Meet Ellen and her lovely chestnut gelding, Owen. I met them both at the yard Ellen works at in Hampshire. It was a beautiful yard with plenty of different locations for us all to explore. Ellen first met Owen in 2013 at a riding school. Since owning him for about a year, he's become a right dressage diva!
Ellen is also a photographer, however she didn't realize how much there was to think about, from a clients perspective: what to wear, where to go, and of course how you'd feel in front of the camera. She was just finishing getting Owen ready when I arrived. He looked super smart in his bling! Ellen showed be her different outfits, based on what she wanted to wear first, we headed up to the furthest point of the yard. The colour of her top matched beautifully with the spring colours emerging from the trees and hedges. Not before, however, we made use of the indoor school to get some really lovely black background images!
Owen definitely loved the camera, I barely had to do anything to get his ears forward - the clicking of the shutter was enough to keep his attention. This made for a very easy shoot indeed! He stood perfectly still and was a gentleman throughout, allowing me to focus on posing Ellen and getting through the many different ideas we both had! Ellen was so lovely too and of course we quickly came on to the subject of cameras!
The bond and love between the two of them is evident in every single photograph! They clearly adore each other! Ellen's next outfit was more casual, a smart polo shirt. The outfits matched so well with the different locations we'd been to look at - I thought that the browns in the shirt would work really well in the golden grass in the fields. The long grass provided us with some great photo options, as well as being able to move a little further to where the butter cups were!
The shoot divided itself up so nicely, with Ellen's outfit choices! It really was, if there is such a thing, for me, a "textbook shoot." Owen was an absolute star and allowed me to move around him and Ellen, snapping away whilst he focused on something either in the distance, or on me! He was a perfect model!
A quick change in to a blue shirt and boots for Ellen, and Owen had his saddle put on! The driveway at Brook Farm is beautiful - I knew as soon as I arrived that we would spend some time under the archway of trees. This was the location for the last part of the shoot. Ellen jumped aboard Owen and we worked through a variety of different ideas, including walking towards and away from the camera.
After a short while, Ellen hopped down and put Owen's headcollar on and we headed on to the yard for our last few shots. The yard was decorated with pots of very vibrant flowers so we made use of those!
Thank you so much Ellen for having me, it was so great to finally meet you after chatting on various equine and photography groups over the last few months. I hope you enjoyed yourselves!
