Monday was the day for the final agricultural show of the year on my calendar. It required another sortie into enemy territory, which is always nerve wracking. Still, I wasn't the only invader at the show. One stalwart from my local poultry society was judging and commentating on the pig classes. Doing a grand job of entertaining the crowd too.
Being held in the Dales I wasn't disappointed with the turnout of sheep. There were lots of the expected breeds and a goodly showing of some rarer ones too. Not just Yorkshire breeds. As I'd arrived not long before judging commenced I didn't find much to get interested in until I started to look for details. Although I did manage one judging picture which I like for its black-and-whiteness.
The light was bright, but with the sun being lower in the sky than in high summer it was bringing out texture. Unfortunately I had gone ill prepared for the sort of pictures I ended up looking for. If I carry on attending shows in the future I may well embark on making a series of shots of horn brands.
Once more it was a case of boredom with the same old subjects which led me to start taking pictures in a random way, often not looking through the viewfinder or at the rear screen. Doing that got me this.
At other times I did use the viewfinder. Why it takes me almost all day to get into a zone where I start to see pics I can only surmise. It's probably because I'm not taking photos every day. The more you practice, the luckier you get. As the saying goes. You can't go wrong with a frame within a frame.
The majority of the sheep pictures I took were pretty run of the mill as you can see for yourself here. The same can be said of my feeble efforts from the show's sheep dog trials. Apart from not being well equipped for the task, deliberately so as I hadn't intended photographing the trials, I wasn't in the right frame of mind by the time I left the sheep alone. Whether a 'better' lens would have made any difference I really doubt. I'm not sure I can go anywhere with the sheep dog thing, if I'm honest.
The people and their dogs, rather than the action, seems to be the more compelling aspect from a picture making point of view. Maybe I just need to change my approach.
I was more fascinated by the exhaust pen full of sheep than with the trial action. Unfortunately it was in the shade, which was good for the sheep on a sunny autumn day but not so good for photography. Picking out compositions from a mass of huddled sheep kept me interested for a while. I didn't manage anything I was happy with that was technically satisfactory. Even by my low standards! So I buggered about on the computer to make a graphic image (as opposed to a photograph) out of one frame. Some might call it 'art', but it's not in my book. More the sort of thing you might put on a greeting card.
With the show season over I've got the Blurb book to finish off, and a wait for their next big discount offer before I get it printed. Typically there was 40% off until last Sunday. Not that I'm tight or owt, but I'd rather pay less than more for something!
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