Taken during the Usefilm get-together in Drenthe. Titia Geertman, who organized the trip, took us to a shepherd with a herd of Drenthen Heathsheep, and we accompanied them on their stroll. The lambs have all different colours because they are cross-breeds of the heathsheep and another breed. Don't remember the name now but I think Titia can tell...
Only a small difference, Hermen. As I've said before, the composition is very good as is, but thanks for your explanation; That's what makes photography as good as it is: it's a subjective matter, and it all comes down to the choices of the photographer, which cannot be argued, only questioned, if you get my drift....
Titia: thanks for correcting me - I knew you are not cross-breeding the sheep now, but I think I have mixed up two stories here :)
Hugo: thanks for your suggestion. The first reason that I did not zoom in further was that I do not have a longer zoom... And I did not want to come closer, because I did not want to disturb the situation. When I saw the result I included the background because I thought it would be nice also to give an impression of the surrounding. And besides of that, I like trees :) But you're right, with this title, maybe I should have 'digitally' zoomed in further on the sheep by cropping the background.
Hi Hermen, My initial thought when I saw the thumbnail of this photo was wether to crop off the background. As I'm not hindered by knowledge about cross-breeding of sheep, I won't comment on that, but somehow, I don't think that's the issue here (none the less very interesting, thanks... also Titia's comment and correction, I think I'll go to www.drentsheideschaap.nl soon) Back to the composition.
Looking at the larger photo, I'm still not sure what the inclusion of the background does with photo and its subject. As a winterlandscape / scene, it surely adds a very good atmosphere of frost, winter, going onto spring. But on the other hand, I find it somewhat distracting too. Especially the dog-like animal on the left side of the treeline. The soft, almost desaturated colours of the frosen meadow is perfectly balanced and even. Focussing in on the sheep / lambs, I think the composition would be slightly better, only less dynamic, without the trees. As a reference, cropped the image, not only to show you what I mean, which you surely understood already, but also to make up my mind....
Photographically, I think this composition is very good, but then again, not much can go wrong with this kind of composition. Zooming in on the sheep is a bit more difficult, as I found out when I cropped your photo. The attached crop is close to being "good enough", I think. Bottom line here is, that any photo should be composed around a subject; the question wether to include or exclude surrounding features can alter the atmosphere, but is also likely to change the meaning behind a photo. This applies to the title too. And in this case, the title clearly focusses on the sheep....
Still a very good shot, especially the colours and tones. Just beautiful.
Hello Hermen, very nice photo, but you got it wrong about the colours. I'll explain: Once there was a breed called Drenthen Heathsheep, they were mainly kept to fertilize the farmlands. Then came the artificial fertilizer and these sheep lost their economic value. As the farmers in the province Drenthe were poor, they cross-bred the Drenthen Heathsheep with another breed from Drenthe, the Schoonebeeker. This was a larger sheep with no horns. Doing this they could get more money of their offspring (being bigger and therefore more meat). Some 20 years ago the original Drenthen Heathsheep had almost dissappeared and some people (me too) got together and founded an Association who had one purpose: preserving and breeding back that old breed of Drenthen Heathsheep. The sheperd we visited is one of our members who changed his flock from the cross-breds into the old breed rather well in about 8 years. What you saw in the herd were sheep looking exactly like the old ones. The different colours are special to this old breed and maybe except for the one on the right (can't see if he's a real black one) all these lambs in your photo will get a white fleece when growing up, only the head and the legs will show the original colours.
So, we're NOT cross-breeding them, we're trying to get the wrong elements OUT by selecting the animals who're showing the most typical qualities of the old Drenthen Heathsheep. This breed is the oldest one in the Netherlands and was even mentioned as early as 1300. For more information, just look at our website: http://www.drentsheideschaap.nl
0 
