I managed to take a week off while in Sao Paulo to go visit the Fazenda Engenho São Francisco near Quirianopolis. Here are my tips and mistakes made while shooting pictures in a farm.
Here is the equipment taken
- Olympus E3
- Olympus E30
- Olympus Flash FL-50R (Very useful while inside a Barn)
- Sigma 30mm 1.4
- Zuiko 8mm 3.5 (great for cow and calf close-ups)
- Zuiko 50-200mm 2.8
- Zuiko Teleconverter 2X EC-20
- Zuiko 11-22mm 2.8
- ND Filters
- Small Table top tripod
- Hoya Polarizer Filters
Here was my journey:
 | Ireland to Brasil |
 | then to Goiania and Quirinopolis in Goias State |
 | Fazenda Engenho São Francisco (click on the link and zoom in you can actually see the cattle) |
BTW for Olympus RAW file usage with GPS I recently discovered GeoSetter, great tool that can work with the .ORF files, write the .xmp card or directly into the file to accommodate GPS data. Highly recommended.
Most Important tip…
Always talk to the person that runs the place day in and day out. They will give you good tips around the behavior of some of animals, which ones are approachable, and which ones to be careful (I managed to piss off a cow with her calf and it wasn't pretty)
Learn beforehand what kind of animals will you get to see (in my case was mostly cattle but managed a nice surprise to see exotic animals.
For cattle, learn what type of cattle it is you will be seeing, behavior will change depending on the breed and how is managed by the ranch.
If you want cattle to get close to you, as I wanted a very low close-up shot of some grown cows or bulls you need to get into the containment area, get down or sit down on the floor and wait. Cattle can be very curious and only takes one to come closer, for the other ones to follow. Be very careful once they are close, sudden moves can make them jump (very high) and you don't want to get stomped or worse your equipment be crushed
Clothes: depending on where you are going, will vary your clothing, but regardless of weather bring very old dirty jeans. If you can manage some cheap boots do as well, as you have to be ready to step, kneel and sit on cow dong, piss and milk and dirt. Same goes for your camera bag, be ready for it to get dirty and gnawed by curious calves
Bring your equipment for landscape photography, either on hills or flat land ranches tend to be in open spaces and you can capture great sunsets, sunrises and cloud formations.
Get up early, not only because of the great light during that time, farm work starts at 5am the animals are quite awake and is the time before a lot of the cattle is being driven to eat at the grass lands. Also in the case of Brasil is when you can manage best to carry all your equipment with the sun.
If you get to ride a horse: Taking pictures on top of a horse is not so hard if you: a) Have IS on your lense or the camera 2) Shoot either using manual or at least shutter priority mode. The faster the horse, the faster the shutter speed if you want sharp images.
Find out what other ranches around the area you are visiting. We managed to visit a neighboring ranch that sells and raises exotic animals and manage to get great shots. They were very nice and let us walk inside the containment area and take our time on getting to know the animals and wait for the best shots.(So here is a free commercial :) )
Also depending on where you are you might manage to view animals not very common to your area, I was very intrigued by Pipoca a cateto pork which tend to be very mean, except him.
Missed opportunities:
Some of the shots or things missed:
Not all the cattle behaves the same, while buying and marking some recently purchased cattle, a bull wouldn't come into the containment area, 4 workers chase after him but he managed to jump a fence of at least 1.5 meters, it would have been a great shot.
I should have brought my Manfrotto tripod I missed some good sunset and late opportunities because of not bring it. I have the 190X which is not too heavy but maybe I should invest on a gorillapod or at the very least a smaller tripod I can travel easier
I was so concentrated on the cattle, that I missed some good opportunities for portraits with the workers at the ranches. Brasilians tend to be very open on getting their picture taken and the clothes they wear are very distinct and interesting and could make great portrait subjects.
Same as above, make sure to take pictures for remembering the trip, take pictures with family and friends, not everything is about getting the best shot.
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