Equine Photography

I think every artist and photographer has a point at which they notice other peoples work looking a little too similar to theirs for their liking.

I've just had a spin off with one of those moments. Spin off, because it's not a photographer copying my work, and it's not really copying my work.
This is about girls who own a horse and fancy camera.
Horse + fancy camera= equine photographer!??

right?...oh..really?....it doesn't? Oh!


I'm never out to crush anyones dreams or aspirations I am fully behind anyone who enjoys photography or is looking to carry it forward into something more serious. I had that done to me when I was starting out and it was horrible so I would never criticisize anyone else putting their whole heart into something they love.

The point i'm making is that, I don't know if I am just being paranoid, which is more than likely, but i've started to notice more and more girls who add me on facebook mostly for the one reason that I have SOMETHING to do with horses. Add me because you like my work, that's fine I fully appreciate your support.....but don't add me just because you own a horse, that doesn't mean we have anything in common and I probably won't take an interest in your life.

So these girls put up their photos of their 'equine photography' and it seems to me like often they are just copying exact shots that they have seen before.
Trust me when I say this, it will not help you. Being inspired by a shot is 100% fine but put your own twist on it, use your imagination and shoot what is actually LOOKING good infront of you, don't try and make a shot work because you saw it looked good somewhere else.
Your subject, surroundings and attitude is not the same as the photographer of the photo you liked.
You can't take a shetland gelding and make it look like a lipizzaner stallion. Although I would love to see someone take a crack at it!!
Most shots that come up honestly just look so fake because whoever was shooting wasn't keeping their head in the moment and taking the opportunities being handed to them.

A lot of my equine work takes weeks of planning, but the shots are spontaneous mostly. You can't predict an exact shot, a horse is a creature with a mind of it's own and it will do things that you don't want and look ugly but it will also have some stunning accidental moments that you missed because you had your mind locked down on one shot of someone elses work.

The second thing is those that think the camera does all the work. When you start out, you will see professional and semi-pro photographers ranting about this one a lot. A camera is a tool that you need to know how to work, improve and master. You can own a car, it doesn't mean you can drive it.


So i've tried to keep this helpful and hopefully slightly inspiring for all those of you that would maybe class yourselves into this blog to READ YOUR CAMERA MANUAL, experiment with your settings, your horses and your shots.
Shoot what you want, not what you've seen.