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

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

Free Photo Contest and some Goodies

NickerTown has started receiving some fantastic entries into the free photo contest. We can’t wait to see more people join in and share their photos. We’re also happy to announce that Shannon Roepke has allowed us to present her article on taking great horse photos entitled Equine Photography Tips. Shannon has put some nice examples photos together that demonstrate the tips that she put together.

We’ve also provided some good information in another article entitled winning a photography contest. We’ve included some basic information as well as some really good resource links.

We hope these articles will provide some good tips and techniques that you can immediately use to enhance your photography skills.

Thank You for visiting,
The NickerTown Staff