It was an interesting day at the Westmorland show. I learned a fair bit about how people look at my sheep photographs on Facebook. Most of the stuff I stick on there is
creative junk competent, but nothing special Talking to a few people, and judging by the 'likes' pictures get what are most popular are people pictures. No surprise really. I was amused to hear that the grandchildren of one couple look through my photos playing 'spot the family member'! Two people have said they'd like to thank me in some tangible way, and someone else I'd not met before came up and thanked me for sharing my Lonk pictures.
One of my fishing friends, who used to manage a flock, suggested I should join the Lonk breeders' association. It seemed like a good idea as I'd like to give something back to them for letting me into their world. There's no need to keep Lonks to join so I made the inquiry. No problem. The secretary would e-mail me the details for setting up the direct debit. An e-mail duly arrived - but saying that in discussion with the chairman there'd be no charge as they appreciate me taking and sharing my photos which promote the breed. I was quite taken aback. I'll have to find another way to thank them.
In these days when everyone has a camera in their pocket and the internet is awash with photos it seems that there is still some appreciation for 'proper' photography.
A typical snap. No decisive moment to be seen. No clever juxtapositions. Just a line-up of sheep on a sunny day.
An obvious crowd-pleaser. I take a few of these just to see if they get the likes I think they will.
Any road up. Back to the photography. I'm having white balance problems. I've not worked out if it's a camera thing or a lens thing, but there's a noticeable difference between the two outfits I use most of the time. I think the identical cameras are both set up the same, so I'm leaning towards the lenses. Although they are both from the same manufacturer which doesn't usually cause problems. Not a big deal as it's a simple fix but it's annoying.
These are the kinds of picture I tend to leave off FB.
This is something that could work as an intro to a picture story. There's even space to have a caption overlaid bottom left or a feature title over the sky. Thinking like that maybe I should have been an editorial snapper?
These 'messy' shots are what I like best these days.
Something I'm going to have to improve on is my sheep (and shepherd) wrangling. As I've said before, I don't really have the patience for it, and I'm pretty sure the Lonk breeders (in particular) don't either. Once the judging's over they usually want to find some lunch or get to the beer tent! All that said, if I was getting paid for taking this kind of shot I would have more patience and be more assertive over the posing.
That's the summer show season over for me. The main Lonk show is still to come, followed by the associated tup sale. I might do some forward planning and draw up a shot list to put a picture story together. If I can remember...
www.sciencetimes.com
But it's a concept I might develop. Just need more props. And a Lonk skull. 
