Two owners, two shoots, two horses, two months apart, one beautiful image.

Shoot One

I did a shoot with Grace and her beautiful gelding Guy, they had such a wonderful partnership, but it was coming to an end. Grace was working hard in her new job and knew that she couldn’t give Guy the attention he needed, so he was going on loan to a good friend where he would be able to work to his full potential and where Grace could keep in touch with him and even ride him occasionally. I know a lot of you will understand the heartache of saying goodbye to a horse for all the right reasons and that knowing this doesn’t make it in any way easier at the time.

So there we were in Windsor Great Park on a glorious August afternoon (what a backdrop!) Grace’s Mum, Kate was with us, being the best assistant ever, we got some amazing shots that really captured this lovely relationship, Grace and Guy were just wonderful to shoot with, Grace had chosen her outfits carefully and Guy was sparklingly clean and shiny!

We did most of the session in the park but walked Guy back to the yard and carried on with some black background and close up shots, it was such a lovely session. At the end Kate introduced me to her horse, Frank, a stunning bay who was an absolute sweetheart and we agreed she needed a shoot with Frank!

Shoot Two

Kate’s shoot happened two months later, she shared a two hour session with another lovely lady at her yard, we ventured into the park again, Frank was amazing, such a lovely boy and of course Grace was there to return the favour of helping behind the scenes for her Mum.

Back in the Park we stopped traffic (as you do!) to get this shot of Kate, Frank and Turbo, Kate’s adorable Border Terrier, then we took a stroll in the slightly more wild areas but had to be careful as we were shooting during The Rut, thankfully there were no stags around, though I’m not sure any of them would have wanted to mess with the impressive looking Frank!

One Beautiful Image

Once I’d edited Kate’s photos we all met up to go through them together, she had her heart set on an album and a wall piece, we chose which images she wanted in it, she was sure she wanted to include some of Grace’s shots from her shoot and we chatted about what a shame it was we hadn’t been able to get a shot of the two horses together before Guy left (he left the day after his shoot with Grace). I had another look at the head shots I’d got of each horse, there weren’t many of Guy, he’d pretty much had enough of posing for me at the end of his session however I had caught a couple that I really liked. Grace had helped me get some lovely head shots of Frank at the end of that session so I was quietly confident I might have the material I needed to work some Photoshop magic for the cover of Kate’s album.

It took a bit of work, I changed the source images a couple of times but by the end I was convinced the horses were in the same image so I figured anybody else would be convinced as well. Kate was over the moon, I always show clients proofs of an album before we go to print, and we did move some images around before printing.

Well the album arrived the other day and in my excitement I delivered it to Kate without getting a shot of it (I’m such a doofus sometimes!). I know it will take pride of place in her home and it will always remind her of her daughter and their horses.

Wanting to go the extra mile

I love what I do so much, I always want to give a little extra to all my clients, whether it’s combining two shots together for you or editing in a much loved pet that has passed away before our shoot (I’ve done this for clients who have dogs who have passed away and the owner wanted them included in one of the images from a shoot). What you want matters to me because it matters to you.

If you’d like to find out how I can help you with including a pet that has already passed away get in touch and we can chat about what’s possible.