Battle Ground Farm Portrait Photography
Working with one animal can be troublesome for a lot of photographers. Working with SEVEN of them would make Drew Gardner want to throw up. Okay, maybe not Drew.
Still, two donkeys, two horses, three dogs. A little crazy, right? Not for the countless families still living on farms in the more rural areas around here. And hey, they need photos too!
Battle Ground Farm Portrait with Family, Dogs, Horses, and Donkeys
Our first goal was to try to get a group shot with the animals. We could tell quickly that that wasn’t going to happen. The shot we got was the best of the worst. We could have been there for a week and not gotten perfect, as the family didn’t have the budget to bring in extra animal wranglers and assistants. I told them just to act naturally with the animals and keep their own heads facing somewhere in the vicinity of the lights I’d set up. It worked well enough, but I was certainly sweating until we moved to the more intimate shots.
Battle Ground Couples Portrait with Horses
This one’s a great example of some of the lighting magic I’m able to bring to any location. The orangish light coming from the left looks like it could be from an old lamp or something, but it’s 100% ‘artificial’ light. The sunset they’re staring out towards was definitely a sunset, but it didn’t look as good as the sunset made by my big softbox. Any photographer can capture the mood of a certain area. You can even do it with your phone. What I bring to the table is repeatable moods. Moods that I can create that weren’t there before. A modern studio portrait look in a grungy bedroom, a fun beach portrait in deep blue night where there were only dull grey afternoon storm clouds before.
Battle Ground Cowboy and Horse Portrait at Sunset
This is the sunset they were actually looking out towards. It’s nice. Nothing special, but certainly not bad. But it doesn’t quite have the magic of the previous shot.
Battle Ground Cowboy and his Horse Portrait
I add this shot not because of any fancy lighting or niceness. It’s just a great moment. The kind of moment you can’t manufacture. But it’s nice to be able to put people in the situations they need to be in to increase the odds of these kinds of moments.
Looking to do something a little more out of the ordinary with images for any purpose? Give me a call. Working with animals may drive me crazy sometimes, but you know what? Crazy is fun!
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