Sam Abell. A night I will remember.

I witnessed last night a remarkable exhibition by a remarkable man, who spoke of a remarkable life punctuated by remarkable acclaim for his work. Sam Abell, a National Geographic photographer for 40-some years, presented a story of an American life. The program contained two extraordinary elements; the 250-or-so people who attended saw a grouping of photographic images of such strong emotional evocativity that many will dream of the pictures they saw; and the presenter, Sam Abell, whose humanity and eloquence (in both word and image) was evident in such abundance that I am sorry you were not there.

Abell (search for "Sam Abell" images) said that the image below had been given a great deal of recognition, and that it was his image most requested by other professional photographers. It is quintessential in its composition, and it provides a case lesson in how to make a two-dimensional image as three-dimensional as possible.

Great sky (lucky break).

Powerful primary subject (picturesque guy in classic hat castrating a calf, good left-hand-of-picture framing).

Layers: Sky, horizon, cowboy on horse well-silhouetted above horizon, two cowboys throwing calf framing cowboy on horse, guy carrying bucket of testicles forming right-hand border, and front-of-frame action.



I don't think the Abell picture below needs much explanation.