The Arabian Stallion

Life is Textured

A Lesson in Texture

An Arabian Stallion fit for a King…

How do you choose a workshop or tour? When I read a tour description, if it immediately captures my interest, I am more inclined to book it! I have found looking at the logistics of flights and hotel rooms is one way I decide if the trip is for me. I like things to be easy to book and if hotels become a problem - as in too expensive - or if the flight doesn’t work, I move on to something else. Once I get a few answers to some of my questions, I may email the tour leader and ask more! I sleep on any decision before committing to it, sometimes more than one night, and decide from there.

I was immediately interested in this trip to Poland. The horses sounded amazing. The country was certainly intriguing and arrangements seemed simple to make. Getting a place to stay a few days before the tour started seemed to be easy and straightforward and it was. Off I went.

The amazing locations and horses made this trip worthwhile. We had a full schedule. Days were long often travelling an average of four hours a day with two sessions each about three hours in length. I find now that I want to know the itinerary before I leave so that I can decide if it's for me. My personal rest and downtime is becoming more important as I continue to travel on these tours. Getting up at ‘oh dark 30’ somehow loses its appeal when you are exhausted from the day before. Usually, by the time I get home, I'm ready for vacation!

I arrived in Krakow, Poland and headed to my hotel which was a short walk to one of the main squares. Arriving a day or two ahead, took care of any last minute flight issues and I had a chance to sleep off any jet lag.

I was picked up and taken to a beautiful outdoor restaurant on our way to the Podolin stud farm. I trusted our host to choose something to eat that wouldn’t kill me!! We sat around several picnic tables and had a chance to get acquainted with the other participants. Most were from Europe.

*At this particular location where this photo was taken**, we drove down a narrow road and were greeted by the stallion with his head out the window looking at us. His handler took him out, and he was quite the showman as he reared playfully on command.*

The only time I really get to photograph horses running freely (at liberty)is on a tour. Setting up these shoots takes a lot of effort on the owner’s part. The leader also has to be able to read the situation and make changes on the fly to keep things moving along. Horses have to be bathed and extra handlers are needed to encourage the horses to move around. Horses get tired as well so sessions are generally short. It helps when there is more than one horse to photograph. This beautiful stallion reared on command and he seemed to float across the field.

As the light started to fail, the horse was brought into the indoor arena and he proceeded to run around for us there as well. My skill at shooting in low light was almost nonexistent. However, I was pretty thrilled to get this look and it became the first canvas that I printed for my new home, it is four feet square and originally hung over the fireplace and now I have it on a large wall so I can get the full impact of it every morning.

There was an old world feel to the stable and I tried a few techniques to capture a look of aged texture.

This is one of my favourite images in my home and am pretty happy with how it turned out. It’s rather ironic that I never had any images of horses on the walls of previous places I have lived. Now they are everywhere - and I am adding a few of my latest abstracts - good thing I have a lot of walls!!