This pinto was part of a small herd of about 70 wild horses living on BLM land north of Green River, Wyoming. We watched this herd for several hours and the pinto stallion was the most domineering stallion we had seen all week chasing every challenger away in near-frenzy. This image shows him at his most aggressive actually taking a bite out of the horse he was chasing. The encounter lasted for several minutes until the other horse “lost” himself within the herd.
Type of Critique Requested
Aesthetic: Feedback on the overall visual appeal of the image, including its color, lighting, cropping, and composition.
Technical: Feedback on the technical aspects of the image, such as exposure, color, focus and reproduction of colors and details, post-processing, and print quality.
Specific Feedback and Self-Critique
The action of the horses drew my attention after watching a very calm herd grazing. The pinto literally jumped into the chase with no observed provocation from the other horse. I would have liked to have captured the image closer to 300 - 350 mm since I ended up cropping the image. The areas cropped out were all sagebrush.
Technical Details
Camera was a Nikon D7100 with the Nikkor 80-400 f4-5.6 and was shot at 220 mm, 1/2000th of a second at f 8. ISO was 400.
The image is cropped from the original to better isolate the horses and was processed in LightRoom.
This is a beautiful shot! I actually said ouch out loud when I saw the bite. The eyes of the pinto also add to this story. I think the colours are beautiful too and wouldn’t mind seeing what was cropped out. It may add to the story to see more of the wide open space they are in. Very good!
Great interaction and wonderful capture !
Eyes of Pinto and the bite make it a killer frame!
Since you have more of the frame, I would like to see some more canvas on LHS and bottom. I would also like to experiment with slightly darkening the sagebrush.
Robena,
Thank you for your comments; they are appreciated. The story of this pinto was interesting to observe. He tolerated no other stallion coming near him and he literally spent the morning chasing of challengers - his herd was in a constant state of unease.
Doug
Thank you for your comments; I appreciate your interest. I have posted the un-cropped photo below with your suggestion of darkening the sage brush. The photo is not quite uncropped - a small segment on the LHS was cropped to remove anther horses flying tail.
I still say ouch when I see this repost! I can now see why you cropped how you did…I think I prefer the first one now. Either way works. Just a great shot!
I have acquaintence in Utah who shoots a lot of wild horses and through his tales an images, I can see this is a great capture. Wild horse are unpredictable, therefore your image captures interaction of members of a horse heard well, one horse seeking dominace over another. Well done.
Thanks, Gary, that’s a nice comliment. This was my first time photographing wild horses and, as you said, they are unpredictable. It was interesting to note that when they are on their way to water they all get very calm and the interactions are, by and large, peaceful.
