More edited photos

    I have edited almost 20 photos finished and edited. I still have a ton to edit and add text to but this is huge considering I got 20 done in two days! I love productiveness!! Also I have emailed three local photographers in regards to meeting up with with them to talk pricing, framing and hanging in general. Anyways here are some of the most recent photos with text, as well as some others that will not have text.

    Please leave a comment with any criticism, things you think I should change or that you like, thanks!!

Great!!!!! (please note the sarcasm)

    So the day started off really well, I got contact information of local photographers whom I will be contacting later in the week to make an appointment to visit their studios and talk with them about their photography. And also I went up to Healing Rein Farm and took lots of pictures.
    When I got to Healing Rein, a woman named Peggy was there to meet me, she told me that Lauren had taken a bad fall last night and was unable to meet me today. Good news is Lauren is ok. Also a funny little thing is that I knew Peggy from intercession polo, so that was cool. I learned that Judy, a teacher at my school, photography wonder who I am getting ideas from and just working in her room during free periods, leases a horse there. It was soo strange that of all the barns in the Ithaca area, this was the one that Judy, Peggy and other people I had heard of all ride there. So Peggy showed me around the farm, introduced me to Jodi as well as all the horses. I got tons of great shots and I was soo excited to edit them.

   Then disaster struck, somehow while I was importing my photos to my computer they got deleted. I mean gone, poof thats it. So pretty much an hours worth of photos were gone. :( UGHHH I had another SD card that had some pictures on it but out of 200 photos I got to import about 15. Soooo dejected right now.

      I'm going to have to make another time to meet Lauren at the barn so I can take pictures. I'm also going to ask Judy if I could go with her when she rides. In the meantime I will be continuing to edit the pictures I do have and making more appointments with friends and such to photograph their horses. Here is another picture I took on Saturday, yesterday, and edited.

Pictures from this weekend

    This is Annie Oakley from the Misty barn. She is a paint mare who we think is pregnant!! We're keeping an eye on her until we know for sure.

Happiness

    Pretty much I love my barn, I love the people there, they are amazing and we work really well together, I love teaching itty bitties how to ride and groom, I love seeing a girl who is crying terrified of being on a horse get off beaming because she had so much fun, and most of all I love the horses.
     I worked all day today. I got up at 6:15 and drove an hour to Misty, worked for 8 hours non-stop, then took pictures of our horses, and then drove another hour back home. Why do I drive so far for work you might ask, as gas prices are rising and I have to get up so early? Allow me to enlighten you.
    I love horses. I know I've said that before but being around horses makes me so incredibly content. I don't have to think about anything that is going wrong in my life, they are the perfect distraction for me. We had on little girl today burst into tears before she was even on her horse, just standing next to him, and by the end of her riding time she wanted to come back for summer camp. I don't know what it is but horses have a power over people.  She completely lost her fear because she had so much fun.
      Then in a later group of older girls one fell off. Keep in mind it was not the horse or rider's fault, things just happen. Now this particular horse, Spade, direct reins which means that the rider uses two hands to steer him and when Spade spooked the girl couldn't hold on to her saddle. I was at the opposite end of the arena when this happened and when I looked over at the sound of Spade spooking all I saw was this tiny little girl parallel to the ground without a horse under her. She landed and literally bounced right up again. And there she was up walking around wanting to get back on Spade. She was completely fine. Oh and this was her first time ever riding a horse. She was so happy to be on a horse that even falling off couldn't stop her.
   This is why I do what I do, the joy that it brings is worth every dollar I pay in gas to get there.  Also as I was walking around in the paddock after all the horses been turned out, I was so content. Like nothing that went wrong outside of that paddock could touch me. As I said in a earlier post that I had been lagging a little bit in my work, this is exactly what I needed to get me going again. I have found that thing that is going to kick my project work into high gear.
  Here is another one of the pictures I edited and one that I took today unedited.

More Photos and More Opportunities!!

    Here are some more of the photos that are in the running for the contest entry.

    This is Puddin' and for some reason I really like this picture. I can't quite put my finger on why but I like it never the less.











     This is Dunkin again, I love how the light catches his body here.

      So I might have another place to photograph some different horses. Susan gave me a contact for Lauren who rides at a barn in Freeville. Lauren is willing to show me around so that I can take pictures. I'm really excited because these are different horses. So they are something new to photograph.  Lauren asked for copies of the photos in return which I am very happy to give. Thats all for now. 

   PS. The polo national championship finals are tomorrow at 1:30 and 3:30. Cornell women play the UVA women first then Cornell men play the UVA men. You should all come out and watch!!

Back in Town

   So I'm finally back from visiting my grandparents and other relatives in Canada. It was really good to see them, seeing we hadn't seen them in a while. We also stopped in at Guelph :) and got lots of Guelph apparel.
    On to my project, I took pictures at Misty last saturday, however as it was the first day of riding and working with the horses there was a lot to do and therefore I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked. Of the ones I got however there are definitely some that I love and are potential entries for the photo contest. Some of my favorites are below. Enjoy. Also I'm going to make it a goal to have at least one post a week have some of my pictures in it because I looked back at some of my posts and there are a ton without pictures. Seeing as my project is on photography I should include more photos.
        

   This is Dunkin, he is a 6 year old gelding and acts like a 3 year old. He is an adorable palomino paint with bald face. Basically that means that he has a yellow and white body, palomino paint, and a white face marking that goes all the way around his eyes, bald face.
   I love the way the dust caught the light in this picture.

    This is Puddin'. He is a chestnut gelding who used to do team penning and barrel racing I believe. I love how the motion shows in this picture.

Last Polo

     So I just got back from my last Wednesday night polo ever, well at least until I'm back on  breaks next year. Speaking of polo, the national championships for men and women's intercollegiate teams are being held during my April break which is next week. This means that a huge bunch of teams are coming in from around the country, most of them with their strings (usually 2 horses per person, 4 people per team, men's and women's teams) I have no idea how many horses that is but its a lot and we try to fit them all into the barn or trailers in the parking lot. Pretty much the back of the barn is complete chaos. I mean chaos! At any given time there are twenty people back there shouting and trying to get horses ready for the next game, two playing strings (3 horses per playing team so 6 total per chucker), multiple coaches trying to talk strategy before the game and our high school team running around attempting to keep the barn in order. Then in the arena there are 8 horses and people in the ring playing a chucker (7:30 minutes with stoppage for a walk break ie. the horses walk around to cool down and catch their breath and any fouls or injuries) there are four chuckers to a game and if there is a tie the game goes immediately to shootout I believe. As this is happening all of next week I'm hoping to get a lot of pictures, not necessarily of the games them selves but of the chaos in the back. I am gone Monday through Wednesday so I will miss those games but I will get to see the finals and some prelim games.
      Also happening in the near future is the barn I work at getting all of our ponies and horses in for the summer. This is super exciting because it means that I will have many different horses to photograph as well as extended periods of time to take pictures. A lot of my healing series will be done here at Misty.
    I think those are all the updates for now.

I have a life again :DD

     So "The Wiz" is over and I am not heading straight into anything which means that I have soo much time now!!! This is great because now I will have a lot of time to work on my project. The horses come to my barn on Thursday!!! I'm really excited  because I get to ride a lot more often now and I get to see all of my friends more often. Having 12 horses that I see regularly means I have many more opportunities to take pictures. Last year during photo class I took pictures at my barn and most of the pictures turned out really well. I can't wait to start working the horses again because I get to ride and take pictures of the horses I love.