Professional horse photographer reflects on human emotions and connection to artwork.
It’s no surprise to me that my audience is most 
likely to hang a horse photo that I took in their living room. Somewhere between taking the photo and the editing process comes the decision of the mood of the photo. Which portion will I enhance organically so the entire mood can be felt by the viewer. While I cannot directly say what makes me choose the moment I take the photograph or the moment that I know exactly where and how I will edit it, I can say that the mood becomes evident. It just feels right to me. I know from my customers that that is what they feel when they look at my horse photos as and end result and what moves them to purchase them. The emotion of it. The emotion they feel as they look at it.
” A Work of Art which did not begin in Emotion, is not art” – Paul Cezanne
Connection, emotions and the feeling of home with your horse photos.
When I walk into my home, the first thing that I see, after my loving and happy dog greets me, is a horse photo that I took. It’s a larger giclee of Suns Glow and in that particular size, it really sets a mood for me. A warm gold with a black silhouette of a Friesian. I feel at home, connected and free to be close to my emotions. I love that feeling that I get as I come in the door. I can’t say that I have always felt so much in my life or even been aware of the how the connection to my feelings plays out in my daily life but something about going for it in my career as a professional horse photographer had really put me more in touch with my emotional connection to my life, the people in it and the horses that I photograph. I like it. I like being more aware of my connection to horses in my life. I can say that as a professional horse photographer I have always really enjoyed hearing about the way my horse photographs enhance the connection to horses that my audience has already, or has always felt.
It’s like a new lens.
Being a professional horse photographer, lenses are something that I continue to look at as part of honing my craft. I used to think that equipment was most of what made a great photograph. I always knew that it was the way a photographer was able to capture and translate what they were seeing in the scenery around them but somewhere along the line in my work lately, I find it’s like looking through a new lens without changing my camera lenses at all. I see the connection that the horses have and feel the way I want to frame it into a photograph so that it has more of a personal impact for the viewer as well. It’s a richness in the photo that I was not so keenly aware of before that I am really enjoying as I see it reflected back in my work. I’m really happy to be taking horse photographs this way and eager to see what comes out of it.
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.