One of the many jobs I do as photographer is capture images for clients' websites. In this case I happily volunteered some time to do this for Stubbe Horse Farm, near and dear to my heart of course as that's where I ride. The setup was easy enough, park the horse half in and half out of the barn in the doorway and I stand in the sun, and this created a nice dark background which mimicked almost a studio look.
Then have them pose .... umm YEAH right.
I have to admit, I had a very good chuckle when I read this online "list" of things you must do to get your horse to pose for you. I'm reprinting it here, doesn't mean I think it works though!
1 Start on a 'good' day, (eg. not raining, unless you have a covered area to work in) can't always choose
2 Hold your horse and teach him first to not eat the grass. Every time he goes to eat grass, pull his head up. Eventually he should give up. in 5 years give or take
3 Start off moving his legs/hooves where his legs will make a square. (legs lined up side by side and not too far apart, but not to close together) ??
4 Give him a treat every time his legs are how you want them (You will probably have to move them around still). bring the 5 pound bag of treats
5 After every standing square movement, walk him around and stop at another place and do the same thing as above.
6 As soon as he does it on his own, praise him and give him a treat.
Okay, what REALLY works is this:
The secret to getting a portrait worthy pose from a horse is to raise your camera and focus on the spot where you hope your horse will be and then enlist three people to constantly amuse, entertain and astound the horse by any means necessary, including shaking cans of rocks, tossing ropes or doing jumping jacks. Then, in that brief moment when your horse turns towards whatever is interesting and perks his ears up, you take you shot, as quick as possible, because that shot is gone in 5 seconds. teehee
If you look closely, you'll see Ransom's mugshot on the bottom right :)
Then have them pose .... umm YEAH right.
I have to admit, I had a very good chuckle when I read this online "list" of things you must do to get your horse to pose for you. I'm reprinting it here, doesn't mean I think it works though!
1 Start on a 'good' day, (eg. not raining, unless you have a covered area to work in) can't always choose
2 Hold your horse and teach him first to not eat the grass. Every time he goes to eat grass, pull his head up. Eventually he should give up. in 5 years give or take
3 Start off moving his legs/hooves where his legs will make a square. (legs lined up side by side and not too far apart, but not to close together) ??
4 Give him a treat every time his legs are how you want them (You will probably have to move them around still). bring the 5 pound bag of treats
5 After every standing square movement, walk him around and stop at another place and do the same thing as above.
6 As soon as he does it on his own, praise him and give him a treat.
Okay, what REALLY works is this:
The secret to getting a portrait worthy pose from a horse is to raise your camera and focus on the spot where you hope your horse will be and then enlist three people to constantly amuse, entertain and astound the horse by any means necessary, including shaking cans of rocks, tossing ropes or doing jumping jacks. Then, in that brief moment when your horse turns towards whatever is interesting and perks his ears up, you take you shot, as quick as possible, because that shot is gone in 5 seconds. teehee
If you look closely, you'll see Ransom's mugshot on the bottom right :)
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