Last year, one of Royal’s owners wanted a photo session in hopes that he could win the  “Most Beautiful Headshot” contest for Morgan Horse Magazine.  I took a few hundred pictures of  Royal at his southwest Spokane barn during the golden hour.  Royal was all tacked up and looking sharp for his equine photo shoot.  After the formal part was over, we untacked him and set him free to run around.  I actually shot the winning picture near the very end after he was finished running and was turning around in the corner as if to say, “I’m done – let me go back to my stall to eat.”  Much to my pleasant surprise, this photo won all three categories:  Breed Character, Emotional Impact, and People’s Choice.  The magazine contacted me several month’s later to inform me that they would like to use the image in their Morgan Horse marketing campaign at the Kentucky Horse Park.  If only Royal could understand…but who needs inflate a horse’s ego!

While prepping Royal, I captured this image of Christina straightening his forelock.  The image turned out to be a little out of focus, which inspired my use of Photoshop’s watercolor filter.  Normally such mistakes wind up in the trash, but I liked the colors here and I feel that it captures the connection between horse and rider in a slightly dreamy way.

Most of what I got during the formal shoot consisted of stuff like this.  Pretty decent.  I used my favorite lens – the Nikon 70-200 VR which makes a nice creamy bokeh – a Japanese word describing the quality of the out of focus region of the image.  Of course the newer version of that lens has come out, but it’s like 2300 bucks, and I have no complaints about this older lens.

Here’s the winning shot placed into the advertisement at the Kentucky Horse Park.  Royal is a star!