The shooting of "The Barns of Ventura County" began with a sadly rundown barn on highway 118.  After taking a picture because it looked so forlorn, Ron Fischer realized that there must be a lot of barns in the county that are  in just as bad shape, and with that in mind, he started to seek out what he thought at the time a dozen or so barns and photograph them.
 
One hundred and fifty-six barns later, he was finally able to stop putting pins in a Ventura County map to mark the locations of each barn.  It took eighteen months of driving up and down the back roads. through fields and lemon orchards.