Hmm... I'm really interested to see how this does. It is not my favourite photograph of 2011 (that's not to say I don't like it a lot) and I'm also a bit apprehensive over entering it due to the 800 pixel restriction which makes the image a little hard to see and thus looses some impact in my opinion. Several people I know seem to like it a lot however, including one person I highly trust the opinion of, who remarked "it makes me want to cry", so that's good enough for me.
About the photo I took this photo 6 weeks after obtaining my first slr (and thus trying my hand at photography). It's taken on a cliff top near me where the few trees there are all grow like this from the constant coastal winds. The 25th of May 2011 was a very hot day here and with little else to take cover under up there most of the wildlife were taking refuge in the shade of these trees.
I was fortunate with the clouds that day, some really fantastic formations and in no way overbearing, just adding to any image I took nicely, as though they were positioning themselves for me =).
I took several shots of this cow, however after my first shot it appeared to show interest in my interest of it and raised it's head to look at me, thus all but the first shot to me lack some of the isolation I find this shot portrays.
Editing was done primarily in sep2 with final resize and sharpening done in ps5. So that's the capture and process, interpret as you wish. I just hope the speed voters don't miss the cow and so the vote stays an honest reflection on the image (no matter how it does).
Trivia I had originally titled this 'The Lonely Cow'... unfortunately upon googling this I discovered that's already the name for a rather odd looking Japanese this-isnt-porn-its-art porn film, so name was swiftly changed.
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Place: 75 out of 410 Avg (all users): 6.4033 Avg (commenters): 7.6452 Avg (participants): 6.3695 Avg (non-participants): 6.5750 Views since voting: 750 Views during voting: 476 Votes: 243 Comments: 35 Favorites: 3 (view)
Probably my fave for this challenge. The photo feels so static, but the tree has obviously had a tortured life. It feels caught in time here. The centered comp works well, I think.
Very cool capture of the single cow lying under the tree (strange windswept trees like this always look awesome to me in photos) and it feels very moody and almost surreal. The sky is awfully dark and sort of overbearing, I'm not sure what time of day you took this but I might have tried to shoot with a lighter sky (or possibly dodged it a bit in PP.) Great shot overall though, I like it a lot.
I stand not alone
in an empty field.
I bend with the wind
offering shade and shelter
to my friend, the rock.
Great B&W processing! To me, the rock and the tree are like old friends/companions sticking together all alone in the vast emptiness of this open field.
"Not quite being able to make out the object under the tree is what makes me score this lower than I want to..."
...was going to be my comment. And then I thought, it doesn't matter that I can't tell what's under the tree (although I'm guessing a cow?) It's still beautiful. It's just a great shot. So, scoring this as if I knew for sure that that is a cow.
There is something odd and intriguing about this. Odd tree; center crop; moody style. Not sure if the fence, clouds, left portion of the photo hurt or balance the photo.
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