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Bluestarpaul

Snuggling Up To Mum

A Highland Cow calf feeding from mum on Dartmoor, Devon, UK

A Highland Cow calf feeding from mum on Dartmoor, Devon, UK
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Jan, 2018

Views

870

Likes

+69

Awards

Winner in Cows Photo Challenge

Community Choice Award

People's Choice in Animal Portraits Photo Challenge

Peer Award

+16

Top Choice

Absolute Masterpiece

Magnificent Capture

All Star

Superb Composition

Outstanding Creativity

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congrats - so sweet :)

Platinum

Love all that hair!!

Ultimate

Thank you all for leaving a comment, very much appreciated :))

What a stunning Picture! Thanks for joining my Challenge „Cows“.

Ultimate

Thank you Maria for your kind words and thank you for organising the challenge.

PRO

sweet shot, congrats on winning challenge 😊

Ultimate

Thank you for taking the time to comment, your kind words are much appreciated :)

PRO+

Congrats!

Ultimate

Thank you :)

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Behind The Lens

Location

My photograph of this Highland Cow Calf was taken high up in an area of outstanding natural beauty called Dartmoor in the county of Devon, United Kingdom. Dartmoor National Park covers 368 square miles of open moorland consisting of many Tors (Hills) with solid granite outcrops the highest being over 2000ft above sea level. Cattle and sheep have been allowed to graze on the rich grass and heathers for many centuries and the whole area is a must for any photographer.

Time

It was around midday when I took this picture.

Lighting

Although it was midday there was a lot of cloud so the sun was not causing any problems with high contrast as the lighting was nice and subdued.

Equipment

My equipment on that day was my old Canon 650D coupled with the excellent Canon EF70-200mm 2.8L ISS11 USM lens. The shot was taken hand held at 200th sec, f6.3, ISO400 at 115mm.

Inspiration

We were visiting this wonderful photogenic national park in the month of August hoping to obtain some usable images and soak up the wonderful views on Dartmoor when i came across this small herd of Highland cows grazing close to a small car stopping place. It was an opportunity not to be missed so we parked up and managed to take several images and thankfully the cows were in no hurry to move away.

Editing

My normal workflow is to start in Lightroom with basic adjustments and then move into Photoshop to finish processing my image. I did do a tight crop on the original image which showed a lot more of the calf and cow, however I wanted to fill the frame with just the calfs head and some of the mother, I think the Canon 70-200mm lens really helped in this shot to keep things nice and sharp. The image was also brought into Nik Colour efex pro to improve contrast and was finished off with a bit of sharpening.

In my camera bag

My camera at the moment is a Nikon D750, 24-70mm lens, Tripod and filters, I do still have my old Canon 650D along with the 24-70m and 70-200mm lens.

Feedback

The first thing I noticed after stopping to take the pictures of the Highland cows was that there were a few cows with their calfs close by. So my 70-200mm lens came in handy as I didn't want to get too close to these animals and possibly cause the cow to attack you to protect her calf. Now bear in mind these long haired Highland cows have large handle bar horns so you do not want them coming in your direction at pace, so if there are calfs around, take care.

See more amazing photos, follow Bluestarpaul

Bluestarpaul

Bluestarpaul

Snuggling Up To Mum

A Highland Cow calf feeding from mum on Dartmoor, Devon, UK

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow Bluestarpaul

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