Heavy Horses

[GrahamS]

We visited the Hertfordshire Heavy Horse show at Capel Manor on Sunday. Heavy Horses include the working breeds that were once vital to our economy, such as the Suffolk Punch, Shires, Clydesdales, Percheron and Cleveland Bay. Most are now classed as rare, and are in danger of becoming extinct, which would be a tragedy. Here are some of the images that I captured. Nikon D7100, AFS Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED VR and AFS Nikkor 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR DX , B&W from RAW in Lightroom 5.

[Dennis Gallus]

Graham,

Those are magnificent horses, and you have presented them very beautifully with these photos. Number 4 is my favorite, because of the dappled lighting. But I also admire the sharpness of detail in numbers 2 and 3.

Your D7100 makes black and white look so good, it makes it difficult to think about going back to film and chemicals. If it weren't for the pleasure of using fine old cameras, film usage would have no appeal at all. Your results are top-notch.

Thanks for posting, you had a profitable excursion yesterday.

Best,
Dennis

[PFMcFarland]

Those are some fine photos, Graham.

PF

[GrahamS]

Thanks for the comments. I must confess: No2 is straight from the camera taken with a custom monochrome setting and Y2 filter effect. The others are converted from RAW to B&W in Lightroom 5 using a custom preset from Matt Kloskowski at http://lightroomkillertips.com/category/presets/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I have been experimenting with mono lately - I just feel that it takes me back to my roots somehow and I become more of a photographer and less of a snapshooter. If I set the jpg sharpening to zero, the D7100 without AA filter seems to lend itself to smooth gradations in mono, but I have more options converting in LR5 from RAW, using either the same presets as are in-camera, or custom presets which I have downloaded. Either way, replicating good B&W as I once was able to produce with a 6x6 and a fully equipped darkroom, using a digital process, seems to have quite a steep learning curve, and I haven't even got to the printing stage yet.

Life is so short......