A Photo Shoot 2 Years in the Making

Posted on May 18, 2012 |

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I am avid at setting goals and redefining them as I approach the final product. Well, this latest shoot took me almost 2 years from start to finish. It was a shoot I had longed for, one I dreamt about and spent many hours imagining how I would photograph it when the day came.

About 2 years ago, I figured I would put it out into the world and see what I could get for a response. I posted onto Facebook that I was looking for a white horse to photograph. Now this mostly was the inspiration for a styled Indian wedding shoot where the Indian groom rides to the ceremony site via a white horse. But in addition to that, I simply wanted to photograph a horse, in all its glory, regal and poised grace. A friend of mine who works in the equine dentistry field referred me to a gentleman who runs a local equine group. We friended each other on Facebook, I sent him an email, and no response. Nothing. A little discouraged, I knew the right time and the right person would come along so I ventured forward.

It wasn’t until over a year ago that I was shopping one evening at Town Square here in Las Vegas that I saw a new attraction at the outdoor shopping mall. From a distance I saw a horse driven carriage, and lo-and-behold it was being pulled by a white horse! I ran down the street trying to find the name of the company and quickly saved the info into my iphone. I was so excited! I found their website and within a day I had sent my first email to Horse Around Town. A meeting was quickly set up with Maribeth, the owner, and we talked for a couple of hours on our ideas, even recruiting the waitress to model for us.

Fast forward to a year later, Maribeth had unfortunately lost her original horse Darby, but soon acquired her rescue horse Duke. We talked some more, passed around ideas, and had to rescheduled 2 shoots due to weather and scheduling conflicts. Eventually the stars aligned and below is what has taken my dream almost 2 years to come to fruition. I’m so excited and happy to share with you my little idea that blossomed into a full-on 10 person photo shoot on location.

Horses provided by Horse Around Town, owners Maribeth Saffron & Jason Speer, Horses: Duke (Percheron Morgan cross) & Kommissar (Belgian Draft), Horse Handlers: Molly Pesis & Carly Gordon, Models: Suwasit and Charlotte Madden, Hair/Makeup for Charlotte: Makeovers by Brandy, Photography Assistants: Marissa Girard & Adam Silversmith.

Here’s Charlotte and Duke.