Ah, Illinois. Known worldwide for its stunning mountain ranges, sweeping vistas, and…. oh, right. We just have miles and miles of cornfields. What have I gotten myself into now??
For the fourth challenge in this series, we were tasked with balancing our subject against a natural landscape, with minimal or no human structures visible. Ideally, our doggy model is carefully selected to complement the features- a husky in some snow-capped peaks, a kelpie in the outback, or a saluki in the desert. A lab on a cliff is permissible, of course, but less likely to wow the judges. This one will take some planning!
If you’re familiar with my work, then I’m sure you know that I am not a landscape photographer. I like my subjects filling the frame, I like my telephoto lenses, and I like my backgrounds blurred. This is not at all my typical style of shooting! And as mentioned, I don’t have easy access to the most scenic ‘scapes. I love our forest preserves to death, but they don’t lend themselves to this challenge. I need dramatic views and wide open spaces!
My first thought was to check out our state parks. I’ve been getting a lot of targeted ads about them and knew that a park two hours from me has some lovely waterfalls. I once again grabbed my default models, my roommate, and made a day of it! We spent several hours exploring ten miles of trails to find that almost all the falls ran off snowmelt, which was long gone by late June. By the time we made our way to our second park and found some actual waterfalls, we had lost the light once again- not to mention the sorry state of my tired, muddy dogs. We did end up with a couple of contenders, but nothing I was thrilled about submitting.
And then, of course, I had to take a week off shooting to finish moving. By the time I was settled in the new house and ready to get back to it, I had three days left- and it was a holiday weekend. At least the weather looked nice! I didn’t want to drive another six hours out of my way for my other elevation option, so I started to look closer to home. The beach was a solid option, but I would need some dramatic clouds to give more visual interest to our flat shoreline. A border collie in some farm land would bring in the storytelling aspect, but might be considered too man-made, and my risks haven’t been paying off lately. Decisions, decisions! I figured I might as well shoot any idea I had and see what turned out best.
View a before/after of this image here
First on the list: Sidekick the border collie, who belongs to my wonderful agility instructors. She’s as city girl as they come, but she made for a convincing looking farm dog! I love the feel of this image, like she’s surveying the meadows to ensure all her sheep are where they should be. We lost our nice partial cloud cover and were stuck with some harsh directional light- I did my best to balance it against her pose and the nice “Toy Story” looking clouds. I love a lot of things about this photo! But as always, I’m not sure it’s what the judges have in mind. Next, the beach!
Unfortunately, the weather had other ideas. Our beaches are wide open- no cliffs, no rocks, no big sand dunes, and no big waves. To create some visual interest in the landscape, I really needed dramatic clouds at sunrise or sunset and got neither- every day was either completely clear skies, or flat grey cover. So much for that plan! I was definitely glad that I took the “no bad ideas” approach and ended up with something that at least ticked the boxes. It was time to submit my border collie and see what the judges think…
…And to my surprise, they loved it! To my utter shock, we even made it the cut into the short list, and then the top 20! The judges really liked the color scheme and the way the dog is framed by the clouds. They noted a couple of small details to clean up and recommended cropping out more of the grass at the bottom of the frame, but thought that the overall mood & composition made it a strong contender. I have to say I agree- I think Sidekick does, too!
