Mares and Foals on Mother’s Day! After wishing my own mother a Happy Mother’s Day, as a horse photographer my mind quickly moves to mares and foals. I envision the mares and foals getting to know one another out in a pasture with a spectacular and scenic backdrop reflecting a relaxed and cozy atmosphere of those first few new days together. I’m very excited about my upcoming photo shoot in Kentucky and anticipating the rolling green hills of endless pastures and mares and foals everywhere! I’m following “Visit Horse Country” on Social Media and seeing all these wonderful photos depicting those visions.
Back home in Prescott though, I like to discover newly born foals on ranches that are right along some of the quiet roads I travel daily. It’s fun to get the mares and foals together for their first new photo and then to add to this series year after year with the same mares.
It’s the emotion that I am after and that brings me out on a lovely morning photoshoot or an early sunset moment that I linger through to capture the eyes and the conveyed between the two that is at the core of the photograph so that the viewer can take a moment from their day to feel this amazing bond. I take my time to get the horse photographs as the mare and foal walk around together and she introduces the foal to the area that they live in and all that that includes for safety, fun, and interaction.
I find that as a horse photographer I go out to these ranch areas and take multiple photos of time elapsing as the foal grows and as the mare teaches and forms the bond of how a herd works. Initially jumping and playing around the mare as the foal is just weeks old I can end up with some fun and even silly mare and foal photos to be worked with for my mare and foal collection of photos. I am thrilled when this time comes around and I get to be a part of the emotional bonding experience that goes on for these two and for the way those horse photos make their way into the lives of people who enjoy these emotional photos of a newly born horse with its dam. I am happy to bring these photos to the walls and pass along such a wonderful and nurturing connection.
Happy Mother’s Day!
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 these Arizona Galleries: Van Gogh’s Ear Gallery on Whiskey Row in Prescott, AZ and Coops Coffee House at Talking Rock Ranch. Several images are also available at The Phippen Western Art Museum