Curious cows revisited

Three years  ago I published Curious Cows, a post about getting stuck in the Macclesfield Canal mud outside Congleton, and having a herd of cows mosey over to stare at me.

The picture  has proved unaccountably popular, and it's been used as a stained glass window in America and for a cattle organisation in Australia, amongst others.

Yet I've never been properly happy with it.  It was a snatched photo, about 5.30pm on a late September afternoon, and I often wondered what could be done to improve the technical quality and 'atmosphere'.  Here's the scene, looking back as I left and the cows slowly ambled off:

Here's the original of the main picture as it came out of the camera:

So while my initial adjustment helped, there's more in the photo, I know it.

A few weeks ago, when I was talking with Anna Lovatt of NB Maggie Anne about her new Heart of the Water podcast, she let slip about how she used Photoshop extensively in her design work.  So I mentioned Curious Cows, and she gamely agreed to see what she could do with it.

Yesterday Anna showed me the first results. 

And I am astonished.  She's done several variants, but perhaps the most impressive is the one below, which dramatises the foreground, discovers unseen (or maybe introduces) clouds, and bathes it in new, more saturated colours, almost painterly in their effect.

There's also a more straightforward one which attempts simply to catch as much detail as possible, as neutral as possible:

The lesson: there's often a lot of detail and character in almost any picture.

You can 'cheat' a bit, as Anna has done in adding clouds and vignetting the foreground to fool the eye into thinking there's more detail in the shadows than is actually there.  I think that's fair game. 

I didn't know what I was doing when I stepped off the boat into that field three years ago, and the cows started to mosey towards me (below), like gunfighters spoiling for a duel.

But it worked out fine, with the help of a professional.

Comments

[Anna]

I was honoured to work on Andys pics. Hes a great photographer.

To Halfie, if you have ever spent any time in a darkroom, all i did with a computer is similar to what would happen in the exposure and printing process. Unles you develope your films at boots, almost evey photo you have seen for about 100 years is manipulated in some way hon.

Anna x

[Jaqueline Almdale]

Your photo recalls a time when I was up and on the road at 5 a.m., driving my sixteen year old daughter to school for driver's education classes. Neither of us being morning people, we sat quietly in the car, our travel mugs steaming with hot tea.
As the sun crested the low hills in its golden morning glory, Jesse noticed a herd of cows standing in a large circle in the middle of pasture. "Look Ma, the cows are doing ritual!"
I still smile with the memory of those cows standing in a perfect circle in the morning sun and my daughter's amusing take on the scene, every time I have occasion to drive past those fields.
While photo shopping pics can clean them up, change the tone and atmosphere, and deliver a tweaked perspective, my favorites are usually your photos au natural.
Like so many of your fellow boaters you've developed a fine eye for photographic composition. Thank you for sharing your outlook on the world.
Warm regards,
Jaqueline USA

[Capt Ahab]

Halfie
Thats really not amoosing!

[Halfie]

Too late, Cap'n. I'd already spotted the "c" word! (It's only the fifth photo down I have a beef with (sorry).)

[Capt Ahab]

Shh.... dont tell Hafie about the edits!