Professional Horse Photographer talks about Eyes of the Horse Photography.
Morning Eyes
The horses eye seems to be one intriguing horse photo that most people are drawn to over and over again. I am not quite sure why this is so popular with the masses in photography and in paintings and I can only speak for myself in this blog post. I love the emotion that feels so evident to me when I look into the eyes of a horse. I am not really thinking about what they can see, or how they see me in relationship to how I see them. I am looking at the emotion that I feel conveyed by the eye itself and the expression that I interpret them as having as I look at them. I know it’s mostly me just looking at them and interpreting what is happening but they are just so magical and beautiful that I can’t help but feel something every time.
The eyes have it!
For me, the horse eyes have it, hands down. I feel so connected when I look at the horses eye through my lens. Big, warm, reflective, full of expression – I can hear my shutter click when I get that expression lined up in the shot of them. It just comes right through the lens at me, moves me emotionally and then I freeze time for all to share that moment with me. It is just as palpable to me every time I see it whether it be on canvas or on print. I really enjoy that and it brings me back to my love for horse photography time and time again. I like hearing others explain how it feels to them to connect with my photos or how it warms their home.
The connection, in my eyes.
Something really magical happens when I connect to the horses eyes through my lens, as I mentioned before. Something about the emotions that it brings up within me making me feel in tune with the horse. I love being able to portray the spirit of the horse in this way for others to live with and feel close to nature in their own world. I feel really blessed to be so close to horses where I live and I sometimes forget that others are living in a big city or that they just don’t take a short drive to go see some horses just to be around them. It’s addictive for me and yet it really makes me feel calm too. I can return to that feeling again and again when I look at a horse eye photo that has really captured that moment. Doing this for a living is a pretty wonderful gig and anytime that I can pass along that feeling of being connected to such beautiful creatures I feel like I am fulfilling my own creativity as well as giving back. As a professional horse photographer, I never know if the buyers of my horse photography are looking to rekindle that feeling that they had as a child growing up with horses or if they are just responding to how welcoming horses feel to them as they look at them. Many other feelings can come up for them as well and it is fun to hear them tell their stories as they chat with me about those captured moments.
Scarface the horse photo.
Scarface-close up view of a scar across the forehead of a white Arabian Horse
One of my horse photographs is called Scarface. I took a close up of him because his scar is just so evident and I wanted to really get a photo that just embraces that issue. It just moved me when I looked at him. I had such a mix of feelings as I did his photo shoot. It spoke to me that he must have been in recovery from his accident for a while, but his skin healed well and added to his expression for me. I thought it might speak to my audience as a professional horse photographer as well. We look for connections in life, how we fit in, where are place is as we go through changes, how evident our scars are and how that sets us apart. Movies that take us on the journey of underdog comes out on top are box office hits but living it day in and day out is another thing entirely.
Somewhere in someones home I wanted them to have their own reminder that things turn out well, scars add to our own life’s landscape but continue to remind us of how we got through it and found our way. I like to think of this horse photo as some touchstone for those moments in peoples lives. A reminder that they have grit, ability to continue on during the challenges, that the situation brings them to a focusing moment of where they are going to spend time emotionally, on there own end outcome or lost in the moments of pain. It was an interesting moment to capture his expression in his eyes because it wasn’t just about how beautiful and flawless he was. I love that horse eye photograph for that reason.
Eyes On You
Jody Miller is a professional photographer specializing in Horse Photography, Equine Photography, and Equestrian photography. Her work can be viewed online here in her gallery section, and she is also featured at Arts Prescott Gallery, AND NOW Sedona’s Village Gallery in Arizona.