This cowgirl lifestyle advertising image was shot in Glendo, Wyoming in summer 2000, while the last light was dropping behind the hills. I used a slow shutter speed and tracked the horse as it moved across the the terrain to keep the rider recognizable, as best as I could, while letting the landscape stretch into motion. That movement is what gives the frame its energy.
The yellow fields, the deep blue sky, and the speed of the horse all came together naturally. Years of shooting commercial motion and still campaigns taught me when to stop overshooting a scene.
The frames were difficult to shoot as I had to track the rider/horse left to right, and back plus not move the camera up or down nor rotate the camera. This was even more difficult as this was a film shoot so I did not have any way to check exposure, movement, see how much or little blur I had.
What I did was to shout at Kenda to go, I told her where to stop. After her riding the horse hard I would tell her to ride back in the opposite direction at speed, but to wait until the horse got its respiratory back.
The camera I had at the time could shoot about 5½ frames a second. Meaning I would go through a 36 exposure roll of film after 2 runs. I remember shooting about 8 to 10 rolls as I adjusted the shutter speed to get more and less blur. As expected, there were a LOT of frames that did not work. And we shot as fast as the horse would allow. I now shoot this using a tripod and a fluid head, making this a lot easier.
In the photo below you can get an idea of how much motion is involved in shooting this. In looking at the tree leaves, note they are layered streaks. Shows a lot of camera motion on the photographer’s end.
Most photographers who are not “Cowboy or action equine” photographers do not think about the horse, they just want to shoot continuously. This can happen if the horse is in peak form, but even then horse is not a machine. When a horse starts to tire, like humans, their legs get wobbly. When that happens a horse can stumble, or worse, fall dumping the rider on the ground, all this with the potential of injury or death. This would be bad.
I avoid this by telling the rider to turn and go only when they think the horse is ready. So far, I have not been part of getting any rider, or horses, hurt.