More from the recent photo workshop at Grasslands and vicinity. A horse, a fence, a spectacular rainbow - who could ask for more? The roadside grass was soaking wet from the rain that had just ended, everything was green and fresh.
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© James R. Page - all rights reserved.
Tags: landscape rainbow pinto horse fence green prairie weather rain shower clearing sky prismatic beautiful near Val Marie Saskatchewan Canada
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Orkney is almost a ghost town. Two or three people live there, but almost all the houses are now empty and abandoned. The streets are overgrown with grasses and weeds. Val Marie, one town to the east - where I live - is thriving, but its fate might have been the same as that of Orkney if Parks Canada had not decided to acquire land in the Frenchman River Valley and create a new national park there in the mid 1970s. This is a simple image. I was careful not to line the horse's head up with the vertical windowpane frame in the background. I shifted very slightly to the right, taking care to not scare the horse away. He seemed a little nervous. Probably hasn't been photographed recently...
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Tags: abandoned house trailer horse cold winter prairie Orkney Saskatchewan Canada
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Not friendly, not well-treated, this herd of "rough stock" is being raised for rodeos. The down side of rodeo, I'd say. They have to be raised "mean" to buck those cowboys off. I kept my distance and watched them mill about as the night sky flashed with distant lightning. Used a long exposure to allow their movements to blur.
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Tags: horse herd horses rough stock rodeo stock intentional blur night stormy livestock animal ranch prairie near Val Marie Saskatchewan Canada
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"Like old times!" Maurice Lemire said to me in French as we climbed into the cutter and Panda the horse began to pull us across the clean snow. I was shooting a story for my friend Judith about the extended process of training a horse to harness. Altogether it took about six months to get Panda, a Gypsy Vanner, used to foreign objects behind her - there were countless trips around the corral with various items added until she was able (and willing) to pull a wagon or a sleigh.
This shot, of Maurice and Pat in the cutter, didn't make the final magazine spread, but I liked it well enough to give to them as a framed print. In the background, across the pasture, is the edge of the village, with its two grain elevators. A fitting backdrop, as Maurice's father used to run the heritage elevator (on the right) many years ago, and Maurice has been the key mover and shaker in the recent fund raising campaign and subsequent renovation of the elevator's exterior (new roof and siding).
Definitely a "country living" scene, one that most people will never see or experience - a throwback to an earlier time. It's part of the charm of living here.
Photographed in Val Marie, Saskatchewan (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©2018 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
Tags: winter scene sleigh cutter horse harness pull Gypsy Vanner snow snowy winter prairie Val Marie Saskatchewan Canada copyrighted James R. Page
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Dwayne has ranched here for decades, but this is it, the last branding on his ranch. I was invited to photograph the event. Near Val Marie, Saskatchewan.
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Tags: ranch ranching branding rancher rider horse horseback vertical cowboy wild west prairie near Val Marie Saskatchewan Canada
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