This is Yamikani Paulo. He is 13 years old and has been herding cows and sheep since he was 5. Yamikani is the eldest son of one of two families that live on this farm. His younger brother also helps with the herding.
There are about 25 cows on this farm and about as many sheep. Yamikani's mother and the women from the other family grown maize in the nearby fields.
There three cow pastures in the area in which the herders rotate the animals. Since Yamikani and his brother both attend school, they only herd in the afternoon, usually to help bring the animals back to the barn.
Since the owner of the farm was unable to maintain the upkeep of all the buildings, there was one very large building and a few smaller ones that was left to fall apart. All the buildings showed signs of neglect. Only the foundation and parts of the walls remain on some buildings. I wanted to photograph the cows there, but the head herder had just left (Stanley and I saw him on his way out) and Yamikani didn't want to loose any animals. Some of the females were also pregnant, so he didn't want to anger them since they are already fairly testy.
While I was shooting, the small tan calf just behind Yamikani kept coming up to me. The mother somehow blamed me for the calf's curiosity and threatened to charge a few times. Luckily, the cows never charged and none of us got hurt.
Props to the cows for becoming used to my lights very quickly! I was afraid the lights would spook them.
Edit Gimp:
- New layer from original > Colorize yellow/orange > Mode: Soft light > Lower Opacity to 30%
- Flatten Image
- New layer from flattened image > Increase brightness and contrast > Add layer mask to show only top > Lower opacity
- New layer from flattened image > Decrease brightness and increase contrast > Add layer mask to show only bottom and sides
- Flatten image
- New layer from flattened image > Mode: Screen > Lower opacity to 40% > Mask out upper left and face
- New layer from flattened image > Convert to BnW > Mode: Hard light > Lower opacity to 20%
- Duplicate ^above^ layer > Mode: Normal > Lower opacity to 10%
- Flatten image
- Add new layer from original > Lower opacity to 40%
- Flatten image
- Resize
- Convert to jpg
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I love the way the herder is in the foreground and the heard in the background so plenty to look at. You captured a beautiful look of pride on his face.
Sweet photo, though I think having the boy in the foreground minimizes the true subject of the shot. I wish he'd been closer to that adorable calf behind him.
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