Portfolio Week 3

Portfolio

Week 3

Photography Inspiration Photograph

I found this image on Pinterest. I tried to find the photographer who took this image BUT I couldn't find out who it was. This image I took as inspiration to try get a different angle with my images. I've taken a lot of my images from straight on so when I saw this image I thought, I wonder if I could get one like this or at least get one similar.  And I feel I did with the top image of mine :) 

Portfolio Artist Research/Cameron Bloom

When searching for a photographer to write about for this blog I came across these images :)

When I saw these photographs I thought they were the cutest images I'd ever seen, so I went searching of the photographer who took them and found out the photographer's name is "Cameron Bloom"  and the Bboy in these images is his son and the reason he took these specific images is because the magpie in them was rescued by his family and formed a massive bond with his son, and their bond is so great they hardly do anything without each other, and I thought if anything was to show connection this was it. 

The story of this magpie is a really emotional one and it made me connected even deeper to the shots and the connection they have. Apparently Cameron's wife had a near fatal fall that left her paralysed and deeply depressed. A few months later they found this magpie injured after he'd fallen out of his nest as a chick. Penguine the magpie gave his wife joy and strength to keep going in ways doctors and other people couldn't by nursing him back to health, and along the way this cute little magpie also helped his son and formed a bond with him that couldn't be broken. Cameron stated that Penguine reminded them that no matter how lost, fragile, or damaged they felt, accepting the love of others and loving them in return will always help to make you whole. 

I think no matter what animal you're with you're always going to have a story and it may be bigger or smaller than this, but there's always something that forms that bond between animal and human that can't be shattered and that's something I want to portray in my images as well. 

As I researched further I found his photography site and found a few of his more professional rather than at home photography 

A lot of Cameron's work shows connection in some way, shape or form and I feel this may be because he can see it more that maybe other photographers can due to the seeing it within his own family and the bond they have with Penguine. Cameron has also stated that when taking his Images he wants to portray feeling and a quality in the the person he's shooting.

My Portfolio Images

This week I found time to do 2 shoots which I was really happy about :) My first shoot was with my friend Coralee and two pinto ponies Sindy and Dakota.

I wanted to try a few different things this week. Different angles and possibly having them doing different things rather than just the cute cuddles I've had my friends in the past two shoots do. A bit like Cameron's images with his son doing different things with the magpie rather than all the images just being cute cuddle ones. 

This image is my response to the top image I found on Pinterest.

 This is Coralee and Dakota :)

I know Dakota extremely well BUT even so I didn't want to stand directly under her to get the image, like the Pinterest one, just in case something happened.  So my image doesn't have the exact angle of that image BUT I used it as inspiration to get a similar image.  I really love the outcome of this image it's one of my favorites I took in this shoot. I love how you can still see the connection despite the fact you can't see Dakota's face, this image is different as it's not so much the face that shows the connection, although Coralee kissing shows it too, it's more the hand on Dakota's chin. which I love cause it's different.

This is Coralee and Sindy :)

For this image I asked Coralee to pose a bit I just wanted to see how it'd look being a bit more posed than my other images, cause I hadn't really done much in the way of posing images before this for my portfolio. I asked Coralee kneel on the ground  on front of Sindy and look up at her rather than straight forward like a lot of my other images, BUT at the same time try ad keep the connection between them and I got this extremely pretty image. It was a bit by chance I got Sindy with her eyes shutting like this, BUT all the elements together made this as well as the top image one of my favorites in this shoot. 

This image was also an attempt at a different angle/higher vantage point. I asked Coralee to lead Sindy over to a bridge we had on our farm and sit down and wait for Sindy to do something cute. And this is the resulting image I got which I think is extremely cute, and shows connection a lot like Cameron's images with his son and Penguin the magpie.

