake, and a world away from a normal garden rake

[Prouty99]

Any theories on this anyone?

[Handypandy]

I have mixed feelings about this. Its your photo, so do as you will, but please only alongside the original, noted as your interpretation. Inventing things to suit your own narrative should only ever be the artistic interpretation.... with the original remaining in tact for the future.... because who knows what may be possible?
Its not that many years that, what we do now, was the stuff of science fiction


edit: the hay rake had crossed my mind too...

[Prouty99]

Don't worry I have the same feelings about adding stuff in, I still have the original, just throwing ideas around really

The hay rake would make a really great subject though, that's some piece of kit if that's what it is. I'll hold off from making any alterations.

If I was photographing this group at the time I would definitely want to get a hay rake into the photo, it would make the composition complete, and I guess back then (I'm guessing late 1890's early 1900's) photographs were a rarity so getting the right shot would be critical. The shot does look staged anyway and looks like the subjects would have been posed just right

[jc26red]

My personal view is that they are hop pickers.
See the link below, hops can grow up to 18ft. The tools you see would have been used to “shake” the frames so that the hops fall to the ground so they can be shovelled up into the buckets. Then emptied into sacks ready for transporting to the loacal brewery. Today, this is all automated.

http://beerlegends.com/hops-planting-location-and-trellis-design#

The bottles you see are more likely to be earthenware bottles for water, The ones that are light brown bottom and dark brown top. They would keep drinking water cooler than glass.

The barn could be the brewery itself or or for storing the hops before they were sent to a local brewery.

Date? I would put at c1920-30. The hat the lady is wearing and the man on far right looks right for that time frame, although the lady’s clothing doesnt look very suitable for manual labour 

We had orchards on our farm when I was a child and also visited hop farms in operation. We had similar tools on our farm to shake the apples and pears down but our orchards were not commercial.
Jenny

[alpinecottage]

I think they could be hop pickers too.  Until fairly recent times (1930s or even later) poor Londoners would go out to the hop fields and camp for several weeks at a time to make extra money.  Family groups went, which would explain the rather odd mix of clothing.  Taking group photos was common too.

[tonepad]

Hops have to be physically picked off the bine by hand (or machine today), not shaken down with long handled implements. They were gathered into baskets not metal buckets.

Agree, there are two large wooden hay rakes in the original photo, these would be too unwieldy to be wondering around a hop garden with all those poles and strings.

Tony

[Prouty99]

My personal view is that they are hop pickers.
See the link below, hops can grow up to 18ft. The tools you see would have been used to “shake” the frames so that the hops fall to the ground so they can be shovelled up into the buckets. Then emptied into sacks ready for transporting to the loacal brewery. Today, this is all automated.

http://beerlegends.com/hops-planting-location-and-trellis-design#

The bottles you see are more likely to be earthenware bottles for water, The ones that are light brown bottom and dark brown top. They would keep drinking water cooler than glass.

The barn could be the brewery itself or or for storing the hops before they were sent to a local brewery.

Date? I would put at c1920-30. The hat the lady is wearing and the man on far right looks right for that time frame, although the lady’s clothing doesnt look very suitable for manual labour 

We had orchards on our farm when I was a child and also visited hop farms in operation. We had similar tools on our farm to shake the apples and pears down but our orchards were not commercial.
Jenny

Interesting...

I'm definitely not a hop expert. I had no idea hops grew on vines but that could explain any large wooden frames in the photo, and I agree with the clothing, if that is a woman she seems better dressed than the rest of them. I was also wondering about the chap on the right who appears to be wearing some kind of beanie hat. He is dressed completely differently to the rest, I thought he was a vet at first but he definitely looks like he has a different job than the rest

Hops have to be physically picked off the bine by hand (or machine today), not shaken down with long handled implements. They were gathered into baskets not metal buckets.

Agree, there are two large wooden hay rakes in the original photo, these would be too unwieldy to be wondering around a hop garden with all those poles and strings.

Tony

I can only see one hay rake in the original photo, have you spotted another? I'm also curious about the buckets when there is a hay rake in the photo, you wouldn't put hay in a bucket and you wouldn't need hay rakes for hop picking or apple collection. Is this a multi crop farm do you think?