Tag Archives: reality

Goes To War

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Goes To War is a photograph taken at a parade at one of the Powwows held throughout the year. The original version of this image was filled with extraneous detail, people, vehicles, downtown street scene detail, everything that goes into creating an image you just want to delete that made the picture just another snapshot taken at a parade.

One of the things a photographer tries to do is see inside an image like that and look for the story or reason for taking the image in the first place. There needs to be a story, at least for this photographer. In this case the shot of a parade participant already past the point where you would normally take the photo suggested that this could be a warrior who is headed off to war. He has his bow, his quiver filled with arrows, his coup stick, his horse is fitted out for battle, he’s ready for whatever fate presents him. The only difference between this image and the original shot is about a hundred and fifty years. And some imagination.

After over four plus hours of editing in various photo editing software a new image appeared. Now he makes sense. There’s a reason for him being presented with his back to the viewer. Not all photography and the pictures taken have to be unflinchingly reality oriented. It’s up to the photographer to decide how he wants to present the information concealed in all those pixels. Some call it art but that’s for you to decide.

For me it’s another reality, one that could have happened. Does it matter whether it did or not. Not to me. Your mileage may vary.

Horses – Wild Ones

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This is the real deal. Wild horses. Not those tame ones a few of the western states rent out to stand alongside the road and look wild. These are the real bona-fide dyed-in-the-wool wild horses that belong to the McCullough Peaks wild horse herd. They live outdoors. There is none of this bring them inside to get out of the weather, or wear a blanket to keep flies off of them, stuff going on here. First off, if the stallions let you get close enough to even put a rope on one they’d tear that blanket off before you could say, “Hey! Dammit, that blanket cost 130 bucks”. Plus they’d chase you back to your rig so fast you’d have that embarrassed look on your face that you hope nobody saw.

If you look closely you won’t see any wear marks on them that indicates they wear saddles. Instead you will see all along their sides and legs and sometimes their faces, bite marks. Acres of bite marks. That’s because that’s what they do all day, every day, is have some kind of altercation with the other horses in the herd. If they’re stallions they have them because stallions fight, often, vigorously, and with malice a forethought. That is their job. They have to do it because, just like every pond has to have a bull duck on it, there has to be a dominant, I am the freaking boss here, stallion in the herd.  And since there are at least a half-dozen stallions in this group the fights go on, and on.

Same with the mares except they tend to get upset over more domestic matters. They handle their problems much like the stallion’s. “Get away from my kid, you great stupid cow” which is one of the  worst insults in the horse community. Someone gets kicked in the face after that is tossed out there. Or bitten. Or both. Usually though there is snorting, then swapping ends, then kicking, then biting, just to make sure you got the message. Anyway it leaves marks.

This morning it just felt like the time to interject a little reality back into the system. Wild horses do it for me. Just knowing that Wild Horses, not tame ones, just the real deal are still running loose out there. That feels ok doesn’t it?