Horses -- Kerry & Caitlin Video

If you have seen the post with photos of Caitlin and Kerry with their horses http://tlcphoto.blogspot.com/2008/08/caitlin-and-her-horse-kit.html then you will want to see these videos of the images!

This video has both Caitlin and Kerry with their horses created with Animoto.



This video (made with ProShow Gold) has just Caitlin with her horse Kit.



This video (made with ProShow Gold) has just Kerry with her horse Dave...




The ProShow gold videos run very smoothly on MY computer (and on my TV), but they are a little pixelated using the web flash video format.


Animoto.com is a web application that creates MTV-style videos with the click of a button. Users simply choose a song and images. Animoto then automatically generates a unique video for them. No two videos are ever the same. Click here to sign up and save $5

For a view of the edited photos from this photo session please look here on our website:

http://upload.smugmug.com/photos/add.mg?AlbumID=5742215

For a view of the unedited photos from this photo session please look here on our website:

http://upload.smugmug.com/photos/add.mg?AlbumID=5786617

Caitlin and her horse Kit

We photographed Caitlin with her horse Kit. Tom started off with her riding the horse, panning and trying to get some action shots. Then I took some closeup portraits of her and Dave.

Please also check out these three short videos http://tlcphoto.blogspot.com/2008/08/kerry-and-dave-video.html

I just LOVE the ones with her looking Kit right in the eyes as they stand there nose-to-nose!



























Caitlin, with her Mom Kris, just a few weeks before heading back to college.

Kerry and her horse Dave

We had fun photographing Kerry and her horse Dave. I started off with her with her horse getting some nice interaction between the two of them. But then she decided to ride him bareback and wow, she really came alive, her whole demeanor, body language and facial expressions changed and any stress that she felt at being in front of the camera just melted away! I took the close up "portraits" at the beginning of the session while Tom captured her and Dave "in action" -- check out the motion blur as he panned -- Whoa!

I applied some cool artistic effects to some of the images and the first one and the last one are among my favorites.

A few photos from NECCC

Here are a few photographs that we took up at the NECCC conference this weekend. The weather was great, but the photography and the comrade were excellent!

In the warm glow of the evening light on the way to the George Lepp keynote speaker.



Tom was walking ahead of me so I photographed him while he was photographing the tower. I kept my aperture open to keep him sharp and the background soft.



At the fine arts center I just liked the way that this sculpture frame the flag.



The brick building made a pleasing background against the petunias. That evening light was just wonderful!



OK, I just had to play around with black and white and color...
same photo, cropped and then a B&W adjustment layer and then a mask painting back in the colors of the flowers.



I just love the color of this flower.



I had to try it with black and white and color as well, here are two variations, one painting with black and the second with 50% gray.





Sunday morning the horses were very handsome. There were lots of people around so I tried to create some tight images.




converted to B&W




This young lady was with her father and the Caballos de Paso.

The "Caballos de Paso" is a group of Paso Fino horses that travel all over New England giving
demonstrations and parades. The Paso Fino horse is a Spanish breed known as the
"smoothest riding horse in the world" due to their unique four-beat gait.
http://www.pasofinos.com/ has further breed information if you are interested.








She needs a red flower in her hair to balance this image, but I love her dress.



We have lots more and will post some more horses later this week. Tom got some good ones of the horses galloping towards him.

Bombay Hook, Delaware

We got up Tuesday for one more sunrise at Chincoteague. It was mostly cloudy but the sky was lined with pink streaks and we had four minutes of a really spectacular sunrise.

Tom did use the Skimmer (and MY 500mm lens) later in the morning at the beach where he soldier crawled to photograph some Willets and Plovers in the waves.

Before we left Assateague we did get to see the Wild Horses again.

We left for Delaware, after a full morning of photography in VA, to head for Bombay Hook. We went straight to the Refuge where we immediately greeted by a Red Fox, then another and then another -- and the lighting was GREAT! The second fox was right on the road, leaping and bouncing (for prey) like a child playing. She was completely oblivious to us even as Tom braved the mosquitos and got out of the car to photograph her. He was laying down on the road to photograph her, but he could not change his large 300mm lens for a ligher lens because of the ferocious mosquitos. He still managed to get more than two dozen images. He captured images with him trotting, looking over his shoulder, drinking, etc. I just enjoyed watching the Fox from the car because of the mosquitos!

There were also a bunch of Northern Harriers (females) hunting in the meadows -- flying low. We also scoped out the snow geese location -- there were a couple thousand snow geese in Shearness Pool. The only bad thing was the horrendous mosquitos -- we did not anticipate this (but I was prepared and climbed into the back for our bug shirts). The mosquitos were Bionic and fast -- open the car door and hundreds flew in. How that many could find us that fast was beyond us! Outside of Black Fly season in the Adironacks I have never seen anything like it!!!

At sunset (with our bug shirts now on) we had fun with both the sun and the wonderful grasses and crops all around. I just love the way that Tom framed the setting sun with this grass.

Wednesday, for our last morning, we got up very early and were at the gates at Bombay before 6am. The temperature was just right, chilly enough that there were none of those horrific mosquitos but not too cold for us. We drove in and only got to Raymond Pool where THOUSANDS of snow geese had spent the night. The sunrise was spectacular!!

The snow geese blasted off TWICE! WOW! We had heard and saw many blastoffs in Assateague, but not this many and not this close -- it was overwhleming! In Assateague the first Blastoff that we saw was perhaps 2000 snow geese, but they flew right over us so it was quite a sight. Their numbers increased while we were there and one day there was ~6000 snow geese. Bombay had twice that number! The sound of their wings alone, even without their honking, was deafening. What a magical experience!

After the blast off ("the finale" to our trip) we drove around the refuge a couple of times looking for fox (none) and raptors (LOTS). We saw a Golden Eagle, an American Kestrel, Great Blue Heron, a Belted Kingfisher, some rather large Red Tailed hawks, LOTS of Northern Harriers and two large flocks of Avocets (plus all kinds of geese, ducks and waterfowl). It was a great ending to a great trip.

Now for a change...tomorrow no geese but some delectable TURKEY. Mmmm