Sheep and Windmills

Great composition and original photo indeed. I like the partially desaturatd colours.

All the best!

wow... there is so much you can read in this shot it's amazing.

 

lovely message you giving us visually.

 

Thank you,

 

Isabelle

Incredible shot.....Nature and technology.....The menacing sky adds a lot of power to the image.....

I like it so much, the topic, composition and contemporaneity- poetry from our time. Ed

Excellent indeed Wayne ! Looking at your other work, we would guess that it is most likely this scene was most likely shot somewhere in the southern part of the North Island, probably in the Manawatu ? Are you happy to let us know where ? Kind regards, Jim

Hi I shot the photo in the hills just behind Palmerston North which is where I live, for those who have no idea where that is,its in the lower part of the North Island of New Zealand.

Hope that helps cheers Wayne.

Truly amazing, not the usual sheep and farming photos you might expect.

A Masterpiece!! Great job

What an amazing shot. Congratulations, Wayne.

very good ! cheers Jana

Extraordinary! My compliments! Regards, ~~~~~~~~~Linda

A remarkable shot, excellent!

I am a bit late for the party in this one. You deserve all the positive comments. I have nothing to add other than to let you know I am glad I have seen this.

What a shot, Wayne! Just everything here is so interesting, rich in detail and cleverly composed. big 7/7 and best regards, Vadim

Just to good for words......

Please note the following:

• This image has been selected for discussion. It is not necessarily the "best" picture the Elves have seen this week, nor is it a contest.
• Discussion of photo.net policy, including the choice of Photograph of the Week should not take place here, but in the Help & Questions Forum.
• The About Photograph of the Week page tells you more about this feature of photo.net.
• Before writing a contribution to this thread, please consider our reason for having this forum: to help people learn about photography. Visitors have browsed the gallery, found a few striking images and want to know things like why is it a good picture, why does it work? Or, indeed, why doesn't it work, or how could it be improved? Try to answer such questions with your contribution.

The power dog not been mentioned with the title, should have been “ The Cheeps, Windmill and the Dog”.
Very appealing image, the lighting here is well balanced and so the DOF brought out all of the fine details all over this place, the colors are also very vivid and adding to the atmosphere, I think the composition is also very well engineered and thats what connect this capture with the viewers.

Deat Wayne,
Great photo, only compliments. And what a story is inside this image. Look at all elements of this image. The dark sky the windmills. The sheep, the dog. Something is happening and it affects us all. Probably it is what gives this image an extra dimension beside all the technical qualities. Well seen!
Congrats ans respect. Kind regards
Herman

Nice shot, great sky. This works for me because of the juxtaposition of the old and new. The modern windmills and the sheep being herded by the dog the same as has been done for hundreds of years.

I would like to play with the composition some, maybe stand to the right about 15 feet and put the closest windmill more to the right. Then the road would be at a diagonal and the white building would be less prominent. Of course, with dynamic subjects finding the perfect composition isn't always possible, the dog and sheep may have only been in a good spot for a few seconds.

I would consider converting this to mono. My eyes keep going to the color and the main subjects are mostly monochrome.

Tremendous composition, and a first-rate case of being there and ready. I'm distracted, unfortunately, by the too-visible artifacts of the masking that shows where the monochrome processing transitions into the areas left with color. I think I'd have preferred a somewhat desaturated sky/windmills over the 100% B&W that's used only selectively. I wouldn't normally split hairs, but it's such a magnificent image, otherwise.

It isn't so much the combination of old and new here that appeals to me here, but the way the image flows. The combination of the horizontal formed by the sheep, the road leading up the middle, and the towers flowing diagonally off to the left really works for me here. It's a dynamic composition composed of static elements...and even though the sheep are more or less standing still, the viewer still gets the impression of movement.

I also love the amazing detail, especially in the foreground sheep and their individual facial expressions.

It's a very well made and composed photograph. The only thing that I would change about it would be to make it a totally black and white image. I never use the word "distracting" in photo critique, but the green of the grass sort of brings my eyes to a stop in the middle of the photograph, rather than letting my vision move smoothly from the foreground to the background.