I really love how Sindy's chestnut coloring and Coralee's orange hair matches :) 

For these last 4 images I tried to get a bit more of connection through doing images. Like instead of cuddles seeing if I could get images where they were just doing normal every day things, like Coralee feeding Sindy,  or them just walking through the paddock. A lot like some of Cameron's images  above where his son is walking his bike with the magpie in the handle bar which I'm sure with the connection they have would happen a lot, or the cute one with his son patting the magpie in his arms. All everyday type of images that still show connection. 

For this shoot I also asked Coralee to wear a dress and let her borrow my Cowboy Boots as I wanted the images to look a bit more themed (Country), and wanted to see how the images would look with  a dress rather than casual or riding gear like my last two shoots.

Shoot 2

This was my second shoot I did this week with Chris and his Horse Chachi.

For this shoot it was quite hard to get good connection images. I had contacted my mum's friend Heather about doing a shoot last week with her horses and Chris and Chachi, BUT we weren't able to do a shoot until today. I kinda thought it'd be like the shoots I'd done previous BUT when I got there I found out they were actually breaking Chachi in to be ridden, so it was extremely hard to get the good connection images I wanted BUT it was still a really good experience at getting different shots of horses in different situations. 

I am really glad I captured this moment between Chris and Chachi :) I thought it was cute cause Chachi picked up the rope and was kinda chewing on it and Chris reached out and grabed it, almost like Chachi had picked up the rope to give to him, I thought it was extremely adorable, and a really amazing doing connection image. A lot like Cameron's images with his son and Penguine :) 

These three images I probably won't use in my Portfolio as they don't really show connection cause these were images taken right in the middle of Chachi being broken in, BUT I thought I'd add them to my blog anyway. 

The top images are of a lady who came over to help Chris break Chachi in (I can't remember her name) BUT the relationship between Chachi and her was more of a learning/working relationship, so I couldn't get really good connection shots, BUT that top image was one of the best ones I got between them. 

The bottom image is of Chachi after he'd had the saddle put on him. I took the rope out in Photoshop BUT in this image they were lunging him to get him used to moving with the saddle on his back. He is such a beautiful horse and he looks amazing in this image so I decided to add it to the blog as well. 

The middle image is of Chris half hopping on Chachi's back after they'd finished lunging him. When your breaking in a horse you don't always want to just straight hop on their backs like you normally would, especially not when the horse isn't used to a person being on it's back. In the wild something hopping on a horses back like that is a threat or danger. So it's always good to get a horse slowly used to the idea of someone being on it's back, so you don't stress them out to much. Half hopping on their back like in this image gets them used to the idea of someone being on them and  weight of someone being on their backs in the beginning stages, and also means if something were to happen that the person on their back can get out of the way fast. It takes a lot of trust on both side. 

Digital Technology 2: Week 2: Kingsize

Studio Visit/Artist Research 

Week 2

Kingsize

I really enjoyed my trip to Kingsize I felt like we were all extremely welcomed and invited in, Luke who spoke with us was really informative and I learnt a lot. One piece of information that really stuck with me on our trip was just how big their studio's are and the size of things they can fit in the studio's. I remember Luke saying that they had a shoot with about 2 or 3 horses they brought inside to shoot, and I thought that was quite impressive cause horses aren't exactly tiny. Another thing that stayed with me after our trip was all the equipment you could hire, I actually didn't know before that point that there was a place where you could hire out photography equipment like that so I found that quite interesting.

While we we're at Kingsize Luke showed us a few photographers works including a portfolio of Steven Boniface's work. He also suggested different photographers for each of us to look up  to help with our individual research tasks. One of the photographers he mentioned for me was "Tim Flach" who does mainly animal & nature photography focusing more on horses & dogs but also takes images of different types of animals around the world. 

Tim Flach Image

I was considering doing the horse photographs for this blog BUT decided against it as I wanted to try taking images of something different for this blog. These are some of Tim Flache's canine photographs, which on his website he calls his Dog Gods photographs. Flach is know for taking close ups or having his subjects just to the side of his images which is something I wanna try as it's something I haven't ever really tried before with my photography. 

