Archive for the ‘Portraits’ Category

Salomonie Sizzler Endurance Ride

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

Patty and I spent the weekend in NE Indiana at the Salomonie Sizzler Endurnace Ride. Although the trails were very slick from all night rain on Friday night and clay soil in this part of the state, Patty had a great time on Coco who carried her to two 2nd places in the limited distance events. Limited distance is 25 miles. There were many pulls because of the slippery conditions.

Doug Palme was the official photographer for the event, but had a difficult time on Saturday due to the continued extreme overcast conditions and several down pours. On Friday, once Patty had vetted in for the event, I walked around the camp doing some portraits. I was able to take a few other pictures. I spend a little bit of time with Doug shooting some of the riders on trail on Sunday morning, but this time the conditions were not good because of the extremely clear skies which made it difficult to find even lighting areas.

Here are a couple of images from the weakend:

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See more photographs from the weekend here: Salomone Sizzler

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Lori @ Dancing Horse Farm

Monday, July 20th, 2009

I had  a great time making portraits for Lori Aman with her lovely horse Breezy at Dancing Horse Farm. We ended up having the session on Sunday afternoon around 4:30pm because we got rained out the night before.

On Saturday, Lori was concerned about how overcast the day was. But actually, I want everyone to know that the soft even light of an overcast day is ideal for portraits. When the sun is bright and intense it many times forms harsh bright spots in an image and at the same time deep dark shadows. On a bright day, we would have to find what I call open shade to take the portraits. In open shade, the light is less intense and more even. It helps the skin to look smooth and there are no dark shadows in the eyes. So, I’m saying this for those who read this blog to help everyone to understand that an overcast day, is like free open shade. You don’t have to look for open shade. It’s everywhere… PERFECT FOR PORTAITS!!! The light is also softer and friendlier in early morning (but, it’s hard to get up and everything is wet) and evening just before dusk (this is what I prefer to work with people and their horses).

While I was there I saw Sarah Wheeler who I had done senior portraits for several weeks back. She’s such a nice young lady and when she saw me she told me how delighted she was with all her potraits. “Cutting back on what I want from the shoot is soooooo difficult”, she explained, “but mom says I have too… I’d buy them all if I could.” Wow, that was a real ego boost, but really I am always so happy when people love their portraits. It’s exactly what I want from every client.

Anyway, we borrowed Sarah’s lead and I asked if she might help us with “ears up” for Lori’s portraits. She called her mom and explained that she would be late for dinner (if that was okay)  she wanted to help me out and proceeded to get creative with her friend using treats, plastic bags and whatnot to get the horses ears perked up. She did a great job, just as her little sister had several weeks earlier. I understand that as a mare, Breezy is well know for laying her ears back in disagreement.

I wanted to make sure that Lori had a chance to see her proofs before blogging samples from the shoot. We tried lots of ideas and many worked just great.

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There are many more portraits from this farm call which you can find at www.photosbypdemott.com  PROOFS.

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Trails End Barn Door Mini Sessions

Saturday, July 11th, 2009

This morning I went over to Trails End for the Hunter/Jumper show (DLSC). I decided to offer some free mini-sessions in the barn door of their newest barn. I was able to shut the doors at the other end of the barn and turn off the lights so that with my subject standing in the doorway the background would go very dark. My lovely subjects stand out from the dark background in a very dramatic way.

Unfortunately, after having only three sessions, the clouds opened up and with a few cracks of lightning there came heavy downpours of rain. If you were at the show hoping for a mini session, perhaps next time. But, just so you understand, I don’t offer free sessions any time. I wanted to create some portraits this weekend and this became a good opportunity. However, if you have a couple of friends and want to break up a regular custom farm call session into several shorter mini sessions, that is a great way to reduce the initial farm call session fee.

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As I was at the show, I saw one of my senior portrait session subjects. Corrie was incognito and it took several looks before I realize who she was. She had changed the color of her hair since we created her portraits. Shortly after her mom came up and expressed how happy she was with the canvas print that I had recently sent to them. I definitely have to have more samples of the canvas portraits. They are works of art.

When it was clear that the rain, rain, go away, come again another day was not going to work, I headed home to process these images. If you would like to see the others, go to my proofing area here. Go to Horseshows “Trails End Barn Doors 7/11/09″ While you are there don’t forget to check out other shows that you might have images for. Whenever I add another show, I drop off the oldest show so don’t wait too long to make your orders.

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Posted in Horse Shows, Portraits, Senior Portrait Session | Leave a Comment »