The Shearer

The sheep is anonymous! How funny is that! This is a beautiful portrait Steve! Wonderful use of natural available light and perfectly composed, it tells a fascinating story and is a very professional portrait of Daniel I am sure he treasures! The shed is so rich in history and very beautiful as well! I love the oiled flooring and fascinating hardware.

you have the lighting spot on Steve… the tones give it that warm rural feeling…. excellent

Ohhh…but if it’s hot outside than that sheep is gonna LOVE it, LOL!!!!! I was bein’ sarcastic with kinda sad by the way, lol.

very Tom Roberts of you Steve. :)

brilliant shot,,, love the HDR… fantastic work,,, well done

Hey, I know that sheep….

Thats a terrific shot Steve. Great use of natural light. The colours are beautiful and the HDR treatment is perfect.

Mick.

A great aussie scene Steve and fab colours too

Great shot Steve captured a great scene very well

Excellent HDR treatment, I love the light coming in through the gap

This is killing work ! can you imagine wen the poor men used the old hand shears, and do you remember the protests that came with the new modern equipment. Sadly nothing has changed the shearers still finish up crippling there backs. Brilliant image, wonderful

stunning shot Hans and its even better that it’s HDR congrats

you mention it was hard work Australia Greatest shearer was Jackie Howe is record was amazing
Jackie Howe was born at Canning Downs Station on the Darling Downs in 1861.

He is known as the Greatest Shearer who ever lived.Just as Bradman had the eye of an eagle,Jackie also had the physical attributes that helped him become the greatest in his field.He was as strong as an ox, had hands the size of small dinner plates, wrists as strong as steel. Jackie was also a natural athlete.He once ran against a professional runner , in bare feet.The result was a dead heat. Of course the race was held after work, where Jackie had just shorn 217 sheep.

Jackie’s path to greatness began when the gun shearer at the station where he worked insulted him.Jackie was determined to prove he was the better man. Up until this point Jackie was more than happy to shear about a hundred sheep a day.But on that day he was able to shear a record 211 sheep.Word of his achievement spread and ringers across the country set out to beat his record.

In 1892 ,an Australian wide competition was held to see who was the greatest shearer in the land.Two gold medals were offered as prizes and Jackie was determined to claim both.On the 10th October 1892 , at Alice Downs Station outside Blackall, Jackie set the record for hand shearing 321 sheep in just seven hours and forty minutes.Later he went on to set the machine shearing record of 237 sheep.

Jackie Howe hung up his blades in 1900 and moved into Business with a Ford Dealership as well as a Hotel

corrections Steve I got my comments mixed up lol still grand work

Great shot nice details

Gorgeous work Steve!

Super shot!

Great color and description! : ) I love stuff like this!

Fantastic capture, the lighting, treatment, etc just perfect, I am sure he will love this.

Super image Steve and great info Philip

Brilliant work – the HDR has allowed us to see some of the detail in the shed – really wonderful work!!! An instant FAV!!

Fabulous capture

how do you get a shearer not to move little alone the sheep ? mind sheep do seem to go to sleep sometimes when being sheared ?

Superb Steve….the details are outstanding…..looks lik the old oil paintings of the shearers in days gone by…..beautiful, beautiful work my friend xx

awesome work!! Love everything about it.

Lovely lighting steve – nice young buck of a shearer also ;-)

Love this Steve, excellent shot, perfect lighting. Quintessential Australian image.

Great lighting and POV Steve. Another beauty!

Lovely rich tones Steve, and a classical pose! Tom Roberts, or maybe even Michael Leunig(!)

Great shot!

Isn’t this setting just perfect. Had an old two stand while on a farm at Talia … and the shed had that kind of timeless feel about it … as does this image. I can feel the grease of the fleece on my hands. I humbly swept the boards and skirted fleece. Evoked many memories.

Such a lovely composition with lovely colors and mood.. Wonderful..

