“There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man.”
– Winston Churchill
Often when I’m around horses and humans I see scenes that remind me just how good horses are for the soul, but it can be hard to get the perfect shot of those moments. You pick up your camera, aim, and the hug ends or the horse is already moving away.
When I lived in Sydney for three months, I spent most of my time at Randwick (a benefit of working feet from the track and living five miles from it) and almost always had my camera at hand. Luckily for photographers, Australians are a very horse loving group of people and aren’t afraid to show their affection to the equine stars. Race days often see a big crowd, so you have many chances to capture the horse and human connection. I have many photos of grooms giving their horses hugs and Clerk of the Course horses getting some extra attention from rider and fans but this one is my personal favorite.
Before the second-to-last race of the day, we had some spare time between races so the Clerk of the Course his horse stopped where some kids were playing by the rail. They quickly mobbed the gelding and a little girl’s dad picked her up to give him a pat. I got a spur of the moment idea to zoom in for a bit of a different shot and it turned out better than I ever would have expected.
On the technical side, this photo was helped by an absolutely picture perfect day. The sky was a deep blue (a perk of living in Australia, I learned!) and let me play with my settings a bit. My camera looked like it’d went for a roll in the sand pit before when I took this so I had to do a bit of cleaning up of the photo to get the dust off but that was the only major editing I did.
Unfortunately, I’ll never know if this moment led to a lifelong obsession with horses, but as a glass half-full person I’m happy to think that’s exactly what happened.
Beyond The Lens is a monthly blog looking at some of Melissa’s favorite photos and what motivated her to take them. Interested in scheduling a photoshoot with Pyrois Media or just want some photography advice? Email Melissa@PyroisMedia.com for more information.
