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Cow River
Cow River
Kavey


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Country Life (Classic Editing)
Camera: Minolta DiMAGE 7i
Location: France
Date: Jun 24, 2003
Aperture: f/8
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1/350
Date Uploaded: Jun 24, 2003

 This was taken whilst on holiday in beautiful France. Whilst driving through the country side, surrounded by fields and tractors, my husband muttered something about how cool it would be to take a picture, do some basic adjustments on the laptop and then submit from right here in France using infrared mobile link to dial up our secondary ISP (we have broadband at home).

So we did!

I know my entry isn't particularly strong. I literally had Pete slam on the breaks shortly after our discussion as we passed the cows and river - it was the bends in the river and the possibilities for leading lines that caught my eye. As we were blocking a single lane width two way road I fired off about 4 shots in less than a minute and leapt back into the car to move on.

In our room I chose which image to use from thumbnails alone and slapped it
into Photoshop for a very brief crop and adjustment and then submitted using the tortuously slow and expensive infrared mobile phone dial up.

I would prefer the cows to be positioned in the middle of the main triangle and I wish that the grass were not quite so sun dried and dead looking. My severe crop of the sky is very deliberate - I prefer it this way but others may not. The "bend" in the river is a 3 way junction which is why it looks a little odd but I wanted a zig-zag composition. I actually composed the image deliberately this way in the viewfinder so needed to crop only minimally on the other three sides.

My feeling is that this fits pretty well in terms of theme and has a good
composition but has somewhat drab colours and needs the cows to be larger to create a stronger focal point.

I hope you're in awe of the technology as much as I am!

Statistics
Place: 207 out of 249
Avg (all users): 4.6133
Avg (commenters): 3.8000
Avg (participants): 4.5351
Avg (non-participants): 4.6937
Views since voting: 956
Votes: 225
Comments: 9
Favorites: 0

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AuthorThread
 03/07/2004 11:30:10 AM
Very nice composition. Good job getting the horizon straight whilst focusing on the foreground. There's a nice gradient of colour from bottom to top, which helps draw the eye. I think the main issue is the reeds in the foreground are somewhat unexciting. That said, the shot has a nice depth to it, which helps a lot. I think you produced the best shot you could of the subject, but I think maybe it wasn't the best subjec to choose.

EDIT: At the time I gave this shot a 6.

Message edited by author 2004-03-07 11:30:57.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/07/2003 11:57:40 AM
Thanks for both your comments!

The reason it looks as though something is missing at what likes an elbow bend is because it was actually a junction which went three ways! I tried moving around a little to see if I could work a composition which included it but it didn't balance well.

I absolutely agree about the somewhat washed out colours, and the comment about the overcase weather is a good point - the sun wasn't shining at that moment, as it had been for most of the trip - I guess it was such a relief on the temperature front I didn't stop to think about the impact on the colour and lights in my picture.

I took it on autofocus, focusing on the cows, mainly because that usually gives a good range of focus when not too close to the object and also because I literally leapt out of the car and took a few shots really fast - the car was blocking the road completely and, although no one was coming, we wanted to get off the narrow road (with water on either side) before we met someone coming the opposite direction!

I also agree, I'd like the cows to be a little closer, preferably in the centre of that triangle area.

I really appreciate the comments, thanks to both of you.
07/07/2003 11:29:16 AM
Kavey, I hope you don't mind me giving you some tips on making this photo better.
Try moving over a bit to the left so you can get the whole creek. I think that might get you closer to the cows. Or maybe just cropping off the bottom part of the picture and zoom in on the cows more. I think the time of day was really bad here. The sky, water and cows seem to be washed out. Try early morning or late afternoon. Sepia would have worked too for this shot.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/07/2003 11:24:42 AM
Neat shot Kavey. The steam creates some really strong leading lines but there is a small problem with those line in this photo, just as it makes the turn it makes you feel like you are missing something on that point of the stream and then as you follow it further you see the cows but it keeps going and when I look at it I feel like there should be a cow at the very end of the line as you follow it. But I know you can't do anything about that

Now that I am done telling you what I don't like about it I think overall it has a very good dof used the lighting as natural as it is, works very well, I'm guessing you took it on an overcast day as there is no shadowing cast by the cows.

From one dimage 7i user to another, did you shoot it using manual focus set on infinity? I'm asking this cause everything seems to be in relatively good focus.

As I read the comments left behind I can't help but notice everyone says about the cows being to far away, truthfully they aren't that far away, but the title makes you think they are your main subject...without the title you don't notice that they are so far away. It is a really nice pasture photo and does meet the country challenge.

Anna
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
06/30/2003 03:56:33 PM
the line of the stream to the left side is good, but the cropping in that area is distracting.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 06/27/2003 08:48:15 AM
nice composition and leading lines. I'd like to see the cows a little closer.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 06/26/2003 02:15:15 AM
Too ordinary.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 06/25/2003 11:59:48 PM
Good composition, but subject matter is a little drab.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 06/25/2003 12:27:06 AM
I wish your subjects were closer, and more centered. Its hard to see the cows, because they are so tiny.
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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