favorites
April 27, 2010 | Filed Under horses, personal | 1 Comment
I will admit to having favorites. In an industry where you really shouldn’t have favorites, I have definite ones. I have favorite clients, favorite locations, favorite horses, favorite poses, and favorite drives to clients and locations and horses where I set them up in favorite poses. Clearly, I’m not going to tell you who my favorite clients and horses are. And if I tell you my favorite locations, you’ll probably deduce my other favorites from there. Most of you already know, anyway. Or think you do :)
This post is about my favorite pictures (and please don’t be offended that I didn’t pick your pictures as one of my favorites). I have no idea why they are my favorite ones, but they are. They are not my best, or my most creative, or the ones that elicit the most emotion from people. They are just images that I loved when I saw them through my camera. I loved them when I played them back on my way to upload the pictures to my computer. I remember the lighting and the placement of the people and the horses. I remember the smell that day. These pictures make me tingle. I don’t know why. I like them for me. Not because I know that the client is going to love them. Just for me. Just because they’re my favorites.
bits and pieces
April 23, 2010 | Filed Under dogs, personal | 1 Comment
I love saying that- bits and pieces. I think it’s because it reminds me of ‘bits and bites,’ you know those snacks that you got in a bag in junior high that you’d scarf down at recess? They were sixty-five cents when I was in grade 8 (back when I was a kid…). I hated them, actually. But to smell them now reminds me of being a kid and walking the halls of the high school between classes. Completely off topic. Plus, ‘bits and pieces’ rolls off your tongue. I’m planning on putting little bits and little pieces of my life into my blog. If you’re a faithful reader, you’ll connect everything together and when you meet me in person (if you haven’t already) you’ll know way more about me than I know about you…and it’ll be a little awkward, but a lot flattering for me.
The piece I’m going to let you in on today is Carrie. Carrie is my dog. My very faithful when I have food and let her on the bed, little (actually medium) black (mostly), white, and tan dog. She is part australian cattle dog, and part rat terrier, apparently. Who knows. She was found in the woods in Missouri with eight puppies and was taken to a rescue centre where they rehabilitated her. I read a story about her on the internet and called about her right away. She was home within a month. I thought she was the biggest mistake I’d ever made. She bit people, and growled. She chased kids. She was shy and scared easily over silly things. Have I ever changed my mind since then. Getting Carrie is the one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. She is the perfect dog. I take her everywhere with me. She is very polite and wins people over right away (except for Bobby Sill, she still despises him, for some strange reason). She doesn’t run away. She listens very well. And I swear she’ll just start talking on of these days. She’s getting older now- she’s eight, and is an easy keeper, let’s say. The white on her face is mysteriously migrating towards her eyes and around her whiskers- I call it natural highlighting. Her eyes are getting a little cloudy, and she has trouble jumping up on the bed as stealthily as she once did. I’m coming to appreciate her more, as it’s becoming apparent that she’s not going to be around forever (first time I’ve ever publicly acknowledged that my dog isn’t going to grow old with me). But for now, she’s just as perfect as she’s ever been. And just as perfect as she always will be.
Here are some pictures of us at Victoria Park today. My friend Mary Atkinson took them for us.
dog people
April 23, 2010 | Filed Under dogs, people, random | 3 Comments
What a label! What a GREAT label! You’ve got to know that there’s a difference between people who have dogs, and true dog people. Dog people get it. Here’s a quick shout out to some of my favorite dog people and their canine partners who enable them to be classified as such (sorry if you’re not in this post- going through my shots and realizing how many relevant pictures I had was overwhelming. You’ll make the next cut).