Flach is a London based photographer, Flach is also known for his highly conceptual images of animals, principals of human portraiture, and a vocabulary of gestures and looks which seem to echo our own and play on our predispositions and sympathies.

Tim Flach's images above are the images I choose to take similar images of. I choose these images cause with my photography I'm quite used to taking images of the whole animals rather than just parts or having them to the side etc, I have started doing close ups a bit in my portfolio BUT it's not something I commonly do so I though it'd be a good challenge.

My Images

This is my attempt at the top image. I tried to keep just the front of Bella's body in frame, like Tim Flachs image.  I also cropped the image so the whole image would be clear. My sister was at the end of the image with a treat to get Bella's attention, so I cropped her out so the image is more like Tim Flachs with nothing but the dog in frame. I tried to research how Tim Flach did the top image with the black background BUT I couldn't find any research or information on it. I didn't have a dark wall to get the images against so mine is up against a white wall. When taking this image I also had a bit of restraint as to how far away I could be to Bella and the angle of the image, as I had a big couch behind me so I could only really get one kind of Angle for this image. Unlike Tim Flachs Image where i'm sure he had more space to get the perfect image and a really nice Studio as well. 

Close up's of Bella's eyes were the hardest images to get cause she just wouldn't stand still. Most of the images came out blurry and none were fully in focus or straight on like Tim Flach's images. The top image was the closest I got. I tried to crop it like Tim Flach's so it's just the eyes, the top of the nose, and the bottom of the dog's forehead. I had never put the camera so close to her face before so I think one of the reason why this specific image was so hard was because she wasn't to sure what I was doing. I think the Dog Tim Flach took an image of was probably more used to having cameras up to it's face so helped him get a more successful image. 

These are my attempts at a close up head shot. These also like the others were quite hard to achieve as she kept moving BUT I think these ones turned out pretty good considering. I tried to make these ones so it was just her head and neck showing. In the original images before editing I didn't quite a achieve this, was really hard to get a good image with just that part of her body cause she moved a lot lol. I think my images look a lot more happy than Tim Flach's BUT that's just cause Bella's quite a happy dog lol. I feel Tim achieved his Images a lot more cause he possibly had a team of people to help him with the Dogs. Where as I didn't have a team of people, BUT despite the fact my images didn't turns out amazing I'm still pretty happy with what I got considering Bella didn't know what was going on and kept moving. 

Digital Technology, 2 Week 1, Artist Research: Anton Maurer

Artist Research

Week 1

Anton Maurer

Anton Maurer is a Photographer/Photography Assistant who previous to work he's doing now studied at Unitec Institute of Visual Arts and now has a Bachelor of Design and Visual Arts.
He did a solo show in 2014 called "Red Letter Day 'A Preview' at Art Station NZ, in which he exhibited images he's taken from around NZ while on travels.
He's done multiple group exhibitions including James Williamson's Ghost at the TB Wallace Art Center, in 2015.... Away We Go, at C3 Contemporary Art Space, Australia, in 2015.... A Prosses, at Neue Galerie, DE, in 2014.... Eden Art Awards, at St Georges Bay Road Studio's, NZ, in 2013.... And Full Basket, at Tepo Gallery, NZ, in 2012.
Anton has also been a finalist for awards such as the National Contemporary Art Awards, and the Eden Art Awards, Both New Zealand photography awards.

Anton's Images

Pakirir River Road, Auckland Supercity, 2014

Anton Maurer, State Highway 35, Te Kaha, 2012

For a lot of Antons work I've noticed they have a meaning or reasoning behind them for why he took them, He doesn't usually just take the image just for the sake of taking an image. For instance the bottom image, he took as a way of remembering his trip away shooting with an RZ, as this was a road he traveled down and the top image was an image he took as a way of documenting, as he stated on his blog "this image was taken due to the area not suffering from intense urbanization, the beach at the end of this road is home to the endangered NZ Dotteral. 

