Fall friends, farms & action!

It's not in chronological sequence here but I'm sharing some wonderful horses I was lucky enough to get the chance to photograph recently.   Sculptors need references.. all kinds.. and hundreds of them!  So to get the opportunity this past Sept and Oct to photograph such a wide diversity of ponies was amazing.

Blogger is giving me troubles here but I'll try to caption these as best as possible!

Some of the awesome ponies out at Brookridge Morgans http://www.brookridgemorgans.com/

Below Kennebec Topaz soaks up some love from folks at the South Con show! 

  

I knew more about the big guy but am blanking on who did the work, it's a customized Ann Harris horse (Wellington).  I'm also not 100% on who owns which of these adorable Kiplings but it's cracking me up! :D  

Then on to the next farm... to see Kylee's (Pitch Black Stables) Friesian stallion Axel and some mares and their first foal!     They really did a wonderful job of setting everyone up to give me fabulous photos.  I have some 400 photos in all of everything but here's a few I am rather fond of! :)

 

I'd just like to add that looking at this makes me realize my plan of a 6mo life sized Friesian colt might still be a tad on the enormous side.. I may have to scale that down some.  Kylee isn't short! ;)  This colt cleaned up earlier that week at a Morristown keuring earning "Champion of the day" and "Champion colt".  Go them huh! :D  Anyhow, hugely helpful with my goal of doing a life sized work!!! 

Next stop, the Lucas Francis studio (www.lucasfrancisstudio.com/ ) to learn a few things... Kristina was more than happy to let me airbrush the glaze basecoat for this etchy-appy finish I plan to do but I honestly can say she did wonders... I am not up to par with even the basic layered approaches just yet...(that's her in the spray booth - not me!) but watching her really gave me an idea of how it works.  Airbrushes & I are not always friends too, so to do it with something that is completely unforgiving of mistakes and is not "what you see is what you get" is not the place to start... I'm starting with etching off the hairs here to make a varnish roan appy.  I've blended out the masked white area (after the photo below was taken) there so it's not a big square anymore... but that's as far as I got --> he's a winter project.  At this rate I might turn out one every few years (and of dubious quality!)... but it's good to know and I'm giving it the good ole college try all the same! :D

The next day there was an invite from a friend of her's to visit some Spanish Norman horses so off we went!  As you can see, sculptors don't value normal "pretty" pictures -> we want things like photos of the undersides of jowls...

 

Then off to her friend's mother's home to photograph another bad boy -- a rather rare Spanish Norman from a bay Andalusian.  

Objects in mirror were actually closer than they appeared here.  He was not pleased that we held him back to photograph while his pals went inside... we're in the middle of the paddock here & that's him buzzing of the tower as I like to call it.  Below, yes (!!!) another shot from a great new angle of those tendons I so dig!

His absolutely loveable mom (Percheron).

Now while he's greatly peeved here, lol -> doesn't he look like he's singing soulfully?

Backing up in time, this is from 3 weeks ago in Sept when I went out to Kentucky to the AAEA Fall show.  Heather Moreton, an avid photographer, set me up with several saddlebred farms to shoot at and then out to the Kentucky Horse Park (where normally I don't have enough time to walk around & photograph anything when I'm out there).  Again, visiting ASBs you'd think I'd be after the stereotypical stuff but actually I'm eager to get things that no one EVER posts online or in magazines/books;

Being in the middle of this next group of adorable youngsters was quite a treat in and of itself.  I have a lot of photos of distorted noses sniffing my camera in that mob scene! But I say "treat" because they are the gentlest baby horses I've ever encountered.  Generally I'm on the lookout for the infamous baby "spin & kick" nonsense but these guys were definitely not rambunctious like that .. and it showed - they weren't all covered in nicks & scrapes babies usually give each other either! :)

 

I'm in your barn sneaking massages to your ponies...

Next, off to the horse park and what do I photograph?   :)  Inner thighs.. you can never have enough pictures of those.  What can I say.

You should totally click & enlarge this next one though;  it's the riding horses (some 30 or so) being turned loose in the streets to be herded down to their turnout at the end of the day.  They rope it off but it's something most people probably don't get a chance to see.  Pretty awesome to see all the different breeds, colors, shapes and sizes trotting & cantering "free" off through the park like this! :D

And at the end of a long day being on display the Akhal Teke takes a snooze on the back of the Marwari horse.

I really should/could share/say so much more but I'll never get around to it if I don't just post & share this.  Thank you enormously to Heather Moreton,  Laura Hornick Behning , Kylee Demers (and of course Wes) :) and then Kristina Lucas Francis (and of course Paul) ... and Elizabeth M., Premier farms, Willowbrook farms for their generosity in opening their homes & farms & hosting me!  What an amazing month it's been.  Looking forward to tucking in to some serious work this winter now. :D