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Equestrian portraits for High School seniors has become very popular. With my experience as a lifetime equestrian and as an equestrian photographer, I know how to work with the horses and their riders. Planning and preparation make the sessions flow more effortlessly.

  1. Make sure the horse is fed and well groomed. Do attend to those ears and whiskers.
  2. I like have several outfit changes so bring along a variety from very casual to more formal attire.
  3. Have a groom to help manage the horse and keep him or her calm between clothing changes. Horses do like to take advantage of beautiful green grass and eat it any chance they get.
  4. Another helper can get the horses attention when needed.
  5. Choose a location that has a variety of settings.
  6. Start in the late afternoon to end with golden light.
  7. Bring peppermints!!

 Having had a successful show career with this horse and many others, saying good-bye to a “best friend” is never easy. Feeling the weight of responsibility to create an enjoyable session and lasting memories for Amber, I was helped by her grace, beauty and connection with her horse.

Horse Portraits

 
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It is an exciting time of year with the winter Olympics in full swing. I empathize and appreciate all the hard work of the athletes. Working as a sports photographer, every competitor exhibits the characteristics of preparation, execution and release. All of these areas give the sports photographer opportunities to capture the emotions of the athlete. While I am only able to view the Olympic coverage on television, I am currently in Wellington, Florida surrounded by the best equestrians in the world at The Winter Equestrian Festival. Saturday night was the $375,000 FEI Grand Prix. It was an exciting class with forty five competitors, six being called back for the jump-off over a shortened course. It gave me lots of opportunity to photograph the preparation, execution and release.

1. Preparation

Photographing Athletes: In Pursuit Of Excellence

Anticipation for Nice De Prissey with Brianne Goutal, Balance and concentration for Ursula XII and Scott Brash.

2. Execution

Photographing Athletes: In Pursuit Of Excellence

Special Lux with Jonathan McCrea, With Wings and Karen Polle, Mic Mac Du Tillard with David Will.

For equestrians, the rider and the horse are skilled athletes. They must work as a team. I love the different expressions of concentration of the horse and rider as they approach and jump these huge fences.

Photographing Athletes: In Pursuit Of Excellence

Kent Farrington and Willow

The course must be completed in a certain amount of time. The rider must move along. When it’s a jump off, the rider needs to gallop as fast as safely possible. In the end, the jumps have to stay up.

Photographing Athletes: In Pursuit Of Excellence

Jessicia Springstein and Vindicat W, Charlie Jayne and Chill R Z

The course designer builds problems into the course testing the horse and rider’s versatility. Sometimes it’s the number of possible strides between jumps. It may be the size and shape of the jump. The horse and rider have to answer every question with a clean jump.

Photographing Athletes: In Pursuit Of Excellence

Tim Gredley and Unex Chamberlain Z, Scott Brash and Ursula XII

The determination in horse and rider is inspiring!

 

3. Release

Photographing Athletes: In Pursuit Of ExcellencePhotographing Athletes: In Pursuit Of ExcellenceBen Maher on Cella winners of the $375,000 Grand Prix

As these athletes pursue excellence, I to strive to photograph their stories to the best of my abilities!! I hope you enjoy these photographs.

 

 

 
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I just finished teaching a Family Beach Photography photo session for The Palm Beach Photographic Center FotoFusion 2014. It was a wonderful opportunity to share with my students much of the information I have gleaned from thousands of hours photographing families at the beach.

Family Beach Photography

I thought about titling this blog: All Dressed Up With No Place To Go,  What Can Go Wrong, Will or Three Strikes And You Are Out.. At the location secured three weeks before the class, we had permission to photograph but had to pay for parking. It turned out the day of, we received free parking passes but were not allowed to photograph. My two families with their young children were incredibly patient as we moved to a second location. Since we were not going to be able to photograph at the beach, I figured we could create the same type of portraits, with similar lighting techniques and students could learn from the experience.

Family Beach Photography

After going through two very useful lighting setups, again we were asked to leave the location. The gate was going to be locked and we needed to be on the other side of it. No worries, next to that site was a place I thought I could finish up with more candid family photographs and give the students the final part of the workshop. Mom and Dad are in position, the background is good, the light is perfect. About to shoot, once again we are asked to leave. No worries. I resorted to begging. It worked with the promise of being quiet.

Family Beach Photography

The students appreciated the experience. Lesson learned, you can make plans but when reality takes over, go with the flow and do the best you can!!