Very last minute idea and submitted this with one minute until cut-off.
I noticed how the bit looked like a smile and remembered the challenge. I wanted the photo to be one where the viewer had to discover the smile and not have it be extremely obvious.
Taken indoors at a very slow shutter speed with room lighting only (no flash). PS processing was very basic and included curves adjustment, shadow/highlight, brighten/contrast, and sharpen.
Statistics
Place: 36 out of 82 Avg (all users): 5.6538 Avg (commenters): 6.2500 Avg (participants): 5.3750 Avg (non-participants): 5.7324 Views since voting: 969 Views during voting: 331 Votes: 182 Comments: 12 Favorites: 1 (view)
What excellent colors you found for this very interesting entry in the Smile Challenge. Very well photographed and excellent detail here. Fabric details, leather quality and tooling all show off to perfections.
Are you waiting for the "but?" It is hard to find one. true, you have included more real estate than required for the Challenge topic, but in a way it made it fun to search for the smile. Our busy voters? Well, not so much into searching. The very nice detail on the saddle blanket; that black arrow, does obscure your "Smile" just a little, making it even more of a challenge to find it.
All this may be why you scored in the middle instead of at the top of the pack. (herd?) In any event, you did get a good scoring number and you have an image you can be justly proud of.
For those who are curious as to the reason for the curb chain with the snaffle... :)
This combination had to be used with a young filly we were breaking last Spring. She had a bad tendency to throw her head and play with the bit. We wanted to bit her as gentle as possible so we went with this snaffle. In order to keep her from flipping it, we added a curb chain. Of course a curb chain has no effect on the chin with a snaffle but it did work well to keep this bit in place. I've also done this a lot also with my hunter jumper headstalls but with a leather curb instead.
Getting started...
Here she is being ridden for the first time by me...
I like the rustic South-West feel of the shot. There is a distinct smile so the shot works for the challenge. If I had to be a critic, perhaps the shot could have used alittle more saturation, but overall, I think its a good shot!
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