heartbreakers
April 22, 2010 | Filed Under horses, personal | 6 Comments
Horses will break your heart. They will. It’s not their fault, and it’s rarely your fault, either. They just do. Maybe they don’t love you back. Maybe they don’t turn out to be all that you hoped they would be. Maybe they frustrate you into doing things you regret. Maybe they try so hard and they just can’t make it. Maybe they make you look at yourself in a new light. Maybe they die. Whatever the case may be, if you’re a horse person, and you’re reading this, you know what I’m talking about. Maybe it wasn’t a messy, huge break that took years to heal. Maybe it was just a little crack- a little chip that eventually healed over. Maybe the break is still there, just a hairline fracture that you only feel every now and then. Or, maybe you’re like me and your break was so bad that you just walked away. I’ve taken a full year to heal, but I still feel those weaknesses, no matter how careful I am, no matter what braces I wear, no matter how much casting I think I’ve protected myself with- they are still there. Not to say I’m scared. I don’t think I’m scared of horses. I have a healthy respect for them, and I’m very aware of what they’re capable of doing to me, both physically, and emotionally. I just have a problem trusting them. Or maybe I have a problem trusting myself around them. Regardless, there’s a gap there. And there’s been a gap for a little while now.
Last week, after careful hints being dropped, casual invites, small pushes, and a little teasing, my very good friend Katie Martin (I’ll post some pictures from her wedding that I shot last summer in another post sometime soon), finally convinced me to come up and ride her horse, Sundance. I’d met him the previous fall and he was a dream for my shoot- not a foot out of place. He was quiet, and pretty. He loved to work and he loved attention. She offered for me to ride him anytime and I shrugged it off with a very gracious “thanks, but…” and quickly changed the subject. Well, the time finally came. Sundance has been for sale for awhile and the right buyer came along: he’d be leaving soon, so it was now or never. I geared up- boots, warm jacket, old jeans, gloves, tuque. I was set. I brought my camera gear and tricked myself into thinking I was going up for a shoot. I did take some pictures. Katie rode first, and then it was my turn. I’d been on three horses in the last year: Rey, who was old and wonderful and perfect. Shelayla who was young, and spicy, only listened to her mother, and made me appreciate living. And George, my sister’s gelding, who was, well, George. He packed me around no problem at a nice slow walk and jog. Sundance is big. He’s at least 22hh. And the saddle was so teeny. So I rode. And I smiled when my calves hurt so bad that they were shaking. And I grinned when I felt my inside hip rock forward when he started cantering. And I giggled when I said ‘whoa’ and almost came off over his head when he stopped dead. And I looked at Katie, who was way down at the other end of the ring, who didn’t care what I was doing, because she knew her horse would take perfect care of me, just like she said he would. And then I wiped away the tears that were welling up in my eyes, put my leg on, and asked Sundance to walk again. And he just stood there. And a few of those cracks just magically disappeared.
Here are some pictures from the day Sundance changed everything. They’re not of me riding (are you kidding me?!), but I want you all to see what a fantastic horse he is. And he’s just so pretty. Katie’s cute, too.
Katherine and Avery
April 22, 2010 | Filed Under weddings | 1 Comment
I always struggle with whose name to put first. Do I say Katherine and Avery? Avery and Katherine? Do I do it alphabetically? Or by who I met first or who I know better? I think from now on with weddings, I’m going to go with a “ladies first” approach and just put the bride’s name first. There. Decided.
I was recruited to do Katherine and Avery’s wedding by coincidence, actually. Their good friend Neil, who happens to be married to my good friend Sara, was supposed to be shooting their wedding. But, Neil got called away to the middle of the ocean near China or something equally as un-awesome, and Sara got in touch with me. Sara was standing as a bridesmaid, so couldn’t do the pictures herself. I had shot Neil and Sara’s wedding last fall (in the middle of nowhere, on a lake, on one of the most beautiful days of the fall), so they asked me, on a whim, if I’d be interested in shooting this wedding… in a week. Why not! I got in touch with Katherine, the day before the wedding, and we went from there.
Katherine is a horse girl, and as such, I knew a lot of the people at the wedding. I certainly didn’t recognize them out of barn clothes, and was amazed that some of the girls even owned dresses and wore make-up! Everything was relaxed. No one was rushed. We seemed to have an abundance of time, actually- which entirely threw me off my game- weddings are go, go, go, all the time, and this one was more like go, meh, wait a bit, ok go again for a bit. Relaxed. Awesome.
The bridesmaids were fantastic. The groomsmen were hilarious (guess which ones were the bad ones…)
Katherine turned heads, especially Avery’s. Great first wedding of 2010.
