Comanche

Canon EOS 10D, 17mm, 1/10, f/4.0, ISO 400, retouched

Here we have the taxidermied remains of Comanche, the horse ridden by Myles Keogh at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Part of the myth is that Comanche was the only U.S. military survivor of the battle, or at least the Custer-led portion of it. That wasn’t exactly true, but it’s still a fun story.

Less fun were the shooting conditions in the Dyche Hall Natural History Museum. The University of Kansas used to have the horse prominently displayed on the second floor, but its former place of honor has been usurped by an exhibit about evolution (no doubt a dig at the religious fanatics on the state school board).

Comanche now resides in a poorly-lit hallway with some disastrous back-lighting from a nearby window. The dim conditions made shutter speed a tricky business. Slowing down enough to get a proper exposure introduced too much motion blur from the hand-held camera.

Canon EOS 10D, 17mm, .7 sec., f/4.0, ISO 400

With the shutter sped up, the photos came out way too dark.

Canon EOS 10D, 17mm, 1/10, f/4.0, ISO 400

Still, dark is easier to fix than blurry. In Photoshop I lightened the image considerably, toned down the yellows and reds to make Comanche look a little less glow-in-the-dark, and came up with the image at the top of this post.