Welcome! I’d sworn I’d never blog. Really.
The truth is, I am having way too much fun with my work, and what good are my photos if I can’t share them. Consider yourself warned : This blog may jump around on the time line now and again. If you know “me” personally then you already know this is par for the course. Try to follow me… if you dare!
* One last thing, all photos on this blog are property of ME. Absolutely no: stealing, borrowing, pilfering, shoplifting, swiping, filching, lifting, nabbing, pinching, poaching, snatching, otherwise known as pirating my images.
I will find you, so don’t do it. Go make your own!
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… and Your Little Dog too!!
I had the pleasure of visiting Flying Feathers Farm in Washougal, WA on my last trip to the west coast. It was there that I finally got to meet her herd of sport horse mares and foals, made primarily of Section D Welsh Cob mares. Now, most every farm I have ever visited has had an assortment of resident dogs of various breeds. Typical “barn dogs” come in the Jack Russell, Corgi and shepherd variety. Not the dogs of Flying Feathers! Meet Maynard, Benson, and Jack the most interesting collection of dogs. All three are great fun loving dogs that I had wished to bring home with me. ( If only the airline I flew home wasn’t hitting me up for $20 a bag!) They sat still briefly amongst the vast gardens just long enough to get a few shots.
Maynard is a Brussels Griffon. This is a breed of toy dog, named for the city of their origin, Brussels, Belgium.
Benson is a Papillion , which were bred for companionship and is one of the oldest versions of the toy spaniels.
Jack is a Schipperke, bred for killing rats on Barges.
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Yarrow and “Rem”
Lynne Glazer from CA stopped in the week before last and we has some fun at the local beach (which just recently opened up for horse season). Yarrow and her Arabian mare II Rem-Minisse made the trek down from NH to play in the surf.
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Jocelyn
Most high school seniors opt for a “beach” shoot ’round here. Not one to run with the crowd, Jocelyn wanted something a little different for her portrait. We spent a few hrs in a furniture warehouse creating the following shots. Thanks to the folks at Setting the Space for allowing us to play in their candy shop of props and take over the show room for the afternoon. Best of luck for your Senior year Jocelyn!
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Brynayre Welsh
Cristy arrived Tuesday 7/14 at Midnight and I had her up at the crack of dawn on Wednesday for the first day of our three week madness. I dragged her off to NY to visit and photograph at Brynayre Welsh. It wasn’t a bad drive, just about three and a half hrs that included the dreaded Mass Pike. Last year we got trapped in pike traffic that crawled on for hrs. Laurie and her family greeted us (after I avoided parking beneath the Yankee’s Fan’s Only parking sign in the driveway) with a great cheese and cracker snack and we headed down back to meet the ponies. She currently has two Welsh stallions Section C ”Penn” Penrhyn Sword of Hope (Turkdean Sword Dance x Parc Ceridwen) and two year old Section D “Snooks” Brynayre Aneirin (Ch. Penrhyn Sword of Hope x Ch. Penrhyn Fair Star). Penn is 21 years young and he and Snooks live and play together. At first glance one might think that they are trying to kill each other with all of the rough housing that goes on. In reality Penn is teaching Snooks valuable behavioral lessons and allow him to expend excess youthful energy. Remarkably both boys didn’t have a mark on their bodies, attesting to the fact that their play is really play. To the artistic eye, a matched pair of palominos tumbling in afternoon light can be heaven. Stay tuned for some Brynayre mare and foal photos!
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The Great Dunes
High Prairie CCI** is now under our belt. We survived some hot weather as well as a hefty thunder,lightening, and hail storm that put off an entire cross country division until day three. We has a few minutes of panic wondering how we were going to cover two stadium courses and be back out on the cross country course at the same time. Fortunately the event organizers also had similar conflicts and they arranged start times accordingly. We were able to finish up on cross country and scramble back to the stadium rings with enough time to grab a bite to eat. We were ”card dumping fools” that night back in the hotel. We had to make sure that all files from all three cameras were correctly transferred from memory cards to hard drives and then to another hard drive. A lot of work went into shooting the images and it would be a shame to loose any of them. This even includes carrying the hard drives in and out of restaurants, and another place we may stop as not to let them out of our site. Cristy will be responsible for processing and uploading the entire show once she gets back home. We said good bye to Lynne at DIA ( Denver International Airport) after driving through some more rain and passing by the freaky bronc sculpture on the road to the main terminal. This is a massive blue horse ( bad proportions) with glowing red eyes. We drove south to Farmington NM and stopped a few places to snap some shots along the way. Here are a few favorites.
