Urban Countryside!!!

[iandrews]

http://www.zen121200.zen.co.uk/photocomp/08julcowsm.jpg

Camera: Canon 400D, Kit lens
Focal Length: 22mm
Aperture: F/14
Shutter Speed: 1/80
ISO: 100
Mode: Aperture Priority
Date / Time: 02/07/2008 19:51

Converted from RAW in Capture One 4.1. Changed the white balance, increased the exposure and Saturation, and lowered the contrast. Also adjusted the Shadow and Highlight. Then in Elements I cropped, lightened the cow a little, resized, sharpened, and added boarder.

Taken in Mudchute Park and Farm, Isle of Dogs.

From there web site:

"Despite the many changes to the area, Mudchute's Open Space has been preserved as an oasis of wild and natural beauty in an urban environment. The work involved in retaining the 31 acres of Open Space as a major leisure and recreation resource for local people requires a great deal of careful planning and physical input and this has been achieved over the years, solely by the efforts of committed volunteers."


Ian.

[Paranormalist]

Great with the cow and composition of it. Nice light too.
Is almost surreal with the cow and the cityscape directly behind.
Really like it.

[Garf]

Good stuff - as said above, quite surreal.

At first I thought it was one of these (http://london.cowparade.com/cow/gallery)that did the rounds in London a few years back...

[bodoman]

I think you brought that cow with you in the back of your car and dumped it
in the field for effect Ian:grin:

Its a bit surreal alright and i like it, excellent entry:smashin:

[Artie Fufkin]

This is very good.

I hope others follow your lead and we don't end up with a pile of typical rough urban shots :boring: and nightscapes :boring:.

[kevin glover]

I can only echo the above comments, nicely spotted, good composition and good thinking outside of the box, should be a contender for like minded people come voting time.

[mucca_D]

Love this. really cracking shot.

Cow in boot :grin::rotfl:

[stevegreen]

Good spot indded. For me the contrast seems to be quite low on this with the grassed area particularly lacking any punch. I'd probably be tempted to crop the top off too as the top right corner is lacking any interest, in fact it would probably have been an idea to reposition yourself at the taking stage to spread the scene a bit more evenly in the frame. Just my thoughts.

[Paulie-W]

The cow makes it for me. Surreal scene, nice shot.

[senu]

Love it, top marks for finding this one:thumbsup:

[iandrews]

Thanks for the comments guys.

No I didn’t take him there in the boot of my car, it would have been a bit of a squeeze as they are quite big. In fact there was another one out of frame to the left, and I was a bit worried that he would come on over and charge me as I was taking photos and I wouldn’t notice as he was out of my sight, so I had to keep looking to check.

Some of this was luck (the cow standing right where I wanted it to) but this is what I did have in mind for a photo. A few months back I was walking by and the field was full of sheep. I thought at the time how the Canary Wharf towers would look out of place behind the trees, green grass and sheep.

On the evening I took this it had been dull and raining, but it cleared up and the sun came out, so I decided to grab the camera and take a look. I was going to take some test shots as I never thought I would find exactly what I was looking for on the first attempt, and the cow is probably better than sheep. I walked by the following day, and though the cows were still there, they were in another part of the field.

I have already cropped this quite a bit Steve, and decided on the height so most of the cloud to the left was being shown, but agree in doing so it has left the top right empty.

I also had trouble with the light. It was coming from just behind to the left of the cow, so it meant that either I exposed for the cow, and the sky was burnt out, or I did the sky and the cow and grass was too dark. I hadn’t taken the tripod so I couldn’t really do multiple exposures. Luckily I remembered to put the camera back into RAW mode (took it off for my holiday), so I was able to get what I got by editing that. That’s probably why the grass is lacking punch.

Ian.

[electrolyte]

This is certainly a surreal scene alright. That's a great spot Ian. It's a shame that the cow is in front of the buildings - it would work better if it was in it's own space on the right of the frame.

[macker2006]

Great idea mate, very different :smashin: