A lonely bull:

[AB26]

This was captured on a very warm Western Cape afternoon not far from Cape Town. It is summertime but it looks like a scene in mid winter. The Western Cape is a winter rainfall area. Although the grape vines, not far away, were bearing fruit this is an area where Canola is grown.

Does this work? Was the sun perhaps to high? How about the composition?

Any C&C will be appriciated.

Thanks for viewing.

[ArnieA]

Hi

This doesn't work for me as far as the bull goes. the first thing I saw was the tree followed by the tower. I had to look for the bull and only because you said there was one.

How to crop? I'm not sure . maybee a different angle or close enough so that only the bull and part of the tree are visible.

Just my thoughts and hope this helps.

Arnie

[RustBeltRaw]

I agree with Arnie. Maybe if the bull was in the light, near the middle of the grassy section at bottom right, this would be a bit stronger. The silhouette's cool, but overall, this shot doesn't resonate with me.

[kdoc856]

I agree that it's almost but not quite. I think you are caught between hard perspective choices- too far away to make the bull significant (even if there was more detail in the bull), and not far enough to render interest in the broad view of the landscape. You have interesting elements in it- fences are frequently compeliing and make great sight lines, but it might have been helpful to step to the right some distance from the fence so it wasn't so much enfilade and would potentiallly create a nice diagonal sight line. Looks like west Texas to me.

[ArnieA]

fences are frequently compeliing and make great sight lines, but it might have been helpful to step to the right some distance from the fence so it wasn't so much enfilade and would potentiallly create a nice diagonal sight line. Looks like west Texas to me.

I forgot to mention that because I didn't even notice it. I agree that a diagonal fence line leading to the bull would be better.

Arnie

[Geoff F]

Yes a different crop was my first thought.

Too much plain area in the bottom right corner compared with too much of interest in the top left.

How about losing the first post and cropping somewhere around 5 x 4 ratio or even square?

I'm sure there is an interesting image to be created here. The windmill, tree and bull are nicely placed together as a group.

[AB26]

Thanks guys. Perhaps this is the one you are looking for. Any better.
Maybe the bull is hiding from the sun, seeking a little shade under a tree.

Arnie that "tower" is actually a windpump - no not a windmill. It is a pump, built over a borehole, driven by wind to pump water into the sement dam behind that little red building. The red brick building is a cooling box. At some stage there was a water tank on top of it, the tank would overflow over the brick building and with the wind blowing trough the building it worked like a cooling tower.

[Geoff F]

That one is better, Andre; but I wonder if a very slight crop from the top and left side would work?

[Mike Buckley]

I like the second one much better due to the deficiencies mentioned about the first one. I especially like the use of the foreground boulder because of the depth that it adds to the photo.

Arnie that "tower" is actually a windpump - no not a windmill. It is a pump, built over a borehole, driven by wind to pump water

I grew up on a relatively small cattle ranch that had one pumping water into a concrete basin that housed water for the cattle to drink. Rightly or wrongly, everyone called it a windmill. Back then, I was too young to know what was right and wrong. These days I'm simply too dumb to know. Not that Wikipedia is always correct, but it says this: "An important non-milling use [of a windmill] is to pump water, either for land drainage or to extract groundwater."

[ucci]

Hi Andre
Good story to these pics in terms of grouping of the the bull, the brick structure the bore hole pump and the concrete water tank. Okay, the bull could have been a little more co-operative and got his head away from the tree. His pose in the second shot is far better. But with animals you just have to take them as they come, (something which my wife uses as some sort of justification to our friends and rellies to explain why she puts up with me. )
It is just a pity that you were not a bit closer and could crop to hone in on the subjects on top of the small rise. Were it my pic, which it is not, I would be cropping heavily to these. And that distracting fence and much of the grassy foreground would be history, as they say. They detract from the interest generated by the little group up on top of the slope.
As for the second pic? Not my bag. For me far too busy with that distracting fence line and that bloody great rock taking my eye from what I reckon was the interesting stuff, the bull, tree and structures.
Really like your choice of subject matter in these. And Mrs Ucci agrees with me in this. She reckons #1 is a lovely shot. She also felt #2 was too busy with too much going on in frame

This is a pretty rapid and rough pp which I have posted, without meaning to offend you or in any way trying to tell you what you should do, but it is offered in an attempt to clarify what I have been rambling on about in the above response to your post.



Cheers
Ken

[Shadowman]

Andre,

Nice composition (shapes and pattern) overall and i think I see where you were going with the first image, using the fence as a leading line to the subject.

[Aforns]

They all sure look good Andre, my favorite would be the middle taken a bit to the left to do away with the prominent rock but still show the fence. Great work !!

[AB26]

Your comments and critique is highly appreciated. It is very interesting to see different views and perspectives from different people.

Geoff, Mike, Ken, John and Alfred, thank you for your valuable time and input.
Ken I appreciate your crop, it is another perspective.
Mike, “windmill” would be the correct English word I suppose, then again it is only the English whom can mill wind and water.

One thing I have learned here at CiC is to agree to disagree.