Every morning, I drive through San Geronimo Valley, into Fairfax, an eight mile stretch of picturesque mountains and meadows. It looks different every single day, and the beauty never fails to blow my mind. I know others see this beauty too, because I see photographers with their tripods and painters with their easels, pulled over, documenting this site. Unfortunately, as a studio photographer, I rarely have a camera with me, so many photo opportunities missed. I cant tell you how many times I see riders on their horses, walking the trails of Roy's Redwoods, with the sun hitting just right and I think, "I wish I had my camera!" I say it over and over.
When I got the call to photograph Kathy and her 5 year old horse, I went through a series of emotions. At first I thought, "I cant, I dont know enough about horses to make decent images." Then I argued that the light will create too many obstacles.
Location photography is very different than studio photography and I think as a photographer, I have become lazy and unconfident.
"I should refer Kathy to a real equine photographer," I told Vicki.
Clearly I was intimidated, but I reluctantly took the job.
I drove up to the dirt path, parked and stood there, not knowing my way around a stable. I was feeling really nervous, however when I found Kathy, she was so excited and positive, my concerns went away.
First thing, she gave me a hug and introduced me to her beautiful horse Sereno. She really loves this horse, "he is my soul truly," and really wanted to capture this feeling in photos. I really wanted to make this happen. Gulp....
I had been taught to always look for the shade for best results, which is where we began our session, but as the shoot continued, I began feeling more experiemental. We shot silouettes by shooting directly into the sun, beautiful side light. giving a slight sunlight flair, even the `forbidden' direct sunlight.
I walked away with more than 800 images. I'm so glad I took on this session. So here are some of my new favorite images from this last year. Thank you so much Kathy for helping me grow as a photographer and for letting me share these images.
