Category Archives: horse

A – Z Photography tips and information… B

(B) is for black and white – sometimes the success of a shot is in its simplicity and removing the colour can aid this and change the focus. Plus, mixed with the right lighting (covered under ‘L’) it can bring a great ‘mood’ quality to the image, shown below in a small selection of very different examples.

Black and white photographs

(B) is also for… background – not so obvious, to the point it’s easy to forget them altogether – especially when you are concentrating on your foreground image! Then you end up with objects suddenly appearing in your finished composition that you hadn’t seen at the time of capture! A telegraph pole sticking out the top of someone’s head is never a good look!

So look out for them! A shifting of the camera or your position (often quite small) can save the whole composition of your image. The photo below of the young lady sitting on the beach is a simple example, positioning her in between two upright posts in the background that have strong shadows. If you have a tricky background, observe if it’s possible to use it to your advantage, i.e. frame your image with the background… or move altogether and get another angle.

There are other factors to consider with backgrounds covered further on in the series, so watch out for those 🙂

Background example
I’ll try and remember to refer back to comments mentioned under previous letters that may be relevant to another tip 🙂

 

Happy New Year….

Ok, I will admit, the blogging has been absent for a while now… but with New Year coming, it’s not too late to wish you all the very best for 2014.

Much has gone on in the last few months and rather than attempting to catch up with all the news, thought I would share a few of the many faces I’ve had the pleasure and good fortune to be asked to capture in 2013, in mini version.

Lots of plans are afoot for the New Year, so keep an eye open for more information.

The first people I would love to hear from are all those who dislike… (yes you read that correctly)… having their photograph taken and think they are not particularly photogenic… I have news for you… which I will blog about very soon.

In the meantime, enjoy spotting a few familiar faces 🙂 and may you and your loved ones have a healthy and prosperous New Year!

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Celebrating 4 years! August Photo Shoot Offer…

So this week I’ve celebrated reaching 4 years as a professional photographer and what a great year this is turning out to be! If you’ve been following my blog, you may have seen several firsts and lots of images to illustrate.

A huge thank you goes out to all of you who have, supported, promoted or used my services and helped get this far 🙂

As a way of celebrating, I’ve opened a great offer available to book until the end of August – if you or anyone you know may be interested to take advantage of this, do get in touch.

Don’t miss the fun of the holidays – its proving to be such a brilliant summer!

Personal photo shoot for £49.99 and images to keep forever.

Available to book until the end of August. Can be taken by 3rd November 2013 (includes half term).

Families, children, couples, individuals and of course equestrian!

At home, in the garden, or out on location.

Images will be available to view and choose from, in your own private online viewing folder.

Shoot includes an 8” x 6” card framed print, or, a hi res digital file, of your choice.

All other photographs from the shoot can be purchased as hi res digital files, card framed prints, desk or wall mounted items.

Please note – venue hire for studio requested shoots is additional.

Limited time offer and subject to availability.

Phone Penny on 0845 257 2038, or, email pennyjm@gmail.com

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Suffolk Hunt Pony Club – Peter Pan Hunter Trial and Showjumping…

Did I mention a busy summer so far…? Wanted to share with you the fun of covering this event for the Suffolk Hunt Pony Club on the 23rd June – now my pony club days are a few decades ago… and was with the Thetford Chase branch, BUT, I still have my rosettes, which are truly treasured.

This branch of the pony club have their base in the grounds of the beautiful Ickworth Park. Having visited the venue and course previously had some idea of where the best shots would be, but as the sun gradually moves round during the day, so the best positions change. Plus I wanted to catch a good variety of fences, rather than sticking with the same ones for most classes.

Light, angle and a good mix of experience all help capture great action photographs, so have shared quite a selection with you and hope they bring that sense of excitement, challenge and fun that you can have if horses are your love.

We had an Olympian in our midst! Caroline Powell took a couple of her horses round the bigger classes.

Have included a link for anyone wishing to know more about the pony club.

The unexpected thing from the many photographs that went online from this event was the amount of traffic I subsequently got to my website. Ok, there were quite a few competitors, but across 5 days, had around 6,000 unique visits!

A big congratulations to Terry, who bravely covered as much of the show jumping as possible, while I was out on the cross country course. Thrown in at the deep end, he did really well.

 

‘It’s a long way down…’

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Concentration… one of the shots Terry captured in the showjumping.

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Another one of Terry’s, this pony knew how to look straight at the camera!

