Rich1939 Loc: Pike County Penna.

I like the results. It reinforcers my desire to try that process.
(The image also works well with out the bluff. No bull.....[or + bull])

guardineer

Why did the person climb the mountain? Because it's there. Why did Cany take a picture of a pile of...? We know! Walk around a corral or your favorite hunting landscape and, if you're paying attention, you notice everything about such piles; size, color, moisture content, age, you ask yourself what critter left that and you have the answer. You have an answer for the same question asked by someone less experienced in scatology...the answer isn't necessarily true but it spawns the imagination! One method of checking your animal's pregnancy status is to just reached in and feel for that little fetus. (Best left to a vet or experienced hand.). The vet doing the reaching would be garbed in a plastic glove to armpit sleeve...reach in, feel, withdraw. What comes out on the sleeve upon withdrawal is the freshest form of dodo. One of our vets would always scrape it into a ball and roll it around in his hand until he made another reach...it kept his hand warm. If he grossed anyone out he'd just explain in medical vet-speak, "it's just grass and water.". So, as I cropped the photo and started to pixel peek, I decided : bovine, female, about 1050 pounds, well hydrated and healthy. Cany, the photographer, could have given it a good kick to expedite the decay process and spread some nutrients around. End of story .

Uuglypher Loc: South Dakota (East River)

v

A magnificent landscape!
I must say that I am amazed at the verbiage devoted to the assemblage of ruminant-digested-and-passed prairie grasses in the foreground. I have heard such piles, frozen and dusted white by a snow flurry as suggestive of a pile of oatmeal cookies dusted with powdered sugar. That aside... remember that in a more dessicated state those easily separated, laminated flakes have served, for millennia (and at more recent campsites of mine...)most functionally, as campfire fuel. Also, the powdery dried stuff served as “baby powder” for the aboriginal inhabitants of that land. In sum...it totally qualifies as a component of this landscape without any superfluously tittering scatological commenting...and it contributes well and naturally to the composition and sense-of-scene.

I love the image...all of it !

...and I heartily second the comments of guardineer !

Dave (D.V.M.)

jackm1943 Loc: Omaha, Nebraska

Very nice. I think it probably could have been done with three images, especially at f/16. Being a farm kid, I can appreciate this image.

AzPicLady Loc: Behind the camera!

I find this to be a beautiful slice of reality. The various elements of the landscape are all so very common and yet very interesting. And they are placed spaciously enough that the viewer has the luxury of perusing each one individually before - and after - the entire scene. I've never done focus stacking and am probably way too shaky to attempt it. But I'd say this one works quite well. I've seen some where the various bands are quite obvious. Here they are imperceptible.

Cany143 Loc: SE Utah

My thanks to those who've commented, pro and con. Neither your humor nor your dissent has gone unnoticed.

There's a whole lot more I could say about this image --both technically and/or what-was-my-point-in-taking/making/posting-it-wise-- but that would take pages, and worse, it would be making mountains out of cow pies. Suffice it to say, based on your comments, I'm thinking I may (finally) have posted a 'successful' image. Your eye has been 1) inexorably drawn to something, and 2) an emotion has been elicited. That the particular object is something some would rather not see, or is something others take as being normal or natural is left to individual interpretation, and that's as it will be. And that the reaction the object produced may have been a feeling of disgust, or acceptance, or even humor, this much can be said: it provoked a response. My intention(s) were realized.

guardineer

Cany, both your photography and your wisdom are very appreciated.

CLF Loc: Raleigh, NC

Jim, an excellent landscape as always.

Merry CHRISTmas

Greg