This is either a great example of being ready when a subject presents itself (as Matt suggested), or a great example of knowing the daily routines in area well enough to predict when this juxtaposition might present itself, and then going out when the sky was appropriate. In either case, the photographer certainly nailed the timing, subject matter, content of the image, framing, etc. I especially like his choice of the road bisecting the image and leading directly away from the viewer instead of being at an angle as suggested in one of the earlier critiques.

However, I have a big problem with the selective desaturation of the sky and foreground, leaving a horizontal color band in the middle of the image. IMHO, the technique of selective desaturation has been so overused, especially, in kitchy / sappy Hallmark and Hallmark-clone greeting cards that it conjures up a feeling (at least in me) that detracts strongly from this image.

I suspect that at least some of the motivation behind his use of this post-processing technique was to contrast modern eco-friendly techniques (ie, the windmills) with more classic eco-friendly techniques (ie, sheep driven by a dog). However, if this was the indeed the motivation, I suspect that the contrast would have been just as effective without the selective desaturation, relying instead on what was probably a cyan/blue cast in the sky and road to contrast with the yellow mid-image hues. I don't think a complete B&W conversion, as suggested by some of the previous reviewers, would be as effective at promoting this contrast.

Finally, I would comment that I'm also not fond of the use of vignetting unless it serves the particular image, e.g., to help control movement of the viewer's attention. In this case, the image is, in the broadest terms, horizontally stratified, and, IMHO, the strong radial / corner vignetting employed in this image certainly is not necessary and doesn't enhance the image.

Although I'm obviously guessing that the intent of the photographer was to highlight and contrast two eco-sustainable techniques, I think that the changes that I am suggesting would hopefully not only be in line with his intent, but enhance the appreciation of the image in an even wider audience. OTOH, the changes I am suggesting would almost certainly decrease the "instant drama" factor of the image, making it less eye-catching and more like a straight documentary image of the scene. It's the photographer's call which way to go should he want to explore other versions of this image.

Just my $0.02,

Tom M

Very good "Seeing" in this composition. I really like the juxtaposition between the old & new. I find the dog adds the little extra to the shot with a sense of his tension & urgency to get his task done

Strong message in this photo!

We may see the contrast between old (flock) and new (wind electric generators) and understand that both are needed...

I like also the position of the man in one side and the dog in the other: full control!

Excellent!

It's hard to be entirely sure, but this looks to me like a use of selective color, with most of the image reduced to gray tones except for the glaring yellow grass (which is unbelievably bright considering it seems to be under a heavily overcast sky). Is there really no color in the buildings, the windmills, etc.? Even an overcast sky generally has hints of blue in the clouds, not the completely dead gray we see here, and the man standing on the right seems devoid of color as well (though it's hard to tell without a larger image). If I am correct about this, then I have to wonder why the grass, of all things -- the least interesting part of the picture -- is made to compete so strongly (by virtue of color) against the things that really matter here: the dog, the sheep, and the windmills. The effect is rather artificial, as selective color usually is; and this seems at odds with the rural scene, which might suggest a more natural, traditional approach. Also, darkish grays against slightly greenish yellows does not make for a particularly pleasant color scheme. When I try to visualize the image with gray grass, it seems more naturalistic, but also less eye-grabbing; but is eye-grabbing all that matters? I wonder if full color would have been better all around, but without the original image to compare, one can't really say. One thing that can be said for the selective color in this case is that it creates a sort of negative-space effect where attention is drawn from the dog and sheep up the road to the windmill and clouds -- but only after the initial reaction of noticing the bright, unbelievable, almost day-glo grass.

The dog, standing facing the sheep, looks like he is guarding or herding the sheep, preventing them from moving towards the camera. Centering him in the frame gives him a balanced place in the composition and a sense of strength, as if he's saying, "You sheep won't get past me. Don't even try." Meanwhile, the man off to the right adds a pleasant touch of asymmetry to the foreground.

It is interesting, and fortunate, that the photographer managed to catch the nearer windmills when nearly all of them had one vane pointing almost straight up. This emphasizes their verticality (is that a word? you get the idea) and makes the best use of the upper part of the frame.

In the end, the dog really makes this shot. Without it, there would be no sense of confrontation or drama in the foreground to match the dramatically dark clouds.

To sum up, I like the shot more than I like the post-production.