This was shot through the walkway heading out to the Dunes from the parking lot. I really liked how the trees created a natural frame, giving us a glimpse of what was beyond the tree line.
It has been a while since I experimented with black and white, and I was moved enough by the shapes and compositions to do so with many of my Dune shots. There was some really great driftwood lying about too.
This piece of grass was about 6 inches high and I had to assume my “rolling in the sand “position to get the right perspective on it. I am pretty sure Cristy has added to her ”amy black mail photo archive” as a result.
The Great Dunes were formed by rain and wind that eroded the San Luis Valley and span across 39 square miles and can be as tall as 750 feet. We were fortunate enough to stop in and find water flowing in Medano Creek ( about a foot deep in some places). Looking straight out the Dunes rose above the horizon out of the shallow water. People were hiking up them and little kids had flying saucer sleds and were zipping down them. The sand wasn’t soft like it is back east on Cape Cod, but was rather sharp. I removed my shoes and crossed the water to get some better vantage points and gave my feet a good exfoliation. The water was freezing! Looking to the right were snow capped Sangre de Cristo Mountains. You can read more about the Great Dune here
On the way into the Park it was rainy and the light was VERY flat. We stopped and photographed this tree for a while thinking I could do some post processing magic. The tree had so much character to it, I couldn’t stand to not get a shot of it. We had about a half hr of “magic light” when leaving the dunes so we stopped yet again at this tree and I was able shoot it again.
Don’t forget to check out Cristy’s Version of our adventure to the Dunes!
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Off and Running
Here I go again! I just zippered up my gear bag after my last inventory check and I will be on my way to the airport shortly. My brother is nice enough to bring me to the airport after he finishes up his last final of his high school career. He has decided to go to school for film and has been following me around at horse shows learning the ropes. I am adding him to the list of services offered by STUDIO EQUUS event coverage for 2009. He has shot some pretty cool stuff so far.
This time I am off to Denver, CO to cover the High Prairie ** at the Colorado Horse Park with fellow “horse shooters” Cristy Cumberworth and Lynne Glazer. My bag is STUFFED with gear. Last year I had a small lens issue and left poor Cristy with endless hrs of editing. No more third party lenses for me! To make up for it, I have rented a “Fatty” ( Nikon 300 mm) from the nice folks at lensrentals.com. This adds an additional 7 lbs to my bag and requires me to drag along my monopod. Hopefully the nice people at the airport won’t give me too much trouble over it. I have also rented a 14 mm to play with on cross country day, and for when we swing in to The Great Dunes on our way to Albuquerque. I can’t just fly right home! I will be travelling home with Cristy and taking in the scenery on our 8 hr? car drive and flying home from there ( only when my memory cards are full of travel photos). I will try to keep you updated with our antics.
Here is a favorite shot of section D welsh colt, Ashland Daffydd born just a few weeks ago with his dam Madoc Victoria kicking up some dust.
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Well, my suspicions were correct in that I am incapable of keeping up with this blog. As you can see I never got around to finishing up my adventure with Cristy. I assure you I eventually made it home after several delays. I haven’t been shooting much but I have been riding and prepping for some rated dressage shows with my mom’s Section D Welsh Cob Stallion Quillane Apollo. We are attempting first level this year and will have several shows under our belts before I jump into photographer mode.
I visited fellow Welsh breeder Mark and Mel Bosworth at Ashland Welsh to meet the newest additions to the farm. Technically they have lived there for 11 months already but now they are visible. Both fillys are by Section C Multi Supreme National Champion Gallod Replica and were born a few weeks ago.
Ashland Wyndsome peeked up over the stall door to see me when I arrived and immediately went back to slurping and slopping her mothers beetpulp while standing in the food pan. When we opened the stall door for her to go out side she shot out like a cannon. The barn has a great configuration for mares and foals as each stall opens up to the outside of the barn and paddock as well as within.
