Wow! Has it been almost a year since I last posted any pics? Slap, slap, slap (mentally slapping my hands)!
Well – What do you get when you add fog, a good friend, and cowboys??? Artwork opportunities for Frances!
My good friend Elizabeth, (who quite honestly is the most adventuresome girlfriend I have) asked me if I wanted to go out and photograph the cowboys branding out at her ranch. Yeah baby! I was so pumped! Alas, when I woke up it was foggy. It wasn’t kind of foggy, it was a pea soup, where did the front of my car disappear to, foggy! And I was driving!!!!!! Aaagggghhhhh!
I carefully made my way to her house, picked her up, and off we were into the dense fog. Now I have to let you know — Rick DOES NOT LET ME DRIVE in perfect weather if he’s in the car. Did I relay this information to Elizabeth — uh nope! My fingers gripped the steering wheel until my knuckles were white and pasty. Elizabeth I’m sure, was gripping her seat, and had her foot planted firmly on the floor while silently praying for safe travel (I’m just guessing because I was not about to take my eyes off the road)! After about a 30 minute drive, we managed to find Clint, the ranch foreman, and pulled the truck off to the side of the road by the fence line.
We could hear the cattle but couldn’t see them. Then, one by one, the cattle slowly appeared from nowhere and made their way towards Clint. Just when we thought the cattle were headed in the right direction, they suddenly started back tracking and headed back into the fog. Ooopps — evidently my truck had them spooked (or maybe it was my bad hair)! So I re parked the truck on the other side of the road, and, as they had earlier, the cows started making their way back towards Clint. It was mesmerizing watching the cattle and cowboys popping out of the dense fog.
I had a fabulous time watching these skilled cowboys roping, branding and taking care of the cattle’s needs. Whew! They work hard!
I did my Photoshop thing to a majority of the photographs using Marcus Bell’s Instant Effects Volume I Lightroom presets. I purchased the presets about a year and a half ago and just never found a good use for them — until now! I found that the preset, Aqua Bike, gave me the look I wanted. I left others alone, other than adjusting the contrast and sharpening, so that you could get a sense of how dense the fog was that morning.
Thank you to Elizabeth, Clint and the cowboys for allowing me to watch and photograph them! I’ll make a better effort of posting a little more often! Til the next time — blessings — Frances