To create this funny cow picture I actually rented a cow and photographed it under a large silk. The silk was necessary to achieve a soft diffused light that makes the compositing process much easier. The grass was photographed in a local park, the sky in New Mexico, and the barbecue grill and fork in my studio. All three of the cattle in the picture are actually the same animal. I made the grill smoke by using first the air brush and then working it with the smudge tool. I used Photoshop for all of the compositing and digital enhancement. To facilitate the use of the image in advertising and editorial work I made it to crop easily as a square, horizontal or vertical. There is ample room provided for copy space and headlines. At one point I tried to save the image but couldn't because it exceeded the size restrictions for Photoshop to be able to save. There are a lot of layers in that image! I spent two entire days on the Photoshop work which is two to three times longer than it normally takes me to create an image.

For this funny animal picture I chose a Holstein cow, those black and white spotted bovines that seem to have been ingrained in our consciousness as a stereotypical, or perhaps I should say, iconic cow. Before photographing this beast I had the owner of the dairy farm give her a good washing. No sense spending any extra Photoshop time cleaning cow pies, straw and dirt from the nice white hide! I am anticipating this image might make a great Father's Day greeting card. Who knows what kind of uses Art Directors and Designers will find for it, but from my experience I am confident that the humor will be appealing enough to attract their attention and utilize their creative natures. One great thing about this image is the almost endless possibilities for humorous captions. "It''s an acquired taste" comes to mind along with the obvious "Chicken or fish?".