Customer Reviews

Photographing Horses: How to Capture the Perfect Equine Image

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I eagerly awaited this book for several months before receiving it. What a total disappointment it has been. Not only are the photos mediocre, many poorly exposed, with details hidden in shadows or blown out by too much light; most are simply not crisp or sharp-- they could easily appear in anyone's snapshot album. It appears that her target audience is simply the horse owner who wants to take better photos of his horse. If that is the case, specific information would be most helpful (i.e. " standing approximately 10 feet from the shoulder will give you X result". The advice on posing is totally inadequate, even for Quarterhorses which are featured through the book. Arabians, Morgans, Saddlebreds, etc, are all posed somewhat differently. There is no mention of learning the breed differences in order to photo well. The head shots on pages 114 & 115 make me want to cry...the "bad" example is superior to the one being shown as correct although the background is better, and it could benefit from judicious cropping.
This is the other disappointment - there are no truly beautiful photos in the book which give you something to aim for, or to admire and life your sights up. Surely the author could have found a few outstanding photos to add visual interest to her text rather than using model horses.
I believe that if you are a camera novice, this book could give you some useful tips, and that is why it gets 2 stars instead of 1. However, you would be far better off to get a book on photography, learn how to use the camera's features and then go out and shoot, shoot, shoot. Try to find Darol Dickensen's older "Photographing Livestock", look at Robert Vavra's books, read the Quarterhorse Journal, the Arabian Horse Times, the Dressage books to see good examples of excellent photographs. Pay attention to the photos in the horse magazines like Horse Of Course, Western Horsemen - you will learn far more. After all this waiting, I am returning this rather basic, generally underwritten book tomorrow. Good luck with your horse photos - you can do better!

She does a great job. Goes straight to the heart of equine photography and gives exacting tecnical detail on what to do and, most importantly, what NOT to do.

Obviously written by a professional with lifelong experience on the matter. A big help in getting your first equine pictures to be the best!

If you are a novice or have photographic experience, this book is the perfect tool.
Easy to read and understand. Great side by side examples. Cleverly written with the right amount of heart and humor. Get one to take outside with you, AND one for the coffee table!

Best investment I have made in a book in a long time. Can save you many hours of frustration. Excellent investment if you have even just one horse to sell and you need to take their photograph. Would recommend this book to the beginner or the aspiring professional.

Bought this book because I love photography - not only shooting and creating images, but looking at others' works too! I have photographed horses before, but never gave it much thought. This book showed me some cool secrets and great ideas, it helped train my eye in just what to look for and how to set up a shot with horses and horses with people in the frame. Besides, the photos are beautiful. Get the book, stick it on your coffee table or drag it along with you on your photo shoot!

As a primer for a horse owner that happens to own a camera, this book is very good. However, for a photographer wanting to learn to photograph horses it is minimally useful. It spends way too much time attempting to teach the basics of photography and provides way too little information specific to photographing horses. That said, I have yet to find anything any better. There seems to be very little good material on this subject.

This is a great book both for the amateur and professional. It's well written from both the expertise of a professional photographer and horseman. It covers all the basics with some great little exercises. I bought this copy for a photographer who asked me for a recommendation. Ann Gordon, Certified Professional Photographer.

I am very new at taking pictures. I now say photographs. I love this book. I love horses. What could be better than to learn about how to take photographs of these most awesome creatures. This book is a treasure and anyone even thinking about taking photos, of anything, would benefit from reading and studying this book. It is a work of art as well as a lovely and very informative book.

This book is great for beginners! Easy to read. Every horse show mom should read it. It does a good job of correcting beginner problems. I also liked the "typical" photography section that outlined the usual shots taken in the industry and the model horse study. Like I said before, this book is a great book for beginners. You could also benefit if you are an advanced photographer and don't know much about horse photography. I would not recommend it to someone who has a good deal of both photography and horse experience though. They would probably find it too simplistic.

Full of information for the equine photographer. Thank you for a book that fulls in the missing information for equine photography, and giving me all the tricks of the trade. Enlightening!!!