My Guide
The ears speak volumes for those who understand the language
The ears speak volumes for those who understand the language
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Jun, 2019Views
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Awards
Spring 21 Award
9Teen Award
Staff Favorite
Peer Award
Outstanding Creativity
Top Choice
Magnificent Capture
Absolute Masterpiece
Superb Composition
Superior Skill
Emotions
Impressed
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Behind The Lens
Location
This was taken at a friend's ranch near Kamloops, BC, Canada. The place is called Dreamscape, so-named because it was to become a dream escape from conventional urban life. It has since become a haven for horses from all walks of life, a learning environment for exchange students from around the world, and one of my favourite places to enjoy!Time
This was taken at around 8 pm. The ranch is near the top of a vast slope that leads south towards the valley, but the sun sets behind it, so sunset is usually somewhat abrupt once the sun drops behind the mountain.Lighting
I was watching the last rays sweep over the ranch proper as the sun was just about to disappear, and moved around behind her then just waited a moment until they lit up the hair on Zoe's ears.Equipment
Shot with my old standby, a D700; it's now one of my back-up cameras, but I still like the feel of the images it makes, so it's not lonely!Inspiration
To answer that, I need to take a step 'way back! I've known this mare for many years, one of those "one in a million" horses you'll hear about, if you're lucky you might meet one, an exceptionally fortunate few may actually have one. My wife had her for about 17 years, and we took her to Dreamscape to retire. When we realised it was time to let her pass, we call it "walking on to the next world", we had a small gathering with a sending off ceremony for her, to help accompany her along her journey. We spent most of the day with her, remembering her life with us & just surrounding her with good energy. I felt this was a fitting image with which to say "So Long, we'll see ya down the trail a ways ..."Editing
Cropping, levels & watermarking is all I did with this in PP. This was for a couple of reasons; I was happy with the image pretty much SOOC, and I wanted to remember & honour the purity of the moment.In my camera bag
I'm a packrat when it comes to gear; I go into some rather remote places, and never quite know what I'm going to see, so I pack zooms, wide-angles, telephotos, and a virtual junk drawer of extra filters, cables, batteries, memory cards, etc.. I'd rather have & not need than need & not have! My standard "always" lenses are Nikkor 85 1.4G, 24-70 2.8, 70-200 2.8 VR & a Sigma 150-600 S. For the most part, they are all on separate bodies; I may swap them around if I'm going for something specific. For bodies I use a D850 as my primary, the old D700 that created this image & a D300, which sort of my grab shot camera.Feedback
A long time ago I got frustrated with newbies coming in & slashing rates to get the work, which forced me to become more commercial in my approach if I wanted to still make a living at it. I was good at it, but I hated it! Now I just create images to convey feelings or share a moment with others. Doing so has helped me make some of the most emotional images, like this one.
