Again, this year, I put together a slideshow to run during Rainbow Ridge Farm’s show series banquet. Rainbow Ridge Farm in Pipersville, PA has been running their H/J schooling show for a couple of years now. Mostly, it’s the RRF students who attend, both to get a feel for how a show runs and to gain a little experience before showing off the farm…but almost every event had at least a few entries from other nearby barns.

Considering that it’s such a small show, I still usually end up with a lot of really fun photos over the course of the year. I usually get a chance to play with new ideas, as well, so it’s always a challenge to whittle them down to a manageable set for the slideshow. This year wasn’t any different – but I think I ended up with something that gives a good feel for the season.

Photos from this year’s show series are available in the Horse Show Proofs section of my website or directly at http://gallery.stephencrowersphotography.com/rrf2011shows.

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Krista and Simon

One of the young ladies at my wife’s barn went and got herself hitched a few weeks ago.  It’s a strange experience, since over the past ~10 years of marriage to Virginia, I’ve gotten to know a number of her young students.  Many of them are starting to get to that age where they are looking at college, moving out from their parents, and starting homes and families of their own. Makes me feel old…Krista is one of those. She and her mother moved their horses to the old incarnation of Rainbow Ridge a while ago. I have got photos of their horse, Simon, from at least as far back as 2005. He, and Krista, were among my very first subjects along my road to being a professional equestrian/equine photographer, and I still remember her heading off to U. Conn about that same time.

Like I said: I feel old.

Now I should be clear here: I don’t do weddings.  There are photographers who live for them – and while I love looking at the photos afterwards, I’m singularly unsuited to be a wedding photographer. A bridal portrait with horses, though… That’s another matter entirely!

We started off at Rainbow Ridge at dawn for a few impromptu shots as they lead out the horses from the fields and a few posed shots in the soybean fields at the farm. I’ll admit that I liked it better as a backdrop when it was corn, but crop prices dictate these things, not my photography. We then trailered off to the Bucks County Horse Park for the rest of the photo shoot.

One of the nicest things about BCHP is that there are a lot of places there that work wonderfully as sets and backdrops.  Especially during the Spring, Summer, and Fall seasons.  There’s also a small pond, that works wonderfully as a reflecting pool on a still day. The leaves were just starting to turn on a few trees, so I concentrated on the spots that gave me some color for the background (whether in- or out-of-focus).

There’s also a nice tall corn field that is still standing near the cross-country course that works well as a background (remember how much I like corn fields – the movies, Children of the Corn and Field of Dreams, notwithstanding.) Given a sunny day, beautiful blue skies, a gorgeous place to be – it was hard to create bad photos.

The only wrinkle for the day was the fact that the local 4H club had rented out the park for their annual Spook-a-Rama judged, costumed, trail-ride. Lots of young ladies and mother/daughter teams in fantastic costumes roaming all over the park while we were shooting. I know there were a lot of folks complimenting the bride and groom on their awesome costumes. Our bunch even ended up in the Spook-a-Rama’s photo album.

A beautiful bride and her handsome beau, a beautiful dress and happy horses – a beautiful day all-in-all.  I even captured a few out-takes.

And taken altogether, these are the moments that make for lasting memories!

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On October 9th, I assisted Laslo Varadi of Digital Expressions Photography for the Bucks County Horse Park’s Starter Horse Trials and Combined Test as a second shooter, photographing the Dressage and Stadium phases.  I love these shows for the diversity of competitors and riding levels, as well as the multiple phases.

I’m always torn as to whether I prefer Eventing at the recognized levels or at these Starter Horse Trials. The big events are, well…”big“. Big-name riders, big hazards, big horses…big in so many ways – but the Starters have an energy…a passion held by those just getting into eventing that maybe gets lost in some of the competitiveness of those big, rated shows. Perhaps the bigger hearts live in the lower levels, waiting for their chance to show just how big they are…

Photos from the event can be found on Digital Expressions’ site at http://www.digitalexpressionsphotography.com/Equestrian/BCHP-Horse-Trials-10-09-2011

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I put together this little slideshow to run during the Bucks County Horse Park’s End of Year Awards Banquet:

Photos from the banquet itself can be found at http://gallery.stephencrowersphotography.com/p514865520

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Last year, I ended up with box tickets from a friend of Virginia’s to see the Grand Prix Freestyle competition at Dressage at Devon.  As many of you know, I’ve gotten to be a fan of dressage – to the point of specializing in it for my equine photography endeavors. There’s a lot to love about dressage, especially if you’re into the formality that goes along with it as I am (I love Christmas and Easter Masses for the same reason).

Freestyle is a special draw as it marries my love for music with these beautiful animals, and I was delighted to be able to go – and of course brought my camera. 

Last year, I paid my fee and photographed for the single day. I managed to chat with a number of top riders, a few well-known equestrian photographers, and took a few beautiful performance and candid images (if I do say so myself). …and it was LOADS of fun!

This year I decided to use up some of my vacation time at my “day job” and photograph the entire show – especially since I’d been shooting local Dressage Sporthorse breed shows this year and enjoying them as much as the performance classes. The fillies and colts are always gorgeous and they (often) aren’t quite so well behaved – and every photographer has a soft-spot for rambunctiousness. It often makes for great photos (if a bit hard on the handlers and stressful to the breeders).

Dressage at Devon is an odd beast as large horse shows go, as it no longer hires an official photographer – or more precisely, doesn’t hire a photographer to provide photos to competitors. DaD opens this service up to any photographer willing to pay a fee for the rights to photograph and sell performance images (although not the “win” photos) .  Not a big issue for me as (1) I’m local to this particular show, and (2) this is a HUGE, nationally ranked show and the fee is pretty reasonable.

The one thing I didn’t count on was just how exhausting a six day show could be. Especially one that runs basically from dawn to dusk each day, and starts and ends with an hour commute. The show was still fun, though and I think I managed to capture some really nice images of the horses, although I wish I’d taken more “color” photos as well to give the feeling of the event.

As I do for my local shows, I decided to work on a “sign-up” basis, where the competitors needed to contact me before their rides so that I knew to capture them. I had a a number contact me prior to the show and significant number that contacted me during the show…and in my (few) down times, I photographed prior clients…just in case.  I think it worked pretty well. I’ll plan on roughly the same for next year, but with a slightly expanded mailing list beforehand (since many competitors weren’t aware of me until they arrived in Pennsylvania).

Photos for the 2011 Dressage at Devon can be found in the Horse Show Proofs section of the website (link at the top) or by clicking the following link:
2011 Dressage at Devon Photos

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OK, I fouled things up a bit.  I just noticed that the posts I had written hadn’t actually published… (sigh).  I had intended to have the new posts auto-publish every other day starting back on Sunday – but I messed up the dates.

So…they’ll start this evening and I’ll hopefully have this worked out now.

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