One Woman's Horse Photography Business

Horses can do many things, but can they pose? Many a famous person would testify that it is possible, as long as the one doing the posing is this lady equestrian photographer from Pasadena, California. Who would have guessed that a girl who borrowed her first camera from Pasadena City College (PCC) would later earn fame for trackside photos, including the Montreal Olympics and British Princess Anne.

The easiest recourse for her, after graduating from Pasadena High School, was to practice on horses for her PCC photography classes. The Eaton Canyon Riding Stables were like a second home to her since she was 10 years old. On weekends, she would take her borrowed camera to snap pictures of stable horses for her homework. Her life changed after she sold her first horse photo, and art, music, and journalism were put on the back burner.

First, she became an assistant under two famous photographers at a horse show in Santa Barbara, after which she traveled the country with them, helping them pose horses in tracks, shows, and state fairs. Then she was taken on by another famous pair, who kept to California events. With her Swedish camera and German lens, she now controls her business, with a little help from her mother.

Her expertise consists of six-foot jumps, races won by the nose, and other active moments. But for the lady with the camera horses also sit on all 4 hoofs for formal portraits. Some horses consider being photographed pleasurable. Just turn toward some horses with a camera and they immediately perk their ears or raise their heads. Other horses are as unhelpful as can be.

She said that there's more to taking a fine horse photo than meets the eye. The best shots of hunters and jumpers, on the one hand, are those of them mid-air with legs bent at just the right angle. The best shots of Tennessee walkers are with their front hoofs in action and an over reaching hoof with their hind legs. The best pose for a stock horse is stopping in a slide, and the best pose for a saddle horse is with his legs and head held high. An endangered South American species, for whom endless attempts are being made to multiply them, called the Peruvian Paso, is the subject of many of her most famous works. It is best to snap a shot when you see their forelegs roll toward the outside. It helps that their riders wear elaborate white ponchos with bridles and saddles.

Photography is the key to meeting celebrity horse enthusiasts. She has even had conversations with royalty. She was able to get close to the Queen, of all people, after photographing Princess Anne at the Montreal Olympics. She asked Queen Elizabeth if it made her anxious to see her daughter taking high jumps, and the Queen answered in the affirmative. Even though she spends her free time swimming, back packing, bicycling, panning for gold and sometimes even riding a horse, she felt she needed to switch up her horse photographs with fork lift pictures.

Fork lifts shorten waiting time between perked ears.

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