This is the story behind a photo that is guaranteed to make you smile. “Jersey Girl” is a photo of a beautiful pregnant Jersey cow, that was good enough to line herself up between a couple of the Glass house Mountains, and strike a pose for good measure, all while looking straight down the barrel of my camera, giving me my most popular photo. One I’m not sure i will ever surpass in terms of luck and timing.
On the afternoon this photo was taken, this was not the photo I had in mind. I set off for an area of the sunshine coast hinterland that has beautiful rolling hills, with the Glass House Mountains as the backdrop. It was a beautiful sunset, but unfortunately the wind didn’t play the game, so the photo with the tree I had in mind was not possible.
I folded up my tripod, packed up my camera gear and started my walk back down the hill. As I walked past the cows that I had been sharing the hill top with for the last hour, I turned around for one last look at the mountains. What I saw was what you see in the photo, the beautiful pregnant form of a Jersey cow striking a pose between Mt Beerwah and Mt Coonowrin.
She had become so comfortable in my presence, that she was not bothered by me standing no more than five meters away taking her photo, she just went about her business, head down mowing the grass. I took a few photos of her head down and thought to myself, how can I get her to look up at the camera. Excuse me miss cow, can you look over here please was not going to do it. It was not standard protocol as yelled at the cow as loud as I could with the shutter on rapid fire mode, But it was effective enough, as she looked straight down the barrel of the camera, and a photo of character, almost comical was captured.
image stabiliser on, aperture well down in the single digits, shutter speed borderline for handheld shooting with the last light of the day, it was a little touch and go. That is why this image has a shallower depth of field that the average landscape photography image. All in all I feel it has helped this image more than hindered it, bringing emphasis to the jersey cow with sass to burn, the star of the image.
Not a traditional or technically perfect Australian landscape photography image, but one of my favourite never the less.
Edan Raw,