Horsing Around - Tips and Tricks for Horse Photography

OK not wildlife but domesticated animals are interesting too .. so here are our top tips for horse photography:

Be careful! They are large, strong creatures that often take great delight in spooking at nothing. If you walk around the back of them, keep out of range. Wear strong boots - they love 'accidentally' stepping on your toes.

If the horse's ears aren't straight up and forward "like Batman's", forget it! 'Donkey Ear' pictures are not popular with equestrians. To get the horse's attention, get an assistant to stand out of frame in front of the horse and do something like this, very, very gently:
- shake jangly objects (like keys)
- sweep the ground with a broom
- play with something that rustles
- wave a carrot at them

Flash photography. It's for the confident, brave and/or stupid. Personally I never bother, but some people do (see end of article.) At big events, the horses are probably able to take it without spooking. ("They evolved to avoid wolves, wildcats and bears et al, none of which resembles a flashgun.")

For showjumping, I find myself using settings around f/5.6 at 1/300th or faster on my 70-200. Experiment to see (a) what aperture gives you enough DoF, and (b) how slow you can go with the shutter speed. Pictures that show a little motion around the feet are good to have!

If you're not doing event photography, but you have other commercial intentions, get model releases even if your pictures don't include any humans!

For inspiration, have a look at Horses by Yann Arthus Bertrand. He's the guy that does the open-air photographic exhibitions of his 'Earth from the Air' work, but he is also a master at portraits of all kinds. He uses a massive canvas backdrop and lights with two flashes, the results are quite stunning. (We also recommend his book Being a Photographer which sounds pretentious, but isn't.)