Equestrians! I need your help!

[Ash]

Wayne, thanks for that confirmation.

I'm pretty sure the herd were at least semi-domesticated. There's no way you'd have wild horses in Lydiard. The real estate is too valuable, I'm sure a farmer keeps tabs on all the livestock

My heart was in my throat but I kept a calm low voice, I think the horse that came to me must have been one of the more assertive ones. He seemed very interested when the rest just ignored me.

All that in mind, I hear what you're saying about that longer lens and freezing motion!

[Randy H]

I had to click on this post. It sounded like a Monty Python sketch.W.

Still does
Wish I could find the pic I had taken in school. We had to do a "photo-story" and I was doing abandoned farm equipment. So, I was out driving around the southern Oklahoma back-roads, and came upon a field of Apps and Palaminos. There was this one huge Palamino "stallion" (stud, in Oklahoma) that decided to strike a pose for me. Turned sideways to me, facing into the wind, head held high, leaning forward and stretching out, mane and tail blowing gently in the breeze. Perfect light at 45 degrees off behind me. He stood there forever waiting for me to set up. Set camera on rapid advance, f4.5, 1/120, Delta 100. Cool! Never saw the big bush blocking the shot from mid-chest down in the front. All I had to do was move two feet to my left and it would not have been in the pic. Showed the pic to the instructor. He saw the bush! His only comment on the pic was "Might have been a decent shot, if it wasn't for the bush blocking your shot. Could you have moved a little one way or the other?"
Ah well, such is life.

[John Kasaian]

Randy H. has brings up a good point. Domesticated horses in a pasture are more interesting in eating and exercising or sleeping than anything else, unless there is a stallion in the herd. Avoid stallions! They are on a mission and people they don't know---heck, even people they do know can be taken as a threat/love interest and a 1000 pound animal with an attitude is bad news, even if they are grass-eaters! Going into anyone's pasture without permission is asking for trouble unless there is a darn good reason for doing so.

OTOH portraits of livestock can be a profitable venture. I knew of an old time 'tog, Mr. Beatty I think his name was, who made his money during the depression taking photographs of bulls and stallions while travelling around the country in a Model A Ford. He used a Speed Graphic I think. I'm sure he's passed away by now, but when I was in high school he'd make the rounds of swap meets selling old lf photo gear and antique sharps rifles (of course I didn't have money for either!)

[Colin Graham]

My wife keeps horses and I found the best way to approach is to 'tack' in long shallow angles like a sailboat into the wind. I usually have to use a medium format with a waistlevel finder because our horses associate me with carrots and apples and I can never get a tripod set up before they come over and start fogging up the lens...Unless of course she's already eating something she likes better. This shot was 4x5 with a 135mm xenar.

[Robert Hughes]

If I don't know the animals I like to give them their space and not provoke an argument. So I wind up with a fencepost in the way...

[Vaughn]

After a day of maintaining trails, my brother and I would play a game of frisbee golf in the pastures around the log cabin we were based out of. Just as it was getting dark we'd call the last hole for the night to be the mules. We'd let the frisbees fly at the same time, but the mules usually took off when they saw them coming --definitely only a one-shot hole.

PS...lens shade!

[Mark Carney]

Horses are hormonal driven 1000 pound animals with the intelligence of a gravel driveway.

AVOID all stallions and even geldings.
AVOID any rear approach or any position that puts their hind end toward you.
Proceed slowly and with caution.
A firm hand when touching is better than a gentle hand.
They can respond to a firm voice.
They can sense fear.

Mares would rather eat then fool with you.

You can get hurt so be careful.

Mark

[Ash]

My Conley 10.5" RR arrive in the post this morning!! Couldn't resist whacking it on the camera. I used a 10mm body jewelery bar (don't ask what piercing it's for, you don't wanna know) to secure the barrel as screws (and most of the innards) are missing from the shutter.



I decided to stay on the other side of the fence today. Fortunately the Conley lens is a longer focal length, a little longer than I would favour I think, but pretty nice since I could get the horses looking fairly well sized on the GG without hopping the fence again.

Course, bright sunlight this afternoon. Meter read 1/250 at f/4. I had my hand as a shutter. That's no fun when you have a rubber lens hood whose circumference is larger than your palm!! The shot looks blurred and nasty. So let's forget about that one

For the second shot I decided to stand behind the ditch and hedgerow/tree/fence perimeter. Brilliant, my metering would be shot to get the main horse properly exposed - it would kill off all the highlights in the background. Silhouette horse it is, without lens hood. By the time I had sorted out what I wanted to do, the horse had moved away from central position, and turned away from me. Dammit.



I hate scanning these negs. I don't get any useful tonal range, I gotta stitch two halves to get a picture, and I have to play around with curves in photoshop for every shot!

[XRe]

Photographing horses is tricky, and can be frustrating. There's a lot of good comments in this thread already. To get into the mindset of a horse - imaging being a 1000# animal who thinks a mouse can eat it.... They're prey animals, and as such are skittish and fearful. They're also pack animals, so tend to try to "rank" the newcomer in their group (and they can view you as a newcomer in this regard) - so they test you. Some of them are quite curious - and you may get investigated in ways that make you uncomfortable. Some of them can be aggressive - especially stallions (and especially when there's a mare in season somewhere nearby...) (2nd shot down on this page is me being charged by a 1400# Hanoverian warmblood stallion... - http://www.daverephoto.com/equestrian-general.html ).

My wife is an equestrian - I usually take her along as an assistant. When I'm in a pasture, she "watches my back", so I can focus on taking pictures. It might help to have someone with some horse sense along with you - both to educate you about them, and to look out for you.

Because they do tend to keep moving around, and unless there are rare circumstances that make them want posture, you basically have to be ready for anything. If you want to take a specific type of shot, do all the prep you can ahead of time - taking ad hoc horse pictures with a LF camera is going to be challenging, so anything you can to be ready, and to be able to shoot quickly will help you out. Heck, its tough enough w/ a dSLR...

I'm in the boat w/ you, Ash - horses can be pretty intimidating, especially after having a negative experience as a child (me too... ). But, once you start to learn about them, and spend some time with them, they tend to make a little more sense. Be wary, and keep a watchful eye - but there's not a whole lot to fear, if you take appropriate precautions, and stay alert

[John Kasaian]

Pshaw! Cowboy up! There ain't a horse that can't be rode and there ain't no cowboy that can't be throwed!

I routinely shoot my Speed Graphic while galloping with all the afterburners kicked in (I hold the riens between my teeth so I have a hand free for reloading!) Talk about induced bokeh!

Well, no, not really,

Horses actually do know when you're afraid of them and will often test you if they sense it.They also don't like pussy-footing around---your actions need to be purposeful and deliberate (but not loud or startling)---horses don't like having thier time wasted (they could be eating) They do like being spoken to---a couple of thousand years of domesticated service as a noble companion of warriors, farmers, pioneers teamsters and milkmen kind of has instilled a soothing response to soothing human conversation, which is why Hoppy, Gene and Roy always spoke to thier horses---they weren't expecting a dialog

Try this---walk out in a pasture (with no stallions in it) and remain motionless and be patent. Most domesticated horses, after they notice you, will approach you out of curiosity (you'd be curious if you saw a horse in your fridge, wouldn't you?) Shake a bucket of barley at them and they'll come running.

Nice horsey!