Having meaning to images is also something that I like add to my images as well so I decided to go out and like Anton find a road that has some kind of meaning or some kind of reasoning to why I've taken them as well.

My Images

Charles Road, Karaka

This is my image I choose to take in response to Anton's images. This road is a road that I used to go up and down all the time for the past 16yrs before we moved a few weeks back. I always loved this road, I thought it was extremely pretty especially from this vantage point looking down and was one of a few roads we have with sweeping hills, and as such I chose to use it as a response. I noticed a lot of Anton's images of roads are taken from the middle of them so I took this one from the middle as well :) 

Another reason why I choose to take an image of this specific road was because this road is kinda famous from where I'm from. In the spot I took this image was the exact spot they filmed this add.

The New Zealand Transport Agencies Speed Kills Add Campaign 2014.

This add was not only successful in New Zealand but was also shown in Countries world wide.

I also noticed that a lot of Antons photographs are cropped in box crops, including theses ones, I kinda made mine box cropped but nowhere near as much as Anton's. This image was also shot with the road centered like Antons work BUT I decided in editing that I liked mine off to the side as I thought it looked nicer for my image.

This is my second response image. 

I tried to take an image of a road that looks more like the roads Anton takes images of for this image. This road is the top of my old driveway Road and it's a flat road like a lot of Antons and has a corner at the top much like most of his as well, Similar to the top Anton image on this blog. 

Portfolio Week 2

Portfolio

Week 2

Portfolio Artist Research

This week I found it hard to find another artist to research to be honest. I tried finding other horse and rider photographers but couldn't really find an,. so had to try and find other types of photographers that do similar photographs to me, but with different subjects etc. Caryline mentioned in our one to ones that I should try and find some Family Portrait photographers to research that do outdoor photography, cause outdoor photography is what I'm doing for my portfolio, so I took that on board and started researching. I couldn't find many photographers that had any images taken with subjects on overcast days which I wanted to add cause so far all my shoots have landed on overcast days, BUT I did find a photographer that has aspects to her photography that I want to try and emulate.

Casey Van Liefde

Casey is a Family Portrait photographer who has a studio in Karaka just a few mins from where I live.
As well as Family Portraiture Casey also does Baby, Maternity, Wedding, and Engagement photography.

I don't really know how to talk about all these images individually cause I like the images for around the same reasons. In a lot of Casey's photography she has her clients wearing the same or similar shades and colours, and that's something I've wanted to try and did try in the shoot I did below. Specifically in Casey's images she tends to have her clients wearing lighter colours which I think works really well with the lighting she tends to have in her images. The bottom image I especially love. I love how what the model is wearing matches the background colouring as well. Another thing I really love about these images especially the middle 3, is how she's captured that moment between all her subjects where you can see they really care about each other which is something I really want to capture as well. Casey has stated that she wants her subjects to feel relaxed and for it to be shown through the images, which is something I want to to be shown in my images as well.

My Portfolio Images

This week I did my shoot with my friend Rachel and her two little ponies Danny and Filly. Information about these ponies. They aren't actually pure grey although they look like it in these images, They're actually grey pinto's, meaning they have patches but their patches are lighter to most other coloured horses and in the case of these two not very obvious. These two are also brother and sister.
I thought using these two in a shoot would look really cool cause they're both the same colour and a complete opposite colour to Rhett who I shot last week, so thought it'd be a good variety of colour.

before

After

This image I think is  really cute, it wasn't originally an image I wanted to use in portfolio cause I was mainly focusing on horse and rider connection rather than horse connection, BUT it's now something I'm thinking could work well in my portfolio. This image I especially love cause it almost looks like a reflection. I'm also really proud of how I edited the fences out of this image through Photoshop. I used the spot removal tool to get rid of the fence line alone their noses, I tried to use that on the fence in the background too BUT it didn't work that well, so I used the Spot Healing Brush on the back fences and it worked really well. 

