Some shots from the barn today...

[CaraRose]

Didn't get anything great today. It was overcast and kept drizzling on and off, but I got a few that I like. I did manage to get the moment of suspension in Van's trot, which I'm pretty happy about, although that was more luck than anything

Just curious, I have a grey horse and a grey sky. The contrast sometimes seemed a little lacking... is there anything I could have done that would have improved that?

For Chunk-- Ivan, who I posted a picture of before, is a flaxen chestnut. The other, Van, is a fleabitten grey. A fleabitten grey is grey with tiny speckles of black, grey, or brown throughout the coat.
(note: stop reading here unless you wish to know more about grey horses than anyone needs too).

Grey is a color modifying gene, so all grey horses are born another solid color, and then will grey out as they age. They'll generally be a dark grey by a year of age, and as they get older they'll phase lighter and lighter, till they're either fleabitten or white. Many of them will be dappled grey in between. Dapples are a sort of like a mask of darker fur where spots of lighter fur show inbetween-- it's a little hard to explain.

Any color of horse can be dappled, and its usually a sign of good health. You can see Ivan's dappling in the picture I posted here of him. The rounded spots of lighter shade in his coat would be the dappling. On a grey dappling tends to stand out even more.

Okay, hope I didn't bore anyone to tears there... I stopped myself before I started rambling about double dilutes vs. greys.

[Chunk]

Very nice, both the photos and the lesson. I certainly didn't get bored. The shot with Ivan in the air is especially neat. I saw some Muybridge shots that were displayed in conjuction with a Degas exhibit today. Degas used his studies to get thorses motions right in his sculptures and paintings. What is Ivan doing in that third shot? Thanks.

[CaraRose]

That'd be Van (the grey). In the third shot he was trotting, but was starting to jump sideways in a bit of a spin.

Photography changed how people understood the horses gaits quite a bit. It was in the 1890's that they finally settled the debate on whether or not there was a moment of suspension in the gallop, using photography to capture the gait and show there was a point of the gallop when the horse was airbourne.

[Knight]

Great photos, guess theres not much that can be done with the sky on a day like that .Are they your horses and how many do you have ?

[OldSchool]

Very nice Cara. I really like the expression in the 3rd shot. I also think the first shot has a good potential for a landscape. The "grey" horse does a nice job of balancing the grey sky in the composition.

[CaraRose]

Thanks all...

Knight, unfortunately, they aren't my horses (oh, I do wish though!). I work at a stables doing full service grooming on Sundays. We're a smaller barn (12 horses) which leases stalls in a much larger stables (I would guess there are over 100 horses total on the property).

The chestnut in the last picture, Ivan, I do a halfboard on. He's more or less mine on the weekends...

[erich6]

Beautiful horse...and it says a lot that even with the grey on grey it stands out.... You also got good exposure in a tricky scene.

You asked what you can do in the situation to improve contrast. One thing might be to look for another vantage point where there isn't as much sky. Maybe there's a hill or you can climb on the back of a pick up truck. That way you get more of a top-down look with more green background and less sky....

When I look at these pictures I can see in mind the horse coming right at me and a photo where the horse completely fills the picture, dead on center, with hoofs coming up would be quite dramatic....

Erich