Photographing Horses

This week I decided to look into how to take good pictures of horses. I ride and love spending time with my horses but want to get better at taking pictures of them and of my friends riding around. I found several site that had some good ideas.

The first site is all about posing your horse for the perfect head shot. I know from the many, many pictures I have tried to take that this is easier said then done. This article talked about using a lower aperture to blur the background and to use your zoom to tighten up the picture. I liked how it mentioned to make sure horse and halter/bridle are clean because it is amazing how many times I see an imaculate horse whose dirty headware make an unattractive picture.
http://www.ehow.com/how_4483449_posed-photo-horses-head.html

The next article is about getting pictures prepared in order to market your horse. The author stresses how important it is to be ready and to take multiple shots when the horse is moving. She also stresses that you should figure out where and how you want to take the pictures ahead of time. This seems like common sense since you do it for all types of other photos but I can honestly say that I usually just take my camera out and see what happens. If I take a few moments before I start to make a plan than I can get ready and focus on where I want so that I have a better chance of getting a good picture.
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/22158379/Taking-Horse-Pictures

I liked the final site because of the picture examples. It shows how just a slight change in the horse or the photographer can make an ok picture really nice!
http://www.cowboyway.com/HowTo/TakeHorsePictures.htm

All of the websites stressed cleanliness of the horse and to find a background that was not distracting. Often a grassy hillside or some similiar background work the best while more cluttered backgrounds take away from your horse. The websites also talk about making sure to give yourself lots of time to take the pictures so that you don't cause tension in the horse and to enlist the help of friends to be holder or attention getters! Finally you get the best results if you know your subject. Spend a few minutes with the horse if it is new to you so that you can learn what it likes, what gets its attention and what part of its personality you really want to bring out. If you are photgraphing your own horse this is less of an issue because you presumably already have most of this information.