Exciting News – Win a 16x24” Print

We have a couple of major passions here at NickerTown and we are thrilled to bring two of them together – Photography and Horses. We’ve had a desire for some time to bring some really nice prizes to the photo contest and late last week, we started to pull some things together.

We contacted our friends at Mpix, an awesome photo lab, with an idea to bring their exception skills, services, and products to NickerTown. They really liked the idea and as a result, we are VERY pleased to announce that Mpix has offered some new prizes for the winner of the NickerTown photo contest for at least the next few months.

The Grand Prize winner of the NickerTown will now receive the following prizes. The winner will receive a Mounted, 16×24 print in addition to their choice of a $25 Amazon Gift Card or $25 cash paid via PayPal.

Also, if you haven’t noticed, Mpix has also offered a 10% discount. Look to the right and you will see a link to their site along with the Promotional code – NICKERTOWN10.

Thanks for stopping by,
The NickerTown Staff

Fort Worth Stockyards

On Saturday July 24th we took a trip to the Fort Worth Stockyards for the National Day of the American Cowboy. There was a crowd of about 8000 people who attended the festivities of the day that included a watermelon eating contest, a “Most worn out boots” contest, and a ribbon cutting for the new Texas Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame.

The atmosphere of the event was quite fun and took the opportunity to take the camera and play with getting some “different” kinds of photos. The long horned cattle are very impressive, local flair (costumed characters) along with all the overall setting of the Stockyards was too much for us to pass up.  If you schedule a visit to the Stockyards, you might also find “The Duke” riding around on a beautiful light bay horse, or you might find yourself in the middle of a gun fight.

We had a great time and will certainly be visiting the Stockyards again. Here is a sampling of photos that we took (click on the photo to see a larger view).

All of these photos were shot with a Canon 5D and a EF 24 – 105mm f4 IS lens (no flash). One of our favorite shots was taking the photos near the train from a very low angle (shoe top). While We didn’t get on the ground, it is fun to play with taking a photo from an unusual angle and seeing what you come up with (which is often quite stunning).

Thanks for stopping by,
The NickerTown Staff

June Photo Contest Winner

NickerTown is proud to announce the winner for the June Photo Contest. The Grand Prize winner is Ellen Kauffman for her photo titled “Horses”. Ellen selected a $25 Gift Card from Amazon.com for her prize. She shot this photo with a Canon 40D and 28-135 lens. Ellen says “the horses always come running when they hear the grain bucket!” and it really paid off that she had her camera with her when they did.

As we continue to find, it was difficult to select a Grand Prize winner because there were many fantastic photos submitted. You can see Ellen’s photo; as well as the other finalists; in the winners gallery in the Photo Contest link above.

We hope you will join in the fun and add your photos. The July photo contest that is already underway.

Thanks for stopping by,
The NickerTown Staff

Taking photos around the barn

As we promised, here is a little more information on taking photos around the barn. In the example below, we wanted to balance the light that was being provided by the large open ended arena, which is coming in from camera left, with a bit of flash to proper illuminate Dusty (isn’t he a good looking boy). If we hadn’t given him a little flash, the right side of his face would have been completely lost in shadow. If you look at his right eye (on the left), you will notice the catchlight which is a reflection of the large open door at the end of the isle (about 30’ away). You might also notice that you don’t see a catchlight from the on camera flash because we balanced the available light with the flash. One other thing to note about this photo of Dusty is the beautiful rim light that shows up on the edges of his ears. The distance between Dusty and the camera is about 10’.

Here is the EXIF data for this photo:

When taking photos around your barn, take some time and look for places where you can get some nice natural light and if needed, don’t be afraid to pop that flash out and give your photos some extra pop. Before ending this blog entry, take a look below at the photos we posted on June 17th. The photo of the girl with the horse that has the bridle was shot with natural light (same light, same door that provided the light for Dusty) and NO flash. That photo was just taken from the opposite direction (looking into the barn).

We hope you find this info useful… and be sure to share your photos in the Photo Contest.

Thanks for stopping by,
The NickerTown Staff

Judges Notes for Photo Contest

This is just a quick note…

We’ve been a little remiss… We always try to give some feedback to the finalists photos selected each month in the NickerTown Photo Contest. Well, we just added the notes for the April and May finalists in the forums section. We will try to be better about adding the notes more quickly in the coming months.

By the way – you know, today is the last day to enter the Photo Contest for the month of June. If you wish to participate in the June Photo Contest, you have until midnight tonight (Central US time) to add your photos. We’ll be closing down the June contest and opening the July one.

Thanks for stopping by,
The NickerTown Staff