Western

Today was a fun day, but the most fun for me was grabbing candid shots in the paddock area, like this one.  I found that as I was standing at the fence by the paddock, I was seeing all these little interactions between the young riders and their horses - so I started shooting.  I don't generally like photographing people, but when you put people with animals, I'm all in.  My favorite pics from dog shows are the ones that capture a moment between owner and dog.  And if today is an indicator, I feel the same about people and their horses.  I particularly like this image because you can't see the little girl's eyes which, to me, allows the viewer to really tell their own story.  I had to take this into PS to remove some bright orange ropes from the background and since I don't often using PS, I had to remind myself how to do it.  Anyway, it worked. I'll put one other shot in Extra that I particularly like.

Other than these moments in the paddock, most of the rest of the day was pretty bland.  A lot of walking and trotting, neither of which are terribly exciting to photograph.  But some beautiful horses and a good learning event for me.  The arena shots aren't as much fun for me - feels more predictable which removes some of the fun.  But I do like when I can get the animal at the perfect second when the legs are in the right place and all the other elements come together.  That's definitely fun.  

A lovely surprise last night when I got an email from one of the mom's who's 8 year old girl rode in last weekends Hunter competition.  She is planning to print one of the shots I took of her girl and because I didn't want payment, she sent me an Amazon gift certificate - that was so very nice of her.  And the picture she is printing happens to be a personal favorite of mine, too.  

When I was getting out of my car after driving home from the show this afternoon, I heard a racket out on the lawn and went to have a look.  It was an epic fight between two pairs of Tree Swallows.  A female had a male pinned to the ground while a second male was hovering right over them.  I am pretty sure there was a second female too although it was really hard to tell.  I ran back in the garage and grabbed my camera out of the bag and took a few pics.  I was standing right over them, and they were still going at it until finally the male got loose.  The other male and female immediately sat on a nearby nest box (one I just added last week) to make sure the other pair didn't get it.  I had no idea swallows fought that aggressively for nesting locations! There is still another box that should be perfect for swallows so maybe the other pair will end up in that box.  So the drama continues...

Time to snuggle up on the sofa with Hubs and Jax and watch something on TV.  

xoxo
Debbi