John's Cows

[Anita Bower]

These are some of our neighbor's pasture grazed cattle. John raises them for meat and sells they by the whole, half or quarter steer. Not organic, but meat from animals that are treated well. John and his family are making it, barely, as a full-time farmers on a small farm that has been in John's family for several generations.

Photo taken on a recent overcast day. Post processing included: Color Efex Pro>Lighten Center, Topaz DeNoise, Topaz Clean>Stylize, and a texture by clive sax .

Constructive critique welcome!

[John Storjohann]

Anita, this is a well-composed, well processed image. I love the warm earth tones you brought out in such a rich manner in the processing...the texture gives a very organic look to the image, and the slight vignette works well in bringing the eye to the focal points of the image. Great use of your DOF...very nicely done.

[Dave Woeller]

Hi Anita, I think your recipe of processing tools has worked very well for this image. If I had to pick one suggestion it would have been to have just a bit of horizontal seperation between the front cow and back, but that's very minor. I really like it as presented.

[Anita Bower]

Hi Anita, I think your recipe of processing tools has worked very well for this image. If I had to pick one suggestion it would have been to have just a bit of horizontal seperation between the front cow and back, but that's very minor. I really like it as presented.

Thank you! I agree about the separation. I would have crawled through the electric fence (John showed me how) but his 3 large barking dogs dissuaded me. :-) Now that I think of it, there may be a way to create separation in Photoshop Elements. I may look into that.

[Judy Howle]

I love the look and feel of this one Anita! The texture is great, thanks for the link. He has some nice ones. My suggestion is to evict the ear tag. I did that on my photos of captive red deer a couple of years ago, about 8 photos!! And half were head and shoulders shots. I should post one of them.

[Paul Lagasi]

I've been zapped by an electric fence..it really gets your attention, nice work, really like the composition and effects..I might have removed the tag but a minor thing.

[Anita Bower]

I love the look and feel of this one Anita! The texture is great, thanks for the link. He has some nice ones. My suggestion is to evict the ear tag. I did that on my photos of captive red deer a couple of years ago, about 8 photos!! And half were head and shoulders shots. I should post one of them.

Hmmm. It never occurred to me to remove the ear tag. Will think about it. I can see how it is distracting.

[Julie Kenward]

I love this one Anita! I also agree that a bit more separation between the cows and the eviction of the ear tag would be worth looking into. The texture and the overall mood of the image is fantastic. I love your rural scenes!

[Indranil Sircar]

Anita, to me the separation is not a major issue but the tag is a distraction. Wonderful processing. TFS the story behind the image.

[denise ippolito]

Anita, I love the feel of this one. Great suggestions already given. The Earth tones are very pleasing.

[Hazel Grant]

When I first looked at this, I thought, wow, this is a nice texture, vignette, etc. Gives the "earthiness" of the farm. got the eyes looking right at you, too. I like that. But I have to say I'd evict the tag, too. I find it distracting, since it's right in the center and so prominent. Otherwise....love it! Good job.. Glad you didn't get electrocuted. :)

[Anita Bower]

OK, photo friends. Responding to popular demand, I've eliminated the tag in my final image. I really appreciate the feedback, as the tag wasn't something I'd focused on. Fresh eyes are always helpful. I discovered I can't create more separation between the cows. Maybe someone else could, but I'm leaving them close together--it doesn't bother me. Again, many, many thanks. :-)

[Bob Miller]

Hi Anita....i like this alot! I vote for evicting the tag ...the seperation is not a biggie! Nice work!

[Hazel Grant]

Thanks for the tag thing.. re the separation.....I don't think it would be a good thing. Almost every major item in the photo is touching just a bit. To separate the cows would create a break in the flow.

[Anita Bower]

Thanks for the tag thing.. re the separation.....I don't think it would be a good thing. Almost every major item in the photo is touching just a bit. To separate the cows would create a break in the flow.

I hadn't thought of it this way, but it makes a lot of sense. When taking the picture, I positioned myself as far to the right as possible to get some separation. Thanks for sharing your views.

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Anita, I like it a lot. Very nicely processed. My only suggestion was going to be the ear tag, but you took care of that already. Nice work!