You can view Wynsome’s gallery here
I bumped up my shutter speed to try to capture this slingshot baby as she whizzed around and around me. She is the fastest foal I have ever attempted to shoot. Her dam, Gallod Tlws y Twt, is one of my most favorite section D mares. Tlws means “Gem” in Welsh, but can also be used as an adjective meaning pretty, so Tlws a Twt means pretty and neat too. She is currently on lease to Ashland Welsh courtesy of Martha MacDonald of Jewel Welsh, NY. Twt made a beeline to the hay pile and casually watched her hyper child. Wynsome paused a few moments and tried to eat some hay, not an easy feat when all you have is millk teeth! I had brushed Twt before they were both turned out and she of course had a good roll for herself once she had filled up on hay.
Next up was Ashland Eirys, ( Iris). This little tank was born within days of Wynsome and is about twice her size. Sporting a big wide blaze, blue eye , and socks she too is a looker. She is very shy in comparison to slingshot baby but I think she will warm up as she gets to explore the world.
Her dam Section C *Parcybedw Starlight is a little on edge when it comes to her foals but is a very good mother.
Just a few more weeks until Section D Madoc Queen Victoria foals out the last Ashland foal of the season.
View the rest of Eirys’s gallery here
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Crunch Crunch Crunch
I have been a little busy over the past few weeks but my adventure with Cristy continues!….
It was Sunday and Cristy and I barreled back down towards the Imperial Dunes, Glamis CA. We were backtracking a bit in order to hop on route 8 heading East on our two day tour towards Albuquerque. We skimmed along the US border barely striking distance from Mexico. The border patrol is a highly visible entity. I am sure ever tax dollar spent on them is well used. The towering white windmills were quite a site. We were unable to safely pull over to photograph them. I could spend a day shooting them and may have to make it a point to on my next journey. We veered off the highway into Palm Springs for a look see. I was able to snap a few shots of the modern- architecture from the passenger seat.
With the help of my iphone and wiki I was able to study up on some Salton Sea facts. The Salton Sea is actually a saline lake spanning across 376 square miles of the deepest part of the Salton Sink which is 5 feet higher than the lowest elevation of death Valley. The salinity is greater than the ocean but is still less than Great Salt Lake, UT. Since the Salton Sea is no longer fed by a flowing mass if water it increases 1% in salinity annually due to evaporation. This is predicted to be a huge problem to the wildlife that has come to call the sea home. There are over 400 documented species of birds that live there. Thirty percent of the Great White Pelican population in particular.
We opted to avoid the recreational park associated with the sea, and we traveled to the other side of the sea looking for an inlet to photograph at. We took several wrong turns, arriving at shore blocked off by rows of chain link fence. Our third attempt proved successful as we passed through rows of abandon trailers left to oxidize. There were a few people that still lived there but they were vastly outnumbered by the shells of surrounding abandoned dwellings. It was a ghost town for the most part. We parked as close as we could to what looked like an abandoned pier and boat ramp. A trailer next to us looked as if it has been burned and the trailer down a bit was blaring Kid Rock and Beastie Boys and was the only indication of human existence.
Crunch, crnch, crunch went the barnacles beneath our feet. The Salton Sea didn’t appear to have any sand. I soon realized the the barnacles were also mixed in with dead tilapia scattered about mixed in with a few bird carcasses. It was an eerie feeling for sure and the air smelled like the marsh from home at low tied, but even deader. I enjoyed watching the pelicans and seagulls and looking off into the distance into the blue fog. I have never been to a place as surreal as this. Cristy and I took turns wandering off away from the car, while we each had a turn watching the vehicle.
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Saturday morning was a chance for me to sleep in. My arrival mid week and my age qualified me for an air mattress on the floor of one of the pool house’s four suites. I must note that the pool house is actually 2.5 times the size of my house back in MA. I slept throughout the footsteps of those heading off to the airport. If they had only known that they would be sitting around for the majority of the day due to fog they might have been able to sleep in a few extra hrs. I met Terri in the kitchen and she whipped up some omletts for the stragglers, Me, Cristy Cumberworth, Karin Naimark, and Lynne Glazer. We gathered around her patio overlooking the city and watching Terri’s tiny terrier bound around below chasing birds and drinking from the bird fountain.
