Plant pictures are fairly easy to take. Unless the wind is blowing, the plants stay put. Taking goat kid pictures is totally different.
Why Am I Taking Goat Kid Pictures?
As I plan out my Opal and Agate goat kid picture book series, the illustrations are crucial. Perhaps I could do some cute kid or some caricature kid, but I love my goats and want to show them as they are.
David Plank, a local bird artist, can take a sketch pad out and quickly outline out a bird. Other artists do this too. I can’t. So I take pictures.
Young Goat Kids
For the first few days, goat kids spend a lot of time sleeping. They curl up and look so sweet.
The big challenge for a picture of these sleeping kids is low light. I do not use a flash as this would frighten the kids and the other goats.
So I set the ISO at 400, brace the camera and take the pictures. I take lots of pictures as any little movement will ruin them.
Getting Good Action Pictures
Goat kids a couple of weeks old are fast – very, very fast. A video would be nice, but I need still pictures to use as models.
An opportunity presented itself. The weather was cool. The sky was overcast. And the herd went out to graze. I kept the kids in as they are shorter than the grass. Hunting for lost kids is not fun.
These kids know me. I sat down out in the barn lot and they came out to play. My biggest problem now was focusing the camera on the right kid at the right time.
Time Is Short
Goat kids grow up fast. These four will be sold when they are three months old.
My herd is dwindling. The does are getting too old to have kids. I am too old to keep young ones to follow them.
By this time next year, there will be no more kids. So I am taking goat kid pictures now, both to remember them and to have models for my picture book illustrations.
