From Idaho to Florida: Photographing the magic at Eye Candy Jumpers
Wow this blog is late but I've been a busy gal since coming back from my trip to Wellington, Florida! For those of you who have not been following along on my social media, back in December I was chosen as the 2025 Wing Scholarship winner. This meant that I received a full ride scholarship to Shelley Paulson's Wing Mentorship, a 3 month long in depth equine photography course, and I also was flown from Idaho to Florida to spend a few days doing portrait sessions, black backgrounds, show pictures at WEF, and lifestyle pictures at Eye Candy Jumpers BEAUTIFUL facility. It was literally a dream and I honestly still can't believe that all of that happened!
We started off the trip by going straight to WEF on my first official day in Wellington and took some action shots of two of the horses that were showing in the jumpers that morning. A couple of my favorite shots were taken within the first half hour of being there. Paul O'Shea, Eye Candy's trainer, had some great rounds and the horses were stunning so that made my job pretty easy! The rest of the day was spent taking photos of the other riders back at Eye Candyland before we left in the evening to do a portrait/black background session at another barn. There's wayyy too much to squeeze into one blog so that session will have its own blog post ;)
The next day we got to the barn during sunrise so we could catch the horses getting their morning rides in the gorgeous light. I was really excited for this because if you know Shelley, then you know that she is the BEST at having stunning lighting in every single one of her photos. Seriously though when she shows her behind the scenes videos vs the photos she takes, your jaw drops every time. So needless to say, it was an incredible experience getting to stand side by side and see the difference between our two photos and I definitely don't take that lightly! Later on that evening we got to go to the Saturday night lights at WEF and sit at Eye Candy Jumpers table in the VIP tent. Sadly I forgot to bring my camera for this, but to sum it up, we ate great food and watched some incredible athletes compete!
Sunday was the last full day in Wellington, we got to the barn early again to take lifestyle pictures again before heading to another session for black background photos (those will also be in a separate blog post). In the evening, Shelley gave a wonderful presentation at Eye Candy about her experience as a photographer and shared some of the work she's most proud of. I'm so extremely grateful that I get to call her my mentor!
The last day before we flew out, we spent the morning relaxing at the barn before having one last lunch with Erica and her family. Getting to meet Erica aka the Queen behind Eye Candy Jumpers, was such a great experience and it was pretty cool getting to meet someone who I LOVE to see on social media! The generosity of both Erica and Shelley to organize all of this for an "up and coming equine photographer" is just mind blowing. I cried when I found out that I was chosen for this incredible opportunity and I still cry when I think about how much this helped me grow as a photographer!