After breakfast we whooshed around the property stripping beds, doing dishes, trash and transforming Casa Miller-Steiner back to normal so Axel could return home. Cristy began stuffing her Jeep Cherokee with our gear as well as Lynne’s gear. We would be heading North to Riverside to drop Lynne off and visit with the Twix and Ember. Lynne also scored us a sunset ride if we made it in time. After goodbyes and a last minute junk food transfer ( 5 mini crunch bars and 2 strawberry pop tarts) we were off. Cristy felt I needed to experience Norco so we took a small detour on the way past Corona (many waves to Sharon on the way by).
Cows on the way to and from Lynne's.
Once we got to Lynne’s we saddled up the horses and hit the trails in time for the sunset. Lynne rode her endurance mare Ember and Cristy rode a dark bay mare . I ended up with a mustang gelding named Raven. He wasn’t black but a deep red color with a flaxen mane and tail. He has only been ridden a handful of times so I figured I was in for a good time. The trails had some good hills that I wish I had at home to condition on. Raven really sat down on the down slopes, a real tribute to his heritage. I had noticed his rock hard hooves when I was picking out his feet, proving his tattoo wasn’t the only thing that made him a mustang. He was anxious and young and a quite the hand full, but we made it back to the barn in one piece. After we put the horses away for the night we headed down the “hill” for a steak dinner at Outback.
Tomorrow Cristy and I would be leaving Lynne to her pile of work that had piled up.
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Day two of our group outing brought us to the San Diego zoo. I had heard much hype about the environment in which the animals were kept and I was eager to see it with my own eyes and camera lenses. After agreeing upon a meeting time our group scampered off into little herds each targeting specific animal displays we had wished to see. Upon passing through the gates we all got hung up on the bright flamingos and spent a lengthy bit of time recording shapes and interactions between flock members. What a sight all 8 of us must have been with our many cameras and other gear slung on our bodies like we were off to war.
One can never have too much gear. If you are having second thoughts about a piece of equipment and choose to leave it in the car, you will need it and you will have to march back to the parking lot to get it. I learned this the first year of shooting horse shows. I found a perfect gear bag a few years back. It is made by Crumpler and it is RED! I do scary things with it such as put both my cameras and water bottles and/or coffee cups in it at the same time. But, like I said it is a great gear bag. I have a sequence of where everything lives in it and I can navigate through it without missing a shot. Charged batteries, I have currently have 8 in order to feed the oh so hungry D200’s… go in the front zippered pouch with the Gepe’s (Note: WATERPROOF!!! You can sit in the ocean with them in your back pocket). On the inside there is a movable divider for a custom beverage fit, I mean uhh.. “custom comfy place protector for your cameras.” * (insert cheeky grin here) OH, and the best part is the bag is insulated, perfect for those iced latte’s : ) Dead batteries get stuffed in the side compartments and full memory cards get zippered into the inside top flap alongside the many sharpies and business cards. Ok, back to our regularly scheduled blog, flamingos and tigers.
I quickly realized I had shot an awful lot of frames and it was time to move on, so I headed off with Kim Vickrey, Terri Miller, and Mary Cornelius. Our original game plan included “find the tigers” however we made several wrong left turns leading us past a fun pigeon coop containing some intellectual souls and some sea otters. Somewhere in between the meerkats and the macaws we lost Kim, whom had wandered off again.
I picked up some kettle corn to feed my east coast urge for lunch and continued on in search of the tigers. We wove in and out of a few aviaries and hung with the apes. We did find the tigers, as well as a few others from our group that warned us that the tigers were napping and otherwise not doing much of anything worth photographing. We continued on down the path to the tigers hoping that they just might wake up for us.
I went to the second window as a crowed of people had gathered and there was much pointing and small child squeals.
There were two baby tigers having a kitty discussion and were quite animated about it. Sleeping tigers indeed! The really moved like house cats in a slinkish type fashion. Timing horses is one thing, unpredictable cat bounds and leaps is another.
After passing many different types of pigs we made it to the zebras. There were two males milling about near the hay rack. I grabbed my zoom and began to work on finding shapes, lines, and patterns. One male stepped off a ways to relieve himself, and in typical equine behavior the alpha male had to go cover it up with his scent. The two stood close for a few moments compounding the lines in an intricate fashion.
Kim had wandered off again so Mary, Terri, and I took the tram back to the front gate. It was great to see the park from above. A few rogue peacocks were seen on roof tops as well as a few new park additions being constructed.
