Amazing April - where do I start? I am sorry that this post is a little late, I completely ran out of time to finish it off before I headed to Badminton Horse Trials last week. April began with a very exciting trip to London to meet some fellow equine photographers - we were privelliged to be given a tour of the Kings Troop stables in Woolwich. Read the full write up here!
My lovely friend Phoebe and I headed over to see Becka on April 5th - Caprice and Becka were our models for the morning wearing the absolutely beautiful range of products from Tail End Jewellery. They're incredibly delicate and quite a challenge to photograph. Alison who creates these peices wanted me to capture the relationship between owner and horse, which is never a problem when I go to photograph Becka and Caprice - the love she has for that mare is evident for everybody to see and it ratiates through to the photographs so well.
I finished up the final designs for 3J Fitness ahead of Newbury All About Dogs show - Janine and Annie also had several slots in the main arena that I photogrpahed for them, spreading the word and educating fellow dog owners about Canicross. The weather that weekend was absolutely glorious and I even managed to bump in to a few clients at the show too!
My first portrait shoot of the month was with Sam and Charlotte along with their partners and their two handsome boys - Oscar and Viking. We were spoilt with a beautiful location - you can read more about their shoot here.
Find out all about the wonderful Mother Bee Products and how they're rejuvinated my much loved Ariat's --> click here!
My diary for the Easter Holidays was jam packed! Katy had organised a shoot for her daughter, Melissa's birthday - we had a great laugh in their garden trying to get their two rabbits to stay still long enough for me to get a shot of them together! A shoot in the evening then followed with Stacey and her fiancee Ian, we took their two dogs Meg and Dylan in to the surrounding woodland and rapeseed field for some portrait images of them together to use as "Save the date" cards for their wedding! April has to be one of my favourite months to photograph in - the fields are turning green, the horses are loosing their winter woolies and the countryside is a burst of colour with the yellow rapeseed crop and the lilacs and purples of the bluebells.
On the 11th April I met Tilly and Rolo along with her twin sister Maisie and her dog Prince. We spent a lovely day in the spring sunshine, you can find out all about their shoot here.
With a relaxing bank holiday to re-charge, I met Angela and her husband with their dog Roger in Caversham. They had the perfect spot in mind for the shoot, a copse full of bluebells for me to photograph them with Roger.
My sponsored riders had a busy month - with two internationals for Jessie Kirby and Charlotte Dujardain's Cruz III. A great experience for them both, with it only being their first international together they managed a number of fantastic scores. Their second trip abroad, this time to Samur saw them place in every class! It was great to catch up with Team JK between their trips - we got some lovely images for her newest sponsor, Hauke Schmidt. Jessie and Orlando also modelled for me for my second batch of images for the lovely Alison from Tail End Jewellery.
I'm also super proud of Rose Hugh-Smith and DJ for being selected to represent Great Britain in their first international as a partnership next month! And this evening I learnt that they've been long listed to compete at the Europeans! Becka and Caprice have turned their hand to some eventing and recently competed their first ODE together which they both loved! Wanda has made such amazing progress with her youngster, Wanda. I love seeing how she's coming along being carefully and sympathetically produced by Becka. Katherine continues to train her chestnut boys at home, Rohan is slowly coming back in to work and Garnet is taking this dressage malarky in his stride!
Hambeldon has to be one of the prettiest events in the BE calendar - the course is lined with bluebells that always seem to be at their best over that weekend! It was great to catch up with a number of riders and photographers (oh, and fence judges!) that I'd not seen over the weekend. It also gave me the perfect opportunity to get some practise in ahead of Badminton. I was at Hambeldon to lend Katie Mortimer a hand with her studio-lit portraits. A concept which hasn't really been explored in the past, the results were stunning and I'm sure once the word gets out about the process, Katie will be in-undated with bookings at events!
On April 24th I had a wonderful morning with Emma and her two horses, Theo and Phoebe. I seem to have been spoilt with some stunning locations this month, and this shoot was no exception. With sweeping driveways, avenues of trees and beautiful backdrops!
Angeline and I headed over to Slough to meet Sue and Spirit along with her 4 dogs, including 20 week old GSP, Otto. Spirit was a tricky character to get his ears forward but Angie and Hayley did a great job keeping his attention - even if it was just one ear most of the time, haha!
After having to postpone the original shoot with Louisa and Cameo, I was delighted to finally meet and photograph them! Cameo, a beautiful Welsh Section D was an absolute star throughout their shoot - a much loved member of the family, it was so easy to capture the relationship between Cameo and Louisa.
Now, it's time to look ahead to Badminton Horse Trials!