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Love this young ladies determination…

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Further round the cross country course… some very solid logs…

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I did mention enjoyment…

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This pair were very much in harmony…

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Having your tongue out, helps get over the fence…

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Heading for home…

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Some excellent riding…

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Beautifully cleared….

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and then a few steering problems…

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A well deserved winner in the showjumping…

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Eagerly into the water…

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Stretching for home…

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Coming out of the wood…

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Olympian Caroline Powell…

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The pairs are soo much fun…!

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You’ve both got to clear the fences…

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Well cleared…

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Go faster mum…!

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I love the ponies…

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Side Saddle Association Area 4 show at Beyton…

Well it’s proving to be an exciting and busy summer, with continued opportunities to photograph horses and equestrian events.

As a result of images I took at a very cold, but very enjoyable Side Saddle Demonstration at the Topthorn Arena, for the members of the Gipping Valley RC, (back in the cold days!), I was invited to cover a summer show on the 9th June. It was still a little chilly, but a brilliant event.

The venue was perfect, in the grounds of Beyton House, just outside Bury St Edmunds. It was a relatively small event in terms of competitor numbers, but is an annual event for the Area 4 of the Side Saddle Association. They all seem to know one another, we were made to feel very welcome and the lunch, for which EVERYONE stops is famous… and quite superb!

I’ve included a selection of shots taken across the day, from the smallest (and youngest) duo, to the beauty and elegance of this equestrian art.

A great double page spread of photographs from the day have been published in the July edition of The Showing Journal – which is a new nationwide equestrian magazine, plus a link to the full selection of shots on my website.

I’ve included a link for those of you who would like to know more about side saddle – click here.

 

The youngest competitor … and smallest duo!

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Beautiful chestnut showing his paces…

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The fun of the ‘Champagne Challenge’…!

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You really are much safer on board than you think…

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and … its made to look so easy…

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Love the top hats…

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Fancy dress…

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One of my favourite shots…

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This is Gorgeous George, captured by Terry… and I love it!

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Covering Dressage Competitions at Topthorn Arena…

Topthorn Arena is the popular Equestrian Centre, near Stonham in Suffolk. With a large indoor school, they run frequent and well attended competitions.

I went down recently and photographed a dressage competition. As nobody has been able to get their horses out recently because of the snow, there were not the usual number of competitors, which was ideal to run a test shoot.

After adjusting for light levels and movement, got my ‘eye’ in and have attached a few of the results.

I’m happy to say, there was interest in the images taken that day, especially as it was meant to be a trial shoot and was not expecting too much success. So… this Sunday I will be attending again… and there are many more competitors this time.

What I love alongside the photography, is the stories behind the horse and rider partnerships. I feel more blogging material here!

Good luck to all who compete – looking forward to catching some good shots.

Beautiful profile, so willing...
Beautiful profile, so willing…

One of the worthy winners!
One of the worthy winners!

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Competitors going through their tests.
Competitors going through their tests.

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Finished... with a well deserved thankyou!
Finished… with a well deserved thankyou!

 

Equestrian Photography portfolio is growing….

Some of you may recall a folder of images I displayed after a visit to Burghley Horse Trials in Sep 2011 – well they are still on my website, in a brand new section for Equestrian Photography .

I’ve been gradually building on this portfolio and eager to share some of the results with you.

Back as an eager young teenager, horses was my love and the direction I intended to follow as far as work went. After training for a year and qualifying as an instructor, I did indeed head out to find employment in the equestrian world. During that year, I got the chance to compete, hunt, teach and conquer a few of my own fears… I learned a lot!

However it was short lived, as married life beckoned and I needed to earn somewhat more to afford and run our own home. Having embraced ‘office work’ to help achieve this, I also had an opportunity to return to a nearby equestrian centre and work at weekends. This turned into full time (very hard) work and lasted a whole year. At that point I was able to buy one of the horses I’d fallen in love with and return to an ‘office’ environment for employment. ‘Oscar’ was part of our family for nearly 10 years and I will post some old photographs of him soon. He was much happier in a private home than a riding stable and his character blossomed.

So it is with much excitement that I’m hoping to find a niche in Equestrian Photography and as mentioned earlier wanted to show you a few results.

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Edinburgh Festival Fringe – Juliet Aster, The Regretrospective




The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is going quite well for Juliet and the following reviews are now out.

www.fringereview.co.uk/fringeReview/3446.html

edinburghfestival.list.co.uk/article/28292-the-regretrospective

www.zoofestival.co.uk/whats-on/physical-theatre?zid-84

It must be quite an experience to take a one man show up to Edinburgh and she’s still in the middle of her performance run up to the end of the month.