Somehow I’ll manage to pack all of this….
THE SUMMER 2014 ADVENTURE WITH THE MUSTANGS!
Let the Mustang 2014 Summer Adventure begin!!!!
I’ll be sending photos and blog entries for our adventures this summer as we travel west to find the mustangs. Ahead for the Summer 2014 are the McCullough Peaks, Sand Wash Basin, Spring Creek Basin, possibly Little Book Cliffs and the Cloud Foundation Celebration of Wild Horses Art and Music.
The three photographs below are our contribution to this milestone event. Last summer Ben took “The Chase” at the tender age of eight, Abby’s met “Cloud’s Encore” at age ten… they both carry Canon Rebel 3t’s which are light and I used my Canon 7D to snap “The Emissary” below. Cloud is often referred to as the ‘ambassador’ of wild mustangs, hence the derivation of the title. This is the first time all three are being presented together…
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| The Chase by Benjamin Lowder |
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| The Encore by Abigail Lowder |
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| The Emissary by Meredith Lowder |
* Please remember we don’t get this close to the horses except the crazy stallions that decided running straight at three small humans would be an excellent idea… Abby and I both use a 100-300mm Canon lens. Abby got much closer to the Cloud’s daughter Encore than any of us intended… except perhaps for Encore.
Back once again
I will be starting, or I should say ‘restarting’ the Equus ferus Blog – I had one of those password moments and kept forgetting to change the password and write it down somewhere I’d remember… So we are up and running . We just returned from Spring Creek Basin, Salt River and Little Book Cliffs. It was a wonderful trip- we met up with our friends Karen McLain and TJ Holmes– you’ll see photos shortly. In the meantime, check back from time to time…
Meredith
Myself and my daughter Abby who is also an Equus ferus- Wild Horse
photographer at Spring Creek Basin, Colorado
February 2014
How to be a mustang photographer…
What do you need to photograph mustangs?
1. A job– This may sound like an oxymoronic statement but unless you are wildly successful, you won’t make a living solely upon your mustang photos. Most of the successful photogs in the mustang industry also do non-mustang horse photography. Horse shows, gymkhanas, private photo shoots, animals other than horses (pet portraiture) etc.
I have a wonderful job I adore outside of photography that allows me to pay for camera equipment, software, advertising, traveling to the horse management areas, printing… Plus my job also gives health benefits so when I cut my leg open on rusty barbed wire in pursuit of mustang photos, I can go to the Emergency Room for a tetanus shot.
2. Mustangs– another no-brainer. Use this book to find the mustang sites and I can offer suggestions for good hotels nearby. There are a lot of Horse/Herd Management Areas (HMA) in many states- some closer than you think. Also Google BLM, mustang, wild horse, management areas and you’ll find a lot of information, once you know the name of the HMA, try to Google that and you will be amazed at the sheer quantity of clubs and rescue groups affiliated with the mustangs!
3. Car with high clearance– four wheel drive is not necessary if you are absolutely 100% positive it won’t rain (being a weather psychic is useful too). High clearance is the most useful feature for your mustang-finding-vehicle but four wheel drive comes in handy and will offer you peace of mind. My husband loves to drive all over the place looking for mustangs… Four wheel drive is also good and I won’t go out to some of the sites without it…
4. SLR Digital Camera-like a Photoshop below, you need a DSLR camera (digital single lens reflex)- Canon, Nikon, Olympus- whatever is most affordable, start with used if finances are an issue. Lots of megapixels are great but beyond 10- the photos are just taking up space on your hard drive-unless you specialize in posters which require large files for the clearest printing but for most people, 10-12 megapixels or less is fine. Should you include video? Some of the newer SLR cameras come with video. I am a bit of a purist and I bought a GoPro camera so I can shoot video and photographs separately. When I am in the groove taking photos, the last thing I want to do is stop and switch my camera to video and waste tremendous space on my memory card for video… Save it for photos and find a friend with a sense of humor to shoot video for you. Try B&H Camera and Video in New York City- I have been there many times, they have excellent on-line used cameras and lenses and you can search by price. They are very knowledgeable and if you decide to visit, let me know-I will treat you to lunch.
