Fort Worth Stockyards

   I love dark, moody photos.  There's something about them that makes me want to spend time with the image and see how many details are hidden inside the shadows.  Can I see the grain of the wood?  How about a persons face?  Maybe there are details in the texture of their clothing that you don't notice at first.  The more time a person will spend viewing a photograph the more successful that image is.

   It was a sunny day at the Ft Worth, Tx Stockyards where there are a lot of older buildings and brick roads and some rail lines and just abuncha stuff to entertain a photographer (I think I invented a new word).  Over and over again I was drawn back to the stables.  Windows way up high and the doors on either end of the stables provided the only available light, so I bumped up my ISO a bit and braced myself along the door jamb.  My intention was to shoot some underexposed photos and let the shadows fall where they may with the hope that the darker areas would bleed off the edges and "trap" the viewers eye inside the image.  Just after I shot a my first photo, a cowboy walked out of a stall...perfect!  Then a horse followed him...more perfect! Then they stopped...even more perfect!  Then, he turned profile to me and faced the horse while he put on his jacket. I don’t know how many levels of perfect there are, but I couldn’t have staged this. 
   I could have shot a couple more exposures and processed it in HDR to create a more balanced image, but that would have defeated my intention.  I wanted the darkness.  I wanted to exaggerate the darkness within the stables and set the mood. Another element is the door at the far end.  Normally I don't like to let any part of my photo blow out to white, but here it helps create a stark outline to the cowboy.  It even allows us to see the rope connecting the cowboy to his horse.  A little pre-visualization and some luck combine for a compelling photograph.  You can never have too much luck in photography.