On The Farm with the Horses and Other Treasures

Yesterday the rain broke and it wasn't too cold (until I was outdoors for hours) so my sister and I visited her brother & sister-in-law's pony farm which is only about 15 minutes from my house. We've made a few visits to the farm in 2007 but I've never been back since I got the DSLR.

(a couple favorite photos from my first visit to the farm from 2007)





This time I brought my tripod with hopes of doing some HDR style photos. I was successful in getting quite a few that I'm very happy with.

I started the visit with the HDR photos since I had to lug the tripod around the farm (with lots of extra care because you really need to watch where you walk on a horse farm LOL!)

There was a slight mishap when I set the tripod up to take a photo and got distracted by a horse approaching behind me. The wind blew and my tripod with the camera attached fell over. I was VERY lucky. It tipped over onto a soft patch of grass and the roller ball handle of the tripod protected the camera by taking most of the impact (thank goodness!!). There was a little but of mud on the back part of the camera but I was able to take my glove and wipe it off. I didn't let myself get upset because everthing seemed to be working out okay. Time will tell if something happened to the camera but I used it the rest of the day and the images seemed ok. I've always had fears of the tripod tipping over and it happened to me. Last night I learned that the little hooks on the tripod where to attach a weight of some kind to the tripod to keep it from tipping (I guess I need to read the manuals that come wiht things instead of opening and using everything without doing so!) Anyway, I was lucky...that's all I can say. Literally 5 feet in front of me was a concrete slap....if I was close the camera may have smasjed right on the slab...but it didn't so I'm thankful! From now on I will be very careful!

I enjoyed taking scenic pics on the farm because they have such great things lying around the farm that are great finds for a photographer but the best part of the day was when we hung out with the horses. For such large and intimidating creatures they are so gentle, playful and loving. They were following us everywhere we walked, getting right in our lenses, nibbling our jackets, and nudging us with their noses. :)

Unfortunately we didn't have too long until the sun was going down on us. I spent so much time with the HDR photos that I had little time to capture all that I wanted
to of the horses. What I did get of them I loved!

Each of the 4 photos below were single RAW images "tonemapped" in Photomatrix. I didn't think this process would work for animals but I love the results!









As you can tell I seem to be drawn to the eyes:



These were tonemapped in Photomatrix and then I applied Rob's Bleach Action over them:



Who could resist these two nuzzling their noses!!



There are so many others I want to share...and I seem to have a hard time narrowing down the ones I like most...

For this photo of the turn out shed I did an HDR in color and then I converted it to B&W as well. I couldn't decide between them because I felt they each had unique qualities so I featured both on my website (I figured "why the heck not?".





The old buses on this farm that are used for storage are from a bus company that my brother in law's grandfather had. They have been featured in many of my photos from previous visits to the farm. Here I was able to capture them in a new way - in HDR!





This old Panel truck is another favorite subject of mine on the farm. It belongs to my sister and her husband. They purchased it a long time ago with the intention of restoring it so that she can use it drive around for her graphics business (Cranbury Custom Vehicle Lettering & Graphics). When she goes on installs she wants this old panel truck to be her vehicle. I think it will be so cool when they get it done.

I love this photo and how it came out becaues of the way the sun was shining on the truck as it was going down and you just can't beat the trees on this farm!



I liked the reflection in the pond here:



I can't resist showing the next two of the same turn out shed I showed earlier. The first one is an HDR in color that I desaturated until I liked the colors and then I boosted the black side of the levels tool in Photoshop to give it a darker look (I love the levels tool!). On the 2nd photo, shot vertically from the same vantage point, I did in HDR and then converted from color to Black & White and did some burning and dodging to bring out the brights and the darks. The desaturated might be one of my favorite shots of the day:





On another note...today I ordered some blank greeting cards to place my own photos in from Photographer's Edge (THANKS FOR THE SUGGESTION ON WHERE TO BUY THEM SUE!). I bought them so that I can create my own photo greeting cards rather than spending countless dollars on store bought greeting cards for special occasions! I think they will be a lot more meaningful if they are my own work with a personal message inside. I started out by purchasing 50 blank cards with a bright white border and a think black stipe around where the photo goes shown HERE. 50 should last me quite a while! I decided not to go with colored border (as much as I wanted a variety). My thinking was the black will go with most photos and if I ordered colors I may find that they are not matching perfetly with the photos. At this point with this project going simple will work best for me.


To view more of my HDR photography click here: http://jenweaverphotography.smugmug.com/gallery/3868580/1/238394103

To view more photos I've captured of the horses here: http://jenweaverphotography.smugmug.com/gallery/2955359/1/238185175