5. Adobe Photoshop– Don’t accept substitutions. This is the industry standard in photography and if you want to be taken seriously, you need Photoshop. If money is tight, then you might consider buying it with a student license. There are restrictions with a limited student license but it is substantially cheaper. It is a rather complex program and it will take a while to learn Photoshop but there are plenty of books you can buy to learn this program as well as thousands of free lessons on line. Even video tutorials at Adobe’s website or You Tube. They have a new way to buy Adobe products called Adobe Creative Cloud where you pay a nominal fee each month and you have access to ALL Adobe products and they have a vast library of programs for web design, video, photography and graphic design.
6. A spirit of adventure and professionalism– being adventurous is critical to mustang photography. When it is the fourth herd, located well over a mile away and it is 90F and you are already hot and sweaty…having that “okay, let’s hike through the sagebrush for the fourth time in the hot sun and photograph the mustangs” attitude is key… It is ALWAYS worth it. As for professionalism- be polite, respectful, avoid profanity both on your website, Facebook fan page and your personal page. People can see some of your personal page (regardless of friend status) and having questionable photos/content won’t bring people to your photography site in droves. Utilizing your computer’s spellcheck and grammar are also pluses though I have been known to post some humorous comments when typing on my phone- granted the comments are spelled correctly, the just don’t make any sense grammatically.
Other non-essential but useful
A friend– driver, video , companionship
External hard drive-always, always, always back up to an external source before you even look at the photos!
Cintiq board/tablet– I bought mine at B&H and this handy graphics tablets comes pre-calibrated for print. I never have to worry about my prints looking different than what I see on my monitor because of my Cintiq. If you don’t have a a graphics tablet, try calibrating your monitor so that the print will look similar to what you see in Photoshop. Also when doing fine work on a photograph, the pen is more comfortable to use than a mouse.
Telephoto lens– most cameras come with a 35-110 or 200 mm lens as a package deal. I love my 18-200mm. For mustangs, you will probably want to invest in a 100-400mm and IS is best. (Image Stabilized). I had a 500mm Canon lens- it was a moose, weighed a ton and was utterly useless in the field. Great for photographing hummingbirds at my feeder at home but that was about it. You want the most portable lenses you can carry- literally.
Digital watermark– this is a process that places an invisible ‘digital watermark’ on all your image (you choose which). It tracks these images throughout the Internet and will find if your image is being used somewhere else even if it has been altered. I use DigiMark.
Nik filters for Photoshop – amazing filters I can’t live without!
Alien Skin Filters– also phenomenal
Alien Skin Filters– also phenomenal
Adobe Lightroom– an amazingly useful program to preview, catalog and do minor editing- also will upload to a website as a gallery- very cool!
Monopod– like a tripod, this handy item comes as a single cane-like support for your camera. It has only one leg but if you find your images are blurry, try using a monopod or tripod. I find them cumbersome and I have learned how to steady my camera but I carry a monopod in my uber-cool photography vest. Once in a while they are great for panning a running herd or if you find yourself parked next to a waterhole…
Photography vest- a slightly dorky but rather useful article of clothing. It has about 15 pockets of varying sizes. Make sure, if you don’t have a driver friend, put your car keys in a very safe place- zippered pockets are nice and secure. You don’t want to search through sagebrush for your cars keys. The nice thing about the vest is it holds extra lenses, water, monopod, memory cards and lens cloths without a backpack. Useful for hot summer days especially when you have to hoof-it for a mile….
