The thought behind this composition was to give some insight into the environment where the Banker Horses live. You get a view of the flooded mud flats where they feed, with the dunes in the distance behind and a lot of big, blue sky. In my mind the image stirs up thoughts of the smallness of this relatively large animal compared to the bigger scheme of things... of isolation... of serenity. I'd be interested to see what others think.
Shot from the kayak, I'm grounded on the flats in front of the animal. Canon 40D, Sigma 50-500 @ 50mm, iso 800, f/8.0, 1/5000. About an 80% crop. A second horse was cloned from in front of the one shown. A third horse, facing towards the other two and only the front 1/2 in the original shot removed by the crop. Sharpening and noise reduction in Photoshop, plus a slght S-curve applied in curves.
A lovely image, Bob. I think your composition tells the story very nicely. Sometimes we need to throw out the ROT and come up with something a little more dramatic, as you did here.
Superb Bob, a real wall-hanger. I had not heard of "Banker horses" before. They remind me of the situation on Sable Island off Nova Scotia, where wild horses live on a long sand dune that is an island.
If we are talking about an optimal image, it would have been nice to have some fluffy clouds on the right to balance those on the left. Also it looks like a slight CW rotation might be in order but this may be more of an optical illusion.
I really like what you are doing here, love the environment shown especially the mud flats. For me I wish the there is a bit less cloud on the left so I can see more blue sky, however this shot is already a lovely shot as it is.
Wilde Open Spaces - Wild Horse