This Image is my response to the top Image. These are my two Ponies Sindy and Dakota. In this image they're scratching each other. When Horses do this usually one starts and then the other kinda does the same thing back as a way of reestablishing the bond between the horses in a heard. So when I saw them doing this i thought it'd be a perfect bonding moment to capture :) 

This image is my favorite. I cropped the image so you can't see so much of the background which I think works really well for this image.  I like how they're both mirroring each other, Danny's mane and Rachel's hair in particular and I love how you can really see the connection in this image, and they both look really relaxed and happy together which is something I feel you can also see in Casey's work :)

I think this image is just plain cute and a completely different type of connection to a lot of other images I've taken. When Rachel went in to kiss him he kinda kissed her back in a horse kinda way. These two have a really strong bond and it really wasn't that hard to capture a moment like this with them :) 

These two images are of Rachel and Filly. I don't know if I liked these images as much as the other ones. I think cause Rachel's fringe was falling over her eyes  which I think in a way takes some connection away between them, BUT in saying that I do still like these images. The top images I love Filly's Face and the image despite Rachel's fringe I think gives a feeling of connection that I don't think many of my other images I've taken for this portfolio have so far.. The bottom image I like cause it has character and looks like Filly's talking to her. Another thing I'm iffy about with this image is that it is kinda showing the complete opposite of connection cause when I took this image Filly was really trying to bite Rachel, BUT everyone I've shown this image to have said that they really like it, so I guess these two will be ones I'll need to think about.

This image is also one of my favorites, the only thing I'm not too sure about with this image is I don't think it completely shows connection BUT I love the colours. I love the pink from the blossom trees and all the lighter colours in the background, it all matches Rachel's hair and jersey and Filly's colouring, which reminds me a lot of the bottom image I have from Casey's in my blog, with the purple headband and dress and the purple kinda coloring in the background as well :D 

For this shoot I didn't actually ask Rachel to wear the white jersey she has on BUT as soon as I saw her wearing it I immediately thought, oh I can try my images with all the colours the same and see how it look which I think matches a lot of what Casey does with her images, keeps all her clients clothing the same or similar colours. 

TERM 2, Week 1, Introduction to Portfolio

Week 1

Term 2

Introduction to Portfolio

What Is Your Genre??

 For my Portfolio this term I have chosen the topic of Connection specifically the connection between horses and their riders and possibly even horse relationship in a herd environment, I feel this topic falls into the Genre of Nature/Life/and Documentary Portraiture.

What Techniques and Style will you incorporate for these Photographs??

I'm not entirely sure at this point what techniques or style I want my photographs to be BUT I know I want my subjects to be the main focus in the images, so I think a lot of my images especially close up images I may want shot with a narrow depth of field, and I may have a more wide depth of field for the further away images. I want my photographs to be more natural to show a real connection but at the same time I think the images may need to be a little staged BUT that's kind of hard to do when your working with an animal. All my images will be taken outside so light will be a factor in my images as well.

How will you approach research for this Project??

I'll probably do a lot of my research on Youtube or Websites. Recently I've been typing in topics around my portfolio and researching the artist that come up to see if I like their images, and if I do going on their websites or researching them on Youtube. I feel this is probably going to be the way I'll go about my research through most of this project, probably getting books out as well if I need more information. 

What is your plan for your first three Weeks?? 

To contact as many friends as I know with horses and find dates to meet up with them for shoots. And complete as many blogs as I can both in portfolio and Digital Technology so I can keep up to date with my work.

Digital Technology 2 Week 2: Book/Photo Evaluation

Week 2 Digital Technology 2

Book/Photo Evaluation

Photographer

Bob Harding

Name of Work

Bay of Plenty Times, 'Boy and His Dog'

Book

Qantas, New Zealand, Press Awards

The best of 1985's Press Photographs, Cartoons and Journalism

What do you See??

