After taking several years off, this year I decided to have another go at the Worldwide Photowalk on October 3rd. I did the walk previously in 2011 and 2009. Skipped several years due to bad weather or just general lack of interest in the selected location.
This year it was at the Terry Bison Ranch just south of town on the WY/CO border. It's main claim to fame is, not surprisingly, a herd of bison. They take you on a little train tour through the bison, if you want. It also has an assortment of other animals - camels, llamas, horses, donkeys, ostrich, peacock and other critters. Kind of a mini zoo, along with some old westy stuff, a large campground, etc. Basically, its a touristy place.
But since I've always just gone past it, never to it I figured I'd go. The weather was - ok. After a long very warm fall, we had a couple pretty chilly days, normal for October. But a big change. Temps were in 40s, mostly cloudy. Day before was foggy and misty rain most of the day, that would have been tough to do much outside photography without all your equipment getting wet.
21 people signed up, I'd guess maybe 15 or so showed up to wander around taking photos for several hours. Quite honestly, I didn't capture much that I thought was very good. Though working on them later, a few came to life once I mixed a little Photoshop in. Let's get started...
This was one of my first shots. They have this little homemade 'suspension' bridge, over a marshy spot. It was kinda bland, against a gray cloudy sky. But the sun was trying to peek through. So I went heavy on the contrast and color, made it into kind of a dark, 'moody blue' scene. Just playing around.
There's a number of pieces of old horse-drawn farm and construction equipment on the grounds. This is a detail shot of one - an old Case. Didn't have to do much Photoshop work on this image.
The hood emblem on an old International schoolbus that was converted to a tour bus, and later became a chicken coop on wheels. There's a number of free-range yardbirds (chickens) on the grounds, and this bus is their home. Another image I didn't have to do very much to.
A horsehead hitching post on a fence. Tie up yer horse, head on inta the saloon, pardner! I did a little more on this image - saturated the whole thing, then desaturated all the background but not totally. Just trying to make the horse stand out from the background a little more.
An old Adams Leaning Wheel Grader. It would be slow going grading a road with one of these, but I'm sure it did the job, eventually. This image is by far the most Photoshopped. Besides giving it the antiqued look, I had to remove a lot of things - a stop sign, a fence, an asphalt road and railing along the interstate, which is actually at the line of the ground and the sky. After all that it looks like an old photo of a discarded piece of machinery rusting away in a field. Or at least I think it does.
Finally, we come to my entry in the Photowalk competition. This was really bland looking at first, and I figured it was a throwaway. But once I started playing with it in Photoshop it surprised me and really came to life. Funny how that happens sometimes. It's the inside of a metal pipe used as a slide in a big homemade playground setup in the campground. All I had to do besides make the colors and textures pop was clean up a few small distractions, rotate and center it. And for this location, this is what I consider my 'best' photo! I like the changing colors, the texture and the spiral swirl in the pipe. Uniquely abstract!
Only 3 people entered the contest in our walk. Kinda surprised me, with ~15 people there weren't more. Here's the link to the photowalk page, for as long as it is active-
http://kelbyone.com/photowalk/walk/cheyenne-wy-united-states/
The winner for each location is entered in the worldwide competition. I'd say I have a pretty good chance this year (I didn't win either of the other prior walks I entered. Which I can go on in detail about...)
*** UPDATE***
My entry WON the Photowalk for my location. So I am entered in the worldwide competition! That's cool. According to the website there were 999 walks worldwide. So that means there should be 999 entries in the competition. For 1 Grand Prize, 10 Runner Up Prizes and 1 People's Choice prize. So the odds are slim. And they always pick winners from around the world, only a couple from the US. So if my photo wins, it will have managed quite a feat! More to come soon...
