Austrian Cow

If I was an Austrian cow I think I would go a little bit crazy. Sure, you have a nice view and a bit of grass – life is pretty good. However, you also have to wear a bell around your neck and these things are pretty loud and annoying when you are stood right next to them, let alone when you need to carry them 24-7.

Walk a bit – ring ding ding.
Chew a bit of grass – ring ding ding.
Turn my head – ring ding ding.
Sit perfectly still – is that silence? Nope, there’s the ring ding ding of Magdalena’s bell – forgot I was in a herd.

A herd of such cows in one particular field looked a little docile, so I got as close as I could to them and let natural curiosity take over. The cows came closer and closer to me, so in the end I was laying on the floor trying to get a decent angle while one cow sniffed at my lens and licked my boots.

A second cow attempted to sneak up on me. Everytime I looked away from it the large bovine would take a few steps towards me, and then comically stop every time I looked back at it. Here’s a clue Florian – you can’t sneak up on a dude when you’re wearing a bell!

Also not sure why I’m giving names to them.

This image was tonemapped from one exposure due to the fact cows like to mooove move a lot and the other brackets would never have lined up with this one. Personally I really like the drop of saliva you can see, just about ready to drop over my lens and boots.

ETA
Here are a few images take by John while I was grabbing this shot.

Here’s me taking the above shot:

Here’s the one cow licking my boots, and the other (Florian) attempting to sneak up on me.

Finally, here is the cow getting curious about the camera.

• Aperture: ƒ/6.3
• Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
• Focal length: 32mm
• ISO: 1600
• Shutter speed: 1/13s