Marvellous image…...........great treatment, reminds me of my dad who was a shearer for 40 years. Shearers are a special breed or at least my dad’s mates were…...................they could tell wonderful stories that never had much in common with the truth…........lololol

Great Shot Steve, the action and colours are just fantastic. The two merge works extremely well – a pleasure to look at.

Excellent shot, perfect details :))

great capture and work

Perfect…......

Fab capture, Steve. Love it. Well done.

You have done a great job on capturing a true Australian icon….....well done!

A brilliant shot Steve and what a great shearing history lesson from Phil too!

Fantastic work Steve, love the treatment of the image, perfect in every way!

Great shot, Love it…..............

great capture! i love it…anna ; )

Excellent work Steve

great shot

Awesome shot—such a beautiful background!!!

Excellent Steve…love it!

I really love this. True Australiana.

This is a really great shot. How did you get such depth of field indoors with no motion blur on the subject? Was it a high ISO? Or did you get them to stay really still :)

awesome capture

Looks like a McCubbin etal style painitng. Very romantic and heroic in composition and theme. Truly superb lighting on the figure. He almost has a halo. Timeless.

This is a fabulous photo, Steve, with obvious historical significance as well as artistic merit.

Wow, this is excellent, beautiful lighting and wonderful action

very nicely captured Steve, great composition, colours & tone and great scene!

Great capture Steve!!! Love the treatment!!! Soooo Aussie…Love it :o)
Went to a friend’s house…and saw my first shearing shed…It was great!!
I should take some photo’s next time :o)
Got to see a baby sheep too :o) he/she was soooo cute!

A cracker

wow fabulous!

Wow thats an interesting job! We don’t find many of those in Los Angeles!
Great shot!

Love the history of this modern day image!

Great image and work detail also!

Fantastic work, Steve!

wonderful

Aww your work is great-sheep sheering !! !!!

such a familiar scene in days gone by.
beautiful capture

perfect natural golden light and beautiful portrait!

A wonderful working documentary image and the quality is top notch Steve, your HDR is streets ahead of so many I see everyday, impressive work and a joy to view,
Regards, Rod.

Outstanding capture and final image Steve!!!

What a fantastic photo… fancy not getting the sheep’s name!!! You know, this is probably one of the few industries that technology can’t take over… unless they create a way for the sheep to just unzip the wool when it’s long enough.

brilliant image… i love it!!!

Wow only two shots but the two are beautiful.

magic image, Steve :))))
awesome work!
...your shearer’s in full colours and my humble one’s in b&w… fascinating!
xo

Brilliant HDR Steve !

Classic Aussie..Awesome!!

Really enjoyed reading Phillip’s comments on Jackie Howe too … I grew up hearing stories about him (Dad was in the wool trade!) Great shot!

Steve, what a great shot – love the action and use of light. Its hard to know which of your work to comment on as it’s all fantastic! Thanks for your comments and keep up the amazing work! Peta xx

Love this one Steve. I did a painting of my brother many years ago with almost identical pose/dress/light etc….. I think most shearing sheds are very similar. Sadly my painting wasn’t nearly as good as this though!

EXCELLENT SHOT,STEVE

awesome capture!

Fantastic!

Far-out man… nothing left to say, that ain’t been said already… except +fav

Absolutely perfect….

good work, you did a fine job with this one.

Spent some time in the shearing shed as a kid and you have captured this extremely well.
spot on

love the back light coming into play here…. : )

This is great. Really nice HDR work

You have successfully combined art with documentation. This really is a great shot! Nice work! Oh, and anonymous sheep is hilarious! :)

wow! beautiful! what glorious light!

fabulous :)

it has all been said and put to bed, but I must say it really is an outstanding shot Steve, backbreaking work made to look elegant.

THis brings back memories, fantastic capture

I am such of fan of shearing shed photos, expecially old ones they just have so much more character and the stained timber because of the lanolin.

awesome !

Have always love this shot Steve, brilliant lighting and treatment!