In this image I see a boy and his dog which is the main focus of the image BUT to me it also almost seems like the boy is protecting the dog just as much as the dog is protecting the boy. You can defiantly see a connection there between the two of them, 

To me it also seems like the dog is looking over at something in the distance but you don't know what which I think makes the images quite interesting. 

I love the boys smile too like he's so happy to be with the dog and to have his arm around him.

What Camera and Compositional Techniques have been Used??

This image has been shot with a Narrow Depth of field as you can tell by the blurry background and the sharpness of the main subjects, as a way of keeping the subjects in the image as the main focus. 

He has also taken this image with the sun behind the boy creating really nice lighting to the side of the boys face, back, and down his arm. 

This image also has really nice texture with the boys hair and jersey and dogs coat.

I also love the way the photographers taken this image with the background, the boys jersey, and the dogs coat all kind of matching and almost kind of blending together which I think creates a really nice effect to the image. 

I think this image may have been taken from a slightly higher Vantage point as you can slightly see the top of the boys head. which i think would probably be due to the fact the photographers an adult so would probably be a lot taller than the boy in the image and would probably need to get down quite a bit to get a more level image of the boy. 

 The Photographer took this image with more of a close crop with the boy in the center of the image, while the dog looks like it's coming from the left bottom corner of the image into the center. 

This image also in a way has leading lines, when I first looked at this image i saw the boys face BUT then your eye kinda gets lead down his arm to the dog. 

How does the Image make you Feel??

When I look at this image I get the feeling of safeness. The dog and the boy both seem like the feel safe around each other, with the boy protecting the dog with his arm around it to the dog standing firm by the boy alert and protective, BUT i also in a way get the feeling of Comfort and Happiness. The Boy looks so happy to be with that dog you can see it in his body language and facial expression and the dog looks comforted by the boy, which to me I can kinda see in it's eyes and facial expression.

What Idea's has this Photographer worked With??

The book I got this image out of is the "Qantas, New Zealand, Press Awards" book. So a lot of the images in the book were more Photo Journalism Images, which tend to be more story telling Photographs that are used to create an emotional response from the viewer. This image in particular was taken for the Bay of Plenty Times News Paper, so the photographer may have been working with the idea of telling a story though the image. Maybe the Dog saved the boys life and that's why their image was taken or maybe the dog and boy were simply part of an animal parade and he wanted to portray the happiness they had their. The Photographer trying to portray a story and a connection between the boy and dog through this image is more what I saw when I first saw the image in the book. Which relates back to the theme i'm trying to portray in my Portfolio project for this term. I want my images to tell a story just like this one with the connection between the two subjects known.  

Portfolio Week 1

Portfolio 

Week 1


Choosing my Genre and Topic for my Portfolio

On my first week back at course I had no idea what Genre or what type of images I wanted to take, I was slightly leaning more towards Landscape or Church Architecture BUT I wasn't to sure. I ended up having a conversation with Aroha in my class and she mentioned working around topics and genres that I love and also have easy access to. At the time we came up with Landscape and Friends as my Topics, as I live in the country and go out with my friends most weekends. I decided to go out and try get landscape images last Saturday, BUT didn't have much luck with the images and I started to second guess the friends photography as well. So I started thinking of something else I could take images of and realized I have a lot of access to Horses and have taken images of and have lived around them my whole life, so why not take images of them in some way for my portfolio. After choosing Horses, I started thinking of how I could take images of them, and I came up with the concept of Horse and Rider relationship, as a Rider myself I know that the connection between a horse and it's rider is massive, and I want to be able to show that in some way in my images.

Portfolio Artist Inspiration

After deciding on my Portfolio Topic I started looking for Photographers that take images of Horses and Riders for some inspiration and Idea's for my shoot. As I was searching and I came across "Shelley Paulson", who is an American Equestrian Photographer, who mainly specializes in Horse and Rider Photography but also does solo Horse and Rider shoots as well. She started taking images of Horses and Riders Professionally back in 2004 and has since become a really well know equine Photographer both in america and worldwide.

