Coming along nicely

Quite a bit has started coming along nicely in my neck of the woods, principally the weather which has finally shaped up and given us a few really sublime days. I've at last relegated all the seriously winter-season clothing to a storage closet for the next number of months, and am sorting and assessing my warm-weather gear, which is a much smaller collection overall.

 Alpac is going naked at last, and I'll have to cowboy up and deal with the cleaning and mending (really, with paying someone else to accomplish that thankless chore) of winter and fall horse blankets, and we'll be good to go. I've even got the snow tires off the car and the summer radials in place. Of course it snowed the day the summer tires went on, but no harm done. 

I always have a hard time trying to get in touch with what has happened in my life since my last post. I update this blog religiously every Monday, and each week I have to struggle to remember what-all has happened since the previous post. I know I get up every morning, generally without much of a game plan unless I have a booked photo shoot, and I chug along through the day, busy the whole while, but when I look back it's hard to say exactly what I've been doing. I know I rode every day (except Monday which is the horse's day off), did some photography, made no progress with tidying the studio or any other part of the house, played with some new visuals for art photos (which is generally what I end up doing in the studio when I am *supposed* to be addressing the chaos), got some stuff done (finally!!) outdoors, bought yet more of the endless list of foodstuffs to keep my people, cat, dogs and horse functioning in an optimal manner, had some time with family and friends, but......seems much like most other weeks of my life, now that I think back. I'll have to start keeping notes!

I'd have to say the high point of the week (or likely of several weeks or months) was getting to do a photo shoot of the North Fork Gypsy cob yearlings. These youngsters are all for sale and Dale and Cheryl, the owners of the yearlings and of North Fork, needed some updated photos for their website and were kind enough to offer me the job. I've just been itching to get back to see these horses, and this was finally my chance. The herd is mostly shed out of their winter coats (and that's a *lot* of hair with this breed) and have left their winter pens for the freedom of the fields and pastures.  The day was bright with a *very* brisk wind, but was really quite ideal for our purposes. Dale and Cheryl and their trainer Wendy had a good game plan thought out for how we should proceed with the shoot, and it all went off like clockwork. The youngsters were well-behaved when we needed them to be, and gave us lots of action when that was appropriate. All in all, just a super afternoon from my perspective. 

Needless to say, most of today's shots are from the North Fork visit. I had a hard time just keeping it down to the few I am sharing here. You will be seeing lots more of these horses as I gather more photos along the way and as I get time to work them into my art photomontages. Not sure how much studio time I'll be logging now that the nice weather is here, but eventually the artworks I have in my mind will come into existence. 

But before we move on to the horse part of today's blog photos, a quick flashback to some Whippet shots I took a few years ago in the fall. I had a whole CD from this shoot, done for a Whippet breeder client, which I couldn't view as my old PC claimed the disc was flawed and wouldn't read. For some reason I kept it anyway, and it came to the surface recently when I was looking for something else. I decided to give it a try on the new Mac just in case, and lo and behold, there were my dog shots, perfectly fine. I had quite a few nice ones from this shoot so I was very happy to be able to see them again. This one shows a pair of the Whippets doing what they do best, which is running flat out. I loved the texture and colour of the background which complements the dogs so well. 

Now onto the horses. Next three shots are of the North Fork yearlings. Shot two shows Prince bounding through the pasture. He is a very interestingly coloured "pink roan" pinto, quite an eye-catching fellow. Not sure if that is what it is really called, but that's how it seemed to me. It turns out to be a very difficult coloration to capture accurately with the camera, especially in full sun. He is backlit in this shot so it's one of the more accurate ones, but in direct sunlight his delicate colour seems washed out in the photos. His pigmented hairs have an almost metallic sheen to them.  He might be one that would be better to photograph on an overcast day, but in any event, here he is in all his glory and exuberance. 

Shot three shows Mana, a beautiful filly, just as she is heading off to find the mare herd. You can see the heavy feathering on the legs and the "big hair" of this breed. And keep in mind these are only yearlings, nowhere near mature in size or in hairiness!

Shot four features more of the boys, these ones being Cash (pinto in the foreground) and Riot, the little black fellow, with Prince lurking in the background. These guys are the horse equivalent of young teenage boys, and act in pretty much the same fashion, with a lot of physical interaction that can look alarming but is really all about show and developing their manly skills. As with people, the girls tend to be pretty unimpressed with them for the most part. 

Final shot of the day is one I took at Ebon when I went out to ride on Sunday. I was just finishing my ride when I looked over to one of the other rings and saw that Jillian was working her new youngster, Poe,  on the long-lines, so I had to rush to get my camera and take a few shots. This work is part of his ongoing education and preparation for learning to work under saddle. Jillian is a very capable young horsewoman who addresses her riding and training with great dedication and enthusiasm. In her previous working career she was a professional jockey at Woodbine racetrack, so she returns to Ebon with a wealth of horse experience to bring to her new horses here. I always enjoy getting the chance to record the progress of the young horses from their first rides through to their later careers in the show ring, and I think this will be one of the ones I will be able to track for a while as he learns how to be a saddle horse.

In closing, I would be remiss if I didn't offer greetings of the day, since today is International Jedi Knight Day. May the fourth be with you.