The Mane Attraction

What a beautiful, BEAUTIFUL shot. I love the composition...honestly, your model looks like she had her own stylist.

Marie

Many thanks for your visit and kind words, much appreciated!

Best Regards

Alf

ALBERTO

Thank you so much!

BR

Alf

NEIL

Many thanks for stopping by and for your very encouraging comments. I think this "fellow" might be a Mare ..........a pregnant one at that, but I could be wrong : - )  These are a breed of Welsh Mountain Pony and they do run wild in this area, whjich is a large Nature Reserve,  the most I've seen at once is about 20, but I'm told that there are in excess of 50.

Cheers Neil.

Alf

TIFFANY

Sincere thanks for stopping by, I'm really pleased you liked it. Of course thats something myself and the model have in common........we use the same stylist : - )

Best Regards

Alf

 

 

Nice image and use of rule of thirds I do appreciate your recent comments and suggestions and have made some adjustments and pleased with the out come... Cheers Mate... MJ

The pony seems to be on his way of becoming a star Alf,excellent composition,you managed the DOF excellently here,lovely work,regards and thanks for the support

Another winner!  In several of your recent shots you seem to get a remarkable DOF of some very spread out objects in your image.  Do you combine 2 images to achieve this, or do you just set the camera on its smallest aperture?  And what would that number be on your camera?  My camera goes to 22.  I love this shot! 

MJ

Many thanks for your interest and kind words, much appreciated!

Best Regards

Alf

HARRY

Good to hear from you, I hope are keeping well.

You could be right about stardom for this pony, who knows this time next year we could both be rich agents, me with the photogenic pony and you with your talented son! : - ) Many thanks for your encouraging words Harry.

Best Regards

Alf

CHRISTAL

Sincere Thanks for your visit and interesting comments / questions. In nearly all my landscape shots I like to achieve a good DOF. The smaller aperture, as you indicated does allow for a greater DOF, but It becomes more complicated when you need a fast shutter speed too, for instance when photographing animals or things that are likely to move, it becomes even more complicated in low light. I suppose it's a question of balancing the settings with the light conditions at the time. The aperture settings will depend largely on lens, in this case I had 70 - 300mm Tamron lens set to 1/15 second at F32 (Minimum Aperture Size) The focal length I used was 100mm and the ISO 200. I had decent light and a tripod so that allowed for these settings. The other big plus was the horse was just staring at me without making any sudden moves. But you can use things like a higher ISO, and exposure compensation - / + in order to gain a faster shutter speed whilst still achieving a good dof.  I don't usually use multiple images for the purpose of DOF, though I have experimented with up to 5 focus points with a fixed focal length lens, and blended them in photomatix for a "sharp front to back" HDR image. Hope this answers your questions and thanks again for your interest Christal.

Best Regards

Alf

 

Beautifully composed and great subject choice. It has a nice feel to it...:) Very well done! Kind regards.

Excellent explanation, Alf!  Very illuminating!  You're the best!  I would love to have a camera that stopped down more than F22.  I find it limiting in some instances.  Someday!  :-)

ANABELA

Many thanks for stopping by and for your supportive comments. I usually spend my time in this particular location mainly photographing the scenery, on this day the light was dull and gloomy so I focused my attention on the horses......It was a pleasant change too.

Best Regards

Alf

CHRISTAL

Glad to be of help, I'll send you a bit more info by email when I get a chance

Kind Regards

Alf

very pretty.  i think it would be better to make the bg either as sharp as the foreground or obviously blurry.  it seems to hover in between.  best, j

I can't disagree with you, I used a 70 - 300mm lens and turned the aperture adjustment in the wrong direction after swopping lenses, and ended up with this shot at f32 ... although it allows a good dof it doesn't keep the background sharp enough at these extremes, but I still liked the shot and didn't want to manipulate the background with fake blur: - )

Cheers Jamie thanks for stopping by.

Regards

Alf

Alf, the hair in her eyes, the thick, impressive coat, and the mane like a pony tail on the side of this gorgeous mare make the shot.  I love how her ears point to you, listening for your instructions perhaps?  Though her look feels weary.  

you'd hear from the shutter that it was f/32 if the camera hadn't (presumably) automatically upped the iso.  just a guess.  it was a minor minor niggle anyway.  i'm not at all certain it would be better with more blur.  you could have had less blur by focusing on the back of the horse and letting the dof take care of the front.  best, j

DONNA

Yes I think your right, it's her crowning glory that makes the shot( Her hair / mane) . You are very perceptive about the weary look too, the only reason I got this shot, that is with the horses head up, instead of eating, was because I was probably invading her space and she was deciding if she should stay or go. I slowly backed off after getting a couple of shots, I'm always aware that these horses are wild and that they need thier own space. Many thanks for stopping by Donna.

Regards

Alf

JAMIE

The ISO is set at 200 and wouldn't change automatically, unless I used automatic settings, which I don't. I may of course have taken a quick look at the histogram and adjusted the exposure compensation to suit, thats a far more likely scenario, as I needed to make any adjustment quickly before the subject decided to move. The other factor that may have some bearing on it, is that on some of these shots I used the camera hand held, and others I used a tripod. The trouble is I have no idea which as it was all happening very quickly.

Regards

Alf

 

 

i suppose the shutter speed will have been longer than 1/50 s, but perhaps not that much longer.

In addition to the pleasing subject, composition, colour and light, Im impressed by the symbolism arising from the combination of different motifs that evoke ideas of vision/enlightenment suggested by the eye of the donkey (emphasised by the one being hidden), the Christian symbol of the cross and the lighthouse. Symbolism grounded in the very earthy donkey in its rural environment. Toast to you Alf!

Love your title.

Humble Apologies to Jamie and Bettie for my very late response, these must have somehow escaped my scrutiny.

JAMIE

It's always a pleasure to supply the background info, and your views are always very welcome.

Best Regards

Alf

BETTIE

Sincere thanks for your deep and thoughtful analysis, very much appreciated. I hadn't thought of the image in quite those terms, but after reading your words I can begin to appreciate your vision.

Best Regards

Alf

TONY

It probably got more ratings than the image : - )

 

An extremely symbolic image for me...beautifully framed in a lush setting and exquisitely photographed.  I finished writing my little comment ten or fifteen minutes ago, and I just now realized I'm still sitting here looking at the photograph and haven't even hit the "proceed" button.  This is a very strong image for me.

Thank you so much for taking the time to contemplate this one.

My personal favourite from this location is "Old Red and The Lighthouse" situated in my portfolio somewhere.

It is a very special location (Llandwynne Island) situated on the coast of North Wales off the Isle of Anglesey.  There is a lot of history attached to this tiny place, and the wild ponies that roam free here do symbolise the spirit of the place. 

Best Regards 

 

Alf