Memory cards– I use smaller cards, about 32 MB and switch frequently. If I manage to get an amazing series of photos, I will remove that card, stash it someplace safe and continue with a fresh card. This way you don’t ever run the risk of losing precious photos. My cards are labeled 1,2,3,4,5… And A,B,C,D,E… This way I remember which are used and which are blank. I keep the cards as backup, even after I upload to an external hard drive. The photos are uploaded to my laptop, and then transferred to my external hard drive which I carry on the plane with me. Only then do I allow myself the pleasure of looking through that day’s adventures in mustang photography on my MacBook.
Cell phone with car charger– this is an obvious one
GPS– might be useful, I have never needed one myself – most phones come with some sort of location function. Try that before you buy a Garmin
Water– especially in the warmer weather
Have fun and be safe!!!!
-Meredith
Sandy makes landfall
Equus ferus -Wild Horse Photography would like to wish all of our Eastern US and Atlantic seaboard fans a safe journey through the storm.
A special shout-out to all the emergency workers, our government, police, fire and EMS, all NYSEG and Con-Ed peeps & state electrical authorities, and all the hospital personnel who will work through this storm- many of whom will have to sleep in the hospital and be separated from their families!
Stay safe friends!
Hurricane Sandy and the ponies
We are hoping that the hurricane is slow enough so that we can get some photos in tomorrow morning. A little light rain is okay but anything heavier would be bad for the cameras- sometimes the ponies are close enough so that we can shoot from the car but we’ll see.
We got some lovely shots in today in two sessions- one in the morning from 6:30am to 11:30am and then 3:00 to 6:00pm. My backup battery failed so I thought returning to the hotel for lunch and a swim would allow me time to upload the photos and recharging my battery- it worked well. And I ordered its’ replacement already!
The Park Rangers were perhaps the only unpleasant thing we encountered and I’d like to think they were simply “doing their job”. It would have been nice to be informed before you get reprimanded for something you didn’t actually do… But if that is the worst thing we dealt with- it was a successful trip. Many thanks to the kind hunters who not only dug our SUV out, towed us through the deep sand, escorted us to the main road and made sure our tires were properly re-inflated to 32 PSI- they were so wonderful, kind and sweet- it made up for the grumpy rangers.
Keeping ten feet from the ponies is challenging! They are extremely desensitized to humans and walk right past you (often bumping into you) without a care in the world. Rather different from the mustangs out west! You stand ten to twenty feet away and the ponies walk right up to you and nuzzle your pockets looking for treats. We know horses- Abby, Shauna, Lauren and I are experienced accomplished equestrians and spend much of our time in their company. We know when a horse is likely to bite, kick or strike out and we know is when a horse is nervous or uncomfortable and we respond quickly and kindly by moving to an appropriate distance. We do our best to be respectful and safe.
So off to bed- up early though not as early as this morning… I hope the expected heavy rain stays away and we get some shooting in before we head north- I will be conservative and cautious because the idea if driving through a hurricane for five hours isn’t on my top ten list of ‘fun things to do’. There are rumors that Mayor Bloomberg is closing Manhattan down Tuesday with regards to transportation -no subways or MTA buses- only emergency vehicles etc… My patients wouldn’t be able to get to the office and thus I’d get an extra day off since I have a vacation day Monday! More time to edit the pony pictures!!!
G’Night everyone!
Merry
Fawn
Awwww
Good morning! Hello Ponies!!!
Up early about to go for breakfast! I found out my back-up battery is dead so we might stop at a camera store but we will see how much battery I have at lunch. I am excite to see how Abby does with the new Canon Rebel T3i…
All the cameras are packed and have full batteries and empty memory cards! Breakfast was yummy! We are about 20 minutes from Assateague Island and the sun rises as 7:10am so we’ll leave at 6:30 or thereabouts.
Next stop Assateague!
Merry
Rest Stop!
Mmmmmmmmmmmm Nathan’s.
Stuck in traffic
We currently are on the New Jersey turnpike stuck in traffic. A little over 2 hours away! We just found out there is an emergency evacuation for in Cape May, NJ. We may end up getting evacuated Sunday morning.