This was our final day together as a group and we set off for a nice dinner in Coronado. I got the chance to see the world famous Hotel Del Coranado and stick my toes in west coast sand. Terri Miller explained how she and her husband Axel Steiner use to live in on of the surrounding high rises and how they groom the beach every night. No wonder the sand was so soft and clean. A pod of dolphins played in the distance a short way offshore.
Most of the group will fly home tomorrow and I will begin the second half of my trip with Cristy Cumberworth. She chose to drive to San Diego from her hometown Farmington , NM. I chose to drive back with her and do some sighteeing/sightsnapping along the two day stroll across AZ and NM.
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Dune Demons
Here are some buggies that dropped in for our shoot at the Imperial Dunes.
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3076.82 miles (part I)
This past week I found myself 3076.82 miles from home, surrounded by my favorite photo friends doing what we do best. We are all professional equine photographers by trade, gathered from all corners of the US with intent to inspire each other by detaching from out daily rhythms. This is our second annual meeting of v18c and although I had to join the party halfway into the week, I am feeling very fortunate to have been a part of it all.
Thursday November 20 we set out from San Diego, CA and headed two and a half hours south to the Imperial Dunes of Glamis, CA for a sunset shoot. The group was split into three vehicles, as funding for a group bus is not in the budget for this century. The first two vehicles arrived in time to meet the BLM rangers whom were a bit intrigued with the arrival of a horse trailer amongst the typical caravans of dune buggies and campers. I was told that Thanksgiving week is a biggie for the dune buggies and they were certainly gearing up for it. The sun began to drop with me in the third car (running late) bouncing across the back seat snapping “hail-mary” shots out the back window as we zipped along at 70 mph. Light is the most important thing to a photographer, and shooting “sweet models” in “sweet light” is key.
In my camera bag for this excursion is the addition of the “wide one”, a Nikon 14-24 2.8 which is a far cry from the long lenses typically used for my horse photography. This is one of those trips where experimenting with new technique is encouraged. My last trip left me lusting for a bit more span, so I took a chance this time hoping to expand my comfort zone. We pulled into the parking lot just as the the horses made their way to the sand for the first time, and were greeted by the others that had been waiting patiently for us.
The sand was deep, but the wind was still. Many of my photographer friends huddled together at the top of the opposite hill in search of the perfect angles. I had packed a little lighter than most of them , (I don’t own any “big -glass” at this time) toting two Nikon d200’s, one with my typical 70 -200 zoom and the other sporting the “wide-one”. I climbed up a ridge or two, manging to fill my shoes completely with sand and without tumbling down the opposite side to the point of no return.
We were fortunate enough to have two seasoned competitive endurance riders and horses for our subjects. This outing was not only good for our photographic needs but also a great exercise for the horses. Humans only have to worry about keeping two legs beneath them in deep sand, but horses have to manage four as well as balancing out the rider. Its a matter of self preservation for the most part. It wasn’t long before the sweating began on the younger horse and he went back to the trailer for a rest while the more experienced horse, Phillip continued to make several passes atop a ridge.
The sun began to drop even quicker and we all became a bit more frantic while aligning the subjects up in an optimum spot. I had climbed to the highest ridge at this point , and I could hear a few shutter clicks aimed n my general direction so I knew my friends were taking full advantage of me ( yet again). I am the youngest of the group and I think they are highly entertained by my shooting antics and willingness to throw myself on the ground, climb up in trees, and on roof tops. I do have the scars to prove it!
Dune Crawler! Photo provided by Marie Cobb
Phillip was now drenched in sweat after ascending and descending the dunes a few times and Kat had changed outfits. It was nice to have a variety of shapes to play with in between dodging the dune buggies, whom wanted to share the paparazzi. We were swarmed with several buggies at one point and the horses didn’t bat an eyelash. They took every chance they could to “drop” in on us and lay a few “sand rails” in a typical testosterone laced fashion. The horses were fantastic with the overall excitement, attesting to the training methods of competitive endurance riders and functioning equine brain cells required for the sport.
We all left the dunes that day all satisfied that we had just photographed something extraodinary. The drive home was even longer than than it actually was, as there was much anticipation of downloading images together and sharing our different visions as a whole.
We needed fresh empty memory cards for Friday… zoo day! Stay tuned for links to the galleries that include the full adventure in photo form.
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