Sleighing with Rowan

 

This will be that rarest of things for me, a short blog post (hah!).  I had so much fun harnessing, posing, shooting and processing this little guy,... all for one prompt for the Yuletide Cheer Photo Challenge.  This series of pix deserves to be shared, not only for their holiday appropriateness, but for learning about basic PhotoShopping.  An earlier sleigh post by me will be linked at the end.

I've been wanting another driving pony for some time.  I chose the long mane stallion version of Rowan partly because I had a pony mare waiting (she is the Rapunzel), partly because I was convinced he could wear a harness regardless of all that hair (he could), but mostly because I just liked him better than the mare Rowan.  (I'm even keeping his name!)  And isn't that what it's all about -- ? 

I'm enchanted with myself for remembering to make tracks in the snow. 

 I want to start with the unprocessed shots, that is, the ones that aren't yet PhotoShopped.  Above we see my back deck, flower pots and all, in the fast-melting snow of Dec 11.  It is, in fact, snowing, but the camera didn't catch it.  I'm lying down on a coat with my back to the house wall, trying not to disturb the snow.  These 4 shots are the pick of the litter of 17, so there's the first lesson:  Digital images are Cheap.

 There was considerable difficulty getting my head low enough, and getting the appearance of distance around the rig.  A front shot solves at least one of these problems:  It allows you to collapse the length.  Also, this angle did not need any Photo-Shopping of the snow.

I cobbled his harness together from 2 other sets, one made for a pony and the other for a Trad.  (Which just meant a session of reversing the process afterwards.)  The santa suit was a gift from Bobbie C. and has shown me a neat way not to need a new Santa figure.  Instead, the famous white ermine cloak is given to Steve's lady friend, my Western rider Chalif.  Neither one of them has gloves,...  Stupidly, I couldn't find the whip at first.  Imagine my chagrin when I found it lying in the sleigh body!!

This one's great (above) but damn he looks like he's going downhill.  Below:  I have cropped these 4 shots, taking out the railing and most of the white tray on the right horizon.  I was also trying to show the bumper stickers on the rear of the sleigh.

So far, so good.  Now for the PhotoShopping.  I've had years of experience with PhotoShop Elements, yet I still feel I've explored only a corner of its vast warehouse.  One thing it can do is warp, or skew, a photo.  The downhill pony could be levelled.  However, I ended up not using that particular shot.

What I did do was erase most of the lines in the snow.  They originally were melt lines from the planks of the deck.  I also moved snow higher, to cover the bases of some of the pots.  I used a combination of Smear and Healing Spot, along with several passes of custom draw, copy, move and paste.  Here is the bumper sticker photo, before (above) and after.  Can you see how the snow has unmelted?

Here is my final product, the finished version of the second photo of this post and the pick of the litter.  I liked the way there was white behind Rowan's head.  Note the snow around the black pot's base in the upper left.  The strong little pony, comfortable with a breastcollar harness and wearing bells!, is well equipped to travel all the way to an old friend's house.

Here is the promised link to my earlier blog post on Sleighs:  Sleigh Pix

So, what's next?  Beyond something like 48 Christmas letters, I sure want to buckle down on a silver saddle.  Yes, it's just one now;  the other is on holiday till spring.  I know I promised posts on congas and saddles.  Thank you for your patience.