Past and present

My shooting schedule has slowed down a bit with the onset of winterish weather, added to the ever more rapidly approaching deadlines for various sales/shows that have me logging a lot of studio time, revisiting and reworking the many shots of earlier in the year. I've been getting my riding time in by sheer determination not to let anything interfere with it, but other than that, everything else gives way to photo editing these days.

That is, until an offer I couldn't refuse came up for today. One of my horse artist friends, who also does website wrangling, suggested to a client (Mable Elliott) that I might be a good person to help out with some ranch-side shots for the upcoming ad campaigns planned for her business. Getting out in the country with some nice horses, both at liberty and under saddle, is generally something I can't (and don't want to) say no to. So this morning saw me heading out to the photo location, about a half hour north of the city. 

It was a bit on the crisp and frosty side as far as weather went, but my client was up against a deadline for the photos, plus, November and oncoming winter being what they are, things aren't likely to get any warmer, so today was as good a day as any. I found a nicely set-up and well-organized horse operation, which also offers guest accommodation and various "horse tourist" experiences for visitors of all sorts. It's unpretentious and homey in the classic Saskatchewan way, with one of the cleanest barns you'll find anywhere.

Also in a typical Saskatchewan way, there were a number of species in evidence, which is always an added bonus for me. I'm perfectly happy just getting horse shots, but when I have the opportunity to add in other species such as cats, dogs, miniature donkeys and goats, a calf, and an alpaca, as was the case today, it's that much better. I thought I heard chickens somewhere in the distance as well, but I might be wrong on that. 

The first three shots for today were from this morning's shoot. You can see the herd (with the alpaca bringing up the rear) in the background of the first shot, with the added entertainment of a wild jackrabbit leaping through the foreground. Mabel, my client, was riding on her gelding just out of the picture, and she said that from her vantage point on the horse she could actually see five white rabbits scattering over the countryside as I was snagging this shot. We had just before this also spooked a small hawk out of the deep grasses, but I wasn't close enough to it to get a very good shot.

Shot two shows the alpaca before he?she?? caught up with the herd, looking off into the distance after them. Then she (I'm being arbitrary here) took off at the alpaca version of a gallop--more of a fairly fast up and down canter--and joined up with the horse herd, with whom she is trotting along happily in the third shot. 

Shots four and five are from shoots of earlier in the year. I've got a lot of white tiger shots that need a bit of playing with, and this is the result of some of that playing. I gave the tiger an interesting slightly menacing sky as a background, and I like the way the undulating shapes of the cloud patterns echo the line of the tiger's back and haunches. When I have a bit more time I'm going to try to switch the wooden platform out and have the tiger lying on a rock, so the whole effect will be more natural (if you can use the term natural for an image that has been assembled in the computer!). The final shot is from a shoot I did in the early summer, in the back yard of my wildlife rescue friend. This was one of three little robins that she was hand-feeding and caring for, along with quite a menagerie of other birds and mammals. The dedication, knowledge and caring that wildlife rehabilitation people devote to wildlife in crisis is truly astonishing to me.