Thank you to Kirsty Bracken and her Thoroughbred Clydesdale gelding Sirus for being such great sports on a chilli -15C winter day, even though we shot indoor.
I wanted to take this shoot indoors, not just because it was cold but because I will eventually have to tackle equine portraiture indoors in extremely tough environments. It was definitely a great start! There are many more types of indoor shots that I have planned and will be getting down the road.
I wanted this shoot to be primarily off-camera flash photography, but because the sun kept coming into the building quite early, I was able to shoot with natural light for a good portion of my shots. Photographing an 18hh horse in a stall was a good challenge for me especially when he is taller than the top bars of the stall. Factor in that he's a grey and the upper portion of the barn walls is the same colour as he is and it adds another challenge on top of that.
As suggested by a good friend to use cellophane wrap in getting a horse's attention, I've found that it works really well. But like we all already know, no two horse's are the same, what may work on one horse, won't necessarily work on the next one you work with. Every horse is different and every horse teaches me something extremely valuable at each shoot that I do.
Thank you to Kirsty's mother Kim for being such a helpful assistant, you were awesome! Like already mentioned, until I find an assistant, I will find ways to fill the void.
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