Here’s a butterfly that was hanging out on a tree in my front yard.

I was the official candid photographer for this show, which was great!

It’s SO nice to shoot outside with gorgeous natural light – not in a dark arena surrounded by background distractions.

View some of the highlights below.  Mouse over the image for easy navigation.

Here a SimpleViewer Flash gallery should be displayed. Click here to open the post in your browser to see the gallery.

The shoot took place at Marley Farms in Gilbert, AZ at the end of April.  Ah, that’s why it slipped my mind, my filly was born soon after and I therefore forgot everything but her for awhile. 

Better late then never…

Nearly 30 horses were inspected and the venue was just gorgeous.  More on that below.  There was only one stallion in attendance, but he made up for it!  Many mare and foal pairs, some older mares, and three yearling were also shown.

The turnout was great, especially for a keuring or inspection, all the horses were lovely, and my homemade horse treats were a HUGE hit, as usual!  The judges from Belgium were very sweet and extremely thorough.  Owners, handlers, and riders did an amazing job, especially considering the heat, as did the event managers.

Thanks to my fabulous client, Heidi Risser, who invited me!  Here are some of my favorite shots.  More can be seen in the highlights slideshow here.

But here are shots of her from last Friday. Again, somewhat grainy and blurry as it was pretty dark out, but she’s adorable in these, as usual.

Those shooting with a manual camera (any camera where you can manually set the shutter speed and aperture) will want set the camera to aperture mode and meter the bright sky (or light coming in the doorway). The main goal is to expose for the bright part. Your subjects should be at the edge of the door, but in the shadows.

Put your camera in manual mode, just to be safe, and use the settings you read on aperture mode (i.e. 1/750 at f/4.5). Since digital cameras only have a 7-8 stop latitude, and you’re exposing for the highlights in a very contrasty situation, the shadows will turn into a black silhouette.

If you just have a point-and-shoot camera, it will take more effort, but you should be able to pull this off too. Most beginners take silhouettes inadvertently. First, turn your flash off. If you have a manual setting, follow the directions above.

If not, when taking your photo, make sure that most of the frame is filled up with bright light. The camera will naturally meter for this, in return, turning your subjects into a silhouette.

Quick note, silhouettes look best when there is a clear definition between legs, arms, and such, otherwise it just looks like one big dark jumbled mess.

Some more examples:

The man riding has some of the best natural horsemanship I’ve seen. Great, now I really want a Lusitano too.

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