There’s a bit of a background story to today’s picture.

I took a number of photographs of this farm, some of which I’ll post here in the coming days. A public right of way provides access past the buildings and then on to the Moss Valley or to Plumbley, depending on the direction you choose. After taking a few photos of snow covered siloes, I decided to follow the farm road towards the valley – I’ve walked it before and know that there is an old wooden building, a shed-like structure, which might make for a nice picture.

As I headed there I noticed that, to my right, I could see into the farmyard, complete with a stable containing cows and a bunch of rustic farm buildings with snow-capped roofs. This seemed the perfect place to make a photograph, so I unpacked the Bronica from my bag, set up the tripod, and framed my shot. As I was doing this, I noticed a sheepdog – a border collie – peering out from a gate a little further down the path. It sat and looked at me but didn’t seem threatening so I continued what I was doing. Gradually though, the dog started to walk slowly towards me. It wasn’t barking, or looking in any way troublesome, so I finished what I was doing and started to pack stuff away.

Then, as the dog got within about ten feet of me it began to growl, a low rumble of noise from deep in it’s throat. And I became concerned. The dog, which until now had looked like a friendly sheepdog, the type you see in children’s books, now made apparent the fact that it had teeth, and that maybe it didn’t really appreciate what I was doing. I’ve been bitten by dogs a couple of times in my life and, while both occasions were a long time ago, I didn’t fancy a reminder of the experience, so I started to carefully move away, muttering friendly words to the animal while wondering if I would be able to defend myself with my tripod should it decide I was fair game.

After a very long couple of minutes of careful sidling away while the dog kept pace with me (it letting out the occasional sharp-sounding yap) I reached the track that leads to Plumbley and, to my great relief, the dog didn’t pursue any further. After putting a good fifty yards between us, I finally felt able to relax and make my way to safety.

Whether the dog would have made good on it’s threatening activity, I don’t know. While it was a bit of a scary experience, the dog was undoubtedly doing it’s job – protecting the farm and livestock from people with tripods and cameras in this case! I think I’ll avoid taking any pictures of this farm in future though. 🙂

Bronica ETRSi & Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9 mins 30 secs @ 20°

Taken 11 March 2023.