A Peek into Wellington's Equine Elegance
Okay here we go! Second blog post about my Wellington trip and I'm going to share about the photo sessions I did with two beautiful ladies and their gorgeous horses. If you didn't see the first blog go and check that out first, I went on an equine photography scholarship trip with Shelley Paulson and Eye Candy Jumpers to Florida and I explained all the fun details of that in the first part!
The first photoshoot we did was a black background/golden hour portrait session and holy cow it couldn't have been more perfect! Laura Ashley is a grand prix dressage rider, a USDF gold medalist, and has such a beautiful facility for her cute horses. From the second we got there I could just tell that those horses were obsessed with her and she was obsessed right back! This was an incredible learning experience for me getting to shoot side by side with Shelley. I would be lying if I said I was 100% confident the whole time, there were a couple times in the beginning where I would see the photos Shelley was taking compared to what I was and that definitely shook my confidence for a minute. But the phrase "comparison is the thief of joy" kept repeating in my head so I shook it off and tried to remember everything that Shelley has taught me so far and put that to use. In the end, I got quite a few shots that I am proud of and I had such a fun time!
The second shoot we did was a quick portrait session but mainly focused on black backgrounds. Kylee Mckereghan and her pretty mare Hoodie were the models for this session. Kylee is a U25 US dressage rider and a USDF gold, silver, and bronze medalist. I know, I know I'm spoiled and we got to work with some very talented ladies! We got to the facility around 10:30 am which is not an ideal time for a portrait session, the lighting is really harsh at this point so we had to get creative. Shelley found a really pretty spot under a palm tree where we could get a little bit of shade but also get some pretty light. Kylee and Hoodie were perfect and so cute together! The location for the black background photos were a bit difficult too because the barn where we would normally take the pictures was pretty busy with lots of other owners getting ready to ride and doing chores. We decided to switch it up a bit and take pictures in a covered round pen. I included a picture of what the background looked like before I edited it into a black background, I think the results still turned out great!
Overall I learned SO MUCH and I'm so incredibly grateful for this once in a lifetime opportunity!
