Show Your Images
This image was shot in April of 2009 at an old-fashioned Plow Day in Northern Indiana (Hamlet, to be exact). It is a hitch of dappled gray Percherons, beautiful animals. I spent the day surrounded by teams of Percherons, Belgians, and assorted mules. Their owner/drivers were some of the friendliest folks you ever would want to meet, justifiably and visibly proud of their charges. The Plow Day was just that … teams hitched up to old plows and went to work in the fields. The teams and the drivers definitely got a workout, and I and the other spectators got a chance to travel back in time.
The event was a two-day affair sponsored by the LaPorte County Draft Horse Association [click on bold for a link]. They put on this show the third weekend each April if you ever are in the area, and they can be found under that title on the web. They also put on a show each July at the LaPorte County Fair, one that draws a crowd of teams, wagons, buggies, and proud owners from across the nation.
Another reason I wanted to post this image was to give a notion of what it means to take a chance with your images. I honestly thought this image was quite good. I submitted it to Imaging Resources and Steve’s Digicams, two well-known and very popular photo sites for their respective Photo-of-the-Day contests. Both selected it, and it ran on each site as a Daily Winner. Well, I later attended a workshop with Scott Kelby and Bill Fortney, two great photographer/teachers. I took this image for the critique sessions, as asked. I won’t go into all the gory details, but it wasn’t what I expected. The image received less than sterling comments, and I was crushed. During the workshop, however, I learned how my photo could have been better and I vowed that next time, using what I had learned, it would be.
The moral of the story is that not everyone will be as excited about your work as you are, but that constructive criticism from those whose work you admire can make you better. It can motivate you to work in different ways or in new ways. It can make you take a new look at how you always do what you do. It can sting a bit at the time, but it can make your photographic experiences even more enjoyable over the long run. Take it from me, because I still am travelling down that road.