You've already met Kari and her lovely horses: Isla and Ron, in a previous blog post. Before I'd even sent Kari the images from her shoot, I was super surprised (but delighted!) to already be discussing a date for a second shoot!
Kari is originally from Germany, which is where her and her sister learnt to ride. She informed me that her parents haven't yet met her horses so she was so excited to be able to show them the photographs of both horses from their previous shoot.
The plan for this next shoot was for something slightly different. By now I'd worked out the style of photographs that Kari loved - it is very much about the simplicity of horses, their every day lives with a very artistic feel. I'm so in love with all of the ideas Kari has, so I knew that this would be great fun! I'm not quite sure how I'd describe, in words, what I mean - something with a fine art feel that makes you really connect with the horse.
The main focus of the shoot would be to capture close ups and details of the horses: their eye's legs, coat and ears in particular. As well as every day scenes and still life set ups around the stables and horses. How excited was I - urm, very, if you can't already tell!
Kari decided it'd be best if we focused on Isla for this, as she was a bit more laid back than Ron and more likely to have the patience for us moving her around in some strange positions! I suggested that we tried the majority of these with the black background effect just to make them extra special. The outcome, if I said so myself was really striking, bold yet very simplistic and beautiful.
It was lovely to take a step back and appreciate every little detail of the horse, it really emphasises how much we really love these creatures and how majestic they are. Isla would happily follow treats and carrots around, bending in various ways, allowing us to create some dramatic abstract images.
Despite the great contrast between the softness of the eyes and the darkness behind; the gloss of the coat and the black background, there's something very peaceful and calming about these images.
For the second part of the shoot, it was Ron's turn! Kari was keen to capture the relationship she has with Ron and wants to be able to look back on the photographs to measure the progress and evolution of their partnership, over time. I think that's such a lovely thing to do! We set up a couple of jumps and I sat in the grass, chatting to Kari whilst she rode around me.
The shoot finished up with us walking Ron along the edges of some of the fields around the yard for some ridden, portrait shots.
Thank you, thank you, again Kari, for such a wonderful afternoon. It's a pleasure working with you as always and I'm super pleased with how everything turned out! I hope to see you guys again soon!
