Meet Tom, Sam, Riley, Sabrina, Millie and Paul! Sabrina keeps her two horses on livery where I keep Dolly. She owns two horses: Tom who she has owned for a number of years, who now enjoys a much quieter life. Secondly, she recently bought Riley – often known as Tom II as they look and act very similairly. We often joke about how she couldn’t find a horse more like Tom if she tried!
Sabrina asked me to take black background photograph of her two horses along with her mum’s coloured Cob – Sam. We began with Riley who at first was a little unsure about what we wanted, but in the end, with the help of Millie rattling some treats in a bucket, he had his ears forward looking around. I was just able to snap away!
We had a plan of photographing Riley and Tom from opposite directions so they could be put together on Photoshop. We didn’t think it would work too well trying to get them both to look in the same direction at the same time, with their ears forward – particularly with us just having stables rather than a larger dark entrance such as a barn. With this in mind, our stables face the opposite way on the other row, so we put Tom in another stable to photograph him. Sabrina thought Tom would be completely chilled and just stand there, looking beautiful. Nope! My stable was far too interesting with licks, treats and haynets! So, after taking a few shots from one side, we popped him back in his stable. He seemed a lot more focused and relaxed in his stable! I got the photographs of Tom from both sides as well as straight on to give Sabrina plenty of options to view afterwards.
We found a little stool for Millie to sit on next to Tom – so she could have a picture of her and Tom in her bedroom. We also got Paul, Sabrina’s husband in to some of the photographs too for a big family photograph! I even managed to fit an image of Riley in there to complete the family!
Finally, Sam was up next! He will do anything for treats which was great for all of us, although the standing still part wasn’t his favourite part! All three boys looked so well and I know Sabrina loves the images!
After the shoot we all had to dash off sooner than expected, so we arranged another morning to get a few photographs of Millie in the bluebells. Around this time each year I have photographed Millie so it seemed fitting to do it again! It’s really nice seeing her grow in to a little person who always makes us laugh with her stories and questions!
The first shoot was when Millie was just a few months old. I’d asked to “borrow” Millie just to have a play around with a new lense to see what we could get. We had her laying in the long grass in one of the paddocks, under trees and most memorably – in a bucket! We must re-create that shot to show how much she’s grown!
I always have such a laugh photographing Millie, last summer we were sat in the grass singing “Happy Birthday” to her, to make her smile; this year we were making animal noises!
