For some insane reason, I forgot to blog this shoot! Don’t know why, as the photos turned out to be just lovely. How can they not be with models like this? The shoot took place at Marley Farms in Gilbert, AZ at the end of April. Ah, that’s why it slipped my mind, my filly was born soon after and I therefore forgot everything but her for awhile. 😉
Better late then never, I always say…
On Saturday, August 9th I had the pleasure of being the official photographer for the Belgian Warmblood keuring here in AZ. The event took place at beautiful Los Cedros, which provided the perfect backdrop for just about every image.
Nearly 30 horses were inspected and the venue was just gorgeous. More on that below. There was only one stallion in attendance, but he made up for it! Many mare and foal pairs, some older mares, and three yearling were also shown.
The turnout was great, especially for a keuring or inspection, all the horses were lovely, and my homemade horse treats were a HUGE hit, as usual! The judges from Belgium were very sweet and extremely thorough. Owners, handlers, and riders did an amazing job, especially considering the heat, as did the event managers.
Thanks to my fabulous client, Heidi Risser, who invited me! Here are some of my favorite shots. More can be seen in the highlights slideshow here.
My little girl is already 4 months old, and unfortunately, I only get to see her about once a week. 😦
But here are shots of her from last Friday. Again, somewhat grainy and blurry as it was pretty dark out, but she’s adorable in these, as usual. 8)
Since Blogger has very few good templates, I see the one I chose left and right, and it’s driving me nuts, honestly. 🙂 WordPress has better options and is easier to customize, amongst other benefits, so here we are.
Are you sick of spending hours trying to get decent photos of your sale horses, only to have them turn out nothing like what you had imagined? Does your horse’s head always look HUGE? Want to know how the pros set up sale horse shoots in order to accentuate horses’ good features and sell them quickly?
If you answered “yes” to any of those questions, our brand new course will be invaluable! Especially in this market, there’s an amazing amount of competition just for attention. If your current photos make your horse resemble a yak more than an equine, no matter how many points they have or championships they’ve won, you won’t get the interest you need to sell.
For example, say you’re looking for a dressage horse, and have a $12,000 budget. If these two horses came up in the search, judging solely on the photos below, which would you be more serious about?
If you picked the second horse, you’re among the majority. But why did you pick that horse over the other? Because the photo shows the mare off to her best, and that she’s likely worth the money! Would it surprise you to learn that both images are of the exact same horse? Sure is!
Starting to see what I mean? Image is everything in the equine advertising world.
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Course Outline
May be changed slightly to best suit the needs of the class
Week 1 – Introductions
Week 2 – Preparations & Beginnings
Week 3 – All About Conformation
Week 4 – Action Shots
Week 5 – Putting It All Together
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Last month I shared how to take great photos in a barn door with a dark background. This month, you can still use a barn door if you’d like, just move inside of the barn instead. If you don’t want to shoot inside, sunset is a great time too!
Those shooting with a manual camera (any camera where you can manually set the shutter speed and aperture) will want set the camera to aperture mode and meter the bright sky (or light coming in the doorway). The main goal is to expose for the bright part. Your subjects should be at the edge of the door, but in the shadows.
Put your camera in manual mode, just to be safe, and use the settings you read on aperture mode (i.e. 1/750 at f/4.5). Since digital cameras only have a 7-8 stop latitude, and you’re exposing for the highlights in a very contrasty situation, the shadows will turn into a black silhouette.
If you just have a point-and-shoot camera, it will take more effort, but you should be able to pull this off too. Most beginners take silhouettes inadvertently. 😉 First, turn your flash off. If you have a manual setting, follow the directions above.
If not, when taking your photo, make sure that most of the frame is filled up with bright light. The camera will naturally meter for this, in return, turning your subjects into a silhouette.
Quick note, silhouettes look best when there is a clear definition between legs, arms, and such, otherwise it just looks like one big dark jumbled mess.
Some more examples:
From Beja, Portugal, 2008. Like a trail class, just in fast forward. 🙂
The man riding has some of the best natural horsemanship I’ve seen. Great, now I really want a Lusitano too.
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