These are some images Shelley's taken with Riders and their Horses.

I would love to be able to get an images similar to these at some point in my shoot. The Lighting is Beautiful, and I love the idea of a silhouette around both the horse and rider. In these image in particular I feel it really adds to their connection. Shelley stated on her website that because she loves the warm, soft, golden light found in the last few hours of the day, that's when she  usually schedules her shoots. In these images it's really apparent and works really well, Something I wasn't able to do fully in my first week shoot as it was extremely overcast BUT something I''m going to see if I can do in one of my future shoots :)

I absolutely love these images, They really show that true raw pure connection between the Horses and their riders, and that's something that I really want to capture in my images. I love the top image where the Horses has it's eyes shut as the girl kisses it, and I've tried to capture that in my images as well, which I feel I achieved with the below image in my images :) 

This image I love, I love the idea of being able to capture a moment between a Horse and Rider through a close up image of their faces, and I tried to get at least one image in my shoot that looked similar to this, I didn't want my image to look exactly the same as this as I wanted it to show a moment between them BUT I did take it as inspiration to try and get a similar image. And I feel I achieved that goal, and the image I did get turned out to be my favorite image that I really hope can possibly be a final for my Portfolio. 

As I was going through Shelley's Images I came across this which I find really informative. i'm going to use this information to hopefully get my own Silhouette Image for my portfolio if I can get images taken without the weather being over cast that is. 

My Portfolio Images

Once I had decided Equine Photography was defiantly something I wanted to do. I contacted my friend Sheena who owns a beautiful Bay, 18yr old, Standardbred, Gelding named Rhette. Sheena has owned Rhette for a really long time and both have a really strong bond, so thought they would be perfect to take images of for my first shoot :) 

The Night before this shoot Sheena contacted asking if I wanted her in her show gear which I thought about but then decided against as I wanted a more natural look, so asked if she could come dressed in her Riding Boots, Jodhpurs, and a Casual Top. I also asked if she would be okay riding Bareback rather than saddle, as I wanted the Rhette to look more bare rather than geared up as a way of trying to keep the images more natural as well.

For this shoot I wanted the focus to be purely on the Horse and Rider and not the background so I made a lot of the images I took with a Narrow depth of field a lot like Shelley Paulsons images, and most with a close crop. 

I love this image and I'm really hoping it will be a part of my final portfolio. I think it shows exactly what I want, just that connection between Horse and Rider. I made the image black and white like Shelley Paulsons Image and tried to make it look as similar as possible to the image I commented on above. I love how Rhette's eye is half  shut in this though, rather than open like in Shelley's image, and I love Sheena's head resting on his rather than looking up at the camera. I think it puts across the connection between them even more. 

This image I can't decide if I like it better in black and white or colour, which is why I added both images. I like the colour cause you can see the colour in Rhette's brow-band and I feel it makes the image more noticeable BUT I also like the black and white for the opposite reason of, you can't see any colour so it makes you look at the Horse and Rider more, which I guess I want. Will need to do some test print on this image and see which turns out better :) 

This image I love cause it was a real moment between them like the top image. She was sitting on the jump and he walked over and put his head on her leg, which I though was extremely cute. This image has only been cropped BUT I am considering editing it further but not to sure how I want to edit it at this point.

This image hasn't been edited at all BUT it's also one i'm considering. Although I don't think it shows the connection between them as much at the above image and the top image I still think it's a nice image of the two of them.

I tried to take a few images with Sheena Riding or Leading Rhette BUT I don't feel these images work as well as the ground images. The ground images I feel work because they are close to each other and you can see the emotional connection they have. With the riding and leading images especially the ones taken from behind. They kinda take the connection they have as horse ans rider away from the images which I feel doesn't work, and in doing so it also takes away the connection the viewers have to the image as well.