About

Tag: ‘equine’



Lucca the Very Big Dog Canadian Warmblood Horse

Thursday, October 21st, 2021

I was so thrilled when Lucca’s mom reached out to me, as she’s a past client going back all the way to 2015! (You can go back and see the blog posts where I have photographed her pets over the years: including Buster, Fae, Leyland, and Nyx, then Nyx, Fae, and Quinzel, and most recently Fae, Nyx, Quinzel, and Slade.) We have fun every time we get together, so I knew this time around it wouldn’t be any different! Except maybe there is one tiny difference… Lucca is a horse! He recently joined the family and I was honored that his mom asked me to photograph him. As much as I am an expert at dogs, horses are an entirely differently animal. *pun intended* :) Photographing them is a completely different skillset that I’ve been working on, because while dogs will always be my true love, I genuinely adore working with horses. Capturing them in all of their glory involves a different pace, style, equipment… all kinds of changes to my normal routine! Plus, one look at this beautiful boy and you’ll see why I was thrilled to be asked to create some gorgeous portraits with these two.

One of the activities Lucca and his mom Patrisha enjoy doing together is competing in local and regional competitions. Patrisha said that she has a lot of fun with it, and (perhaps more importantly) so does he! They do well together too; at one point we actually got to pose them next to their trophy that they had recently won! How cool is that?!

We had a great photo session in the nearby property where Lucca normally trains and boards. It was wonderful to see their bond; there has to be a huge amount of trust and a strong relationship between a person and a horse, so it was great to see the two of them interact. I’ve only seen Patrisha with her dogs, so to see her with her horse was simply wonderful. Not to mention, horses can be more challenging to work with since they can be especially fearful, impatient, or just don’t want to do what you’re asking them to do for portraits. That was NOT the case with Lucca: he was incredibly patient and willing to do anything we asked. I was very impressed with his demeanor! For this particular photo session we did a lot of posed and stationary portraits – so hopefully we can let him loose at full speed at some point in the future, since I’d love to capture that too! Regardless, I loved the slower pace of our photo session and it seemed to fit Lucca’s chill vibe perfectly.

     

This is Lucca. How long did it take you to fall in love with that face?! 2 seconds? Yep, me too.

canadian warmblood horse
     

I don’t normally include people in my blog posts… but this time I can’t help it! My favorite photos of Lucca all have Patrisha in them too! These two are gorgeous together!

horse photography
     

The champs in full regalia. (Not shown here: their epically big trophy!)

horse with rider
     

Okay, one more of just Lucca… even though I personally think his best portraits are with him & his favorite person.

Canadian warmblood horse photo
     

Thank you Patrisha, for trusting me to photograph the largest companion in your life! I can’t wait to show you the rest of Lucca’s portraits very soon!

Rancho Santa Fe Horse Photography, with Trea!

Wednesday, August 5th, 2015

Oh my goodness – I cannot POSSIBLY tell you how excited I’ve been for this photo session, and how long we’ve waited for it to happen! Jen (Trea & Bailey’s mom) is a friend of Tate & Skyler‘s mom, and she booked her session immediately after seeing their photos – so you’d think it wouldn’t have taken more than two months to finally get together! But the severity of May Gray & June Gloom interfered, and we were left waiting for a sunny (or at least not a rainy!) day. And finally, the morning we met up at Trea’s stable in Rancho Santa Fe, the weather was near-perfect: a bright sun coming through a thin layer of overcast clouds. I love that kind of weather; it’s enough light to capture high-speed action photos, while not creating any harsh shadows. Simply wonderful! :)

 

This is Trea (short for Mr. Bailey’s Treasure), a downright gorgeous American quarter horse. We took him on a walk through the neighborhood, stopping at the bougainvillea bushes along the way.

rancho santa fe horse photography

 

I don’t get the chance to work with horses too often, but gosh I love having the opportunity! He is so regal! This Rancho Santa Fe horse photography session was definitely one for the books.

rancho santa fe horse photography

 

Jen, I hope you don’t mind me including a photo of you in this sneak peek… I just love this moment with you two! :)

rancho santa fe horse photography

 

And after our fun with Trea, we came back to Jen’s house for the second half of our session – photos with Bailey the German shepherd! Now you KNOW I love dogs named Bailey – since that’s my dog’s name too – and this happy, loving boy was a delight to work with!

rancho santa fe pet photography

 

We also visited Encinitas Community Park, where we ran around the grass and barked at a few other dogs. What a sweet boy Bailey is… how could you ever say no to that face?! (But who knows… maybe he’s just happy remembering that box of a dozen donuts that he ate all by himself recently! Haha!)

rancho santa fe photography

 

Jen, I can’t thank you enough for your patience with my weather pickiness… the good news is that I know for a fact our waiting paid off! I’m so excited to see you (and the whole gang) again soon! :)

 

 

All Images Copyright | Blog Theme Created by LJP & SLR Lounge