Putting the Geese before the Horse

 

Has this ever happened to you: You’re fixing yourself a bowl of cereal, and without thinking, you put the milk back where the cereal came from…and the cereal? Yup, in the refrigerator it goes. It happens sometimes when I’ve got the flu and my head is all stuffed up.

For me, the normal way I blog works like this…first – I come up with a subject to blog about…then, conceptualize it…then shoot it…and only then…blog it.

Todays picture has me working the blogging process backwards, and I don’t even have the sniffles.

Last night I was at a friends house enjoying a bonfire and delicious BBQ (shout out to Shawn and Sonja…thank you!!!). Turns out, they had a horse…a beautiful horse…in a field…a field that, when the Sun sets, will be illuminated with beautiful early evening light. You know the kind…twilight; perfect for horse pictures.

So I ask the young lady who owns the horse if perhaps I could photograph him and her together; she agrees. I had waited until just before Sunset, and as if on queue, the western sky started to glow with pinks, oranges, deep reds, simply breathtaking late evening light. By now I’m starting to shake with excitement because I’ve been wanting to photograph a scene like this for years.

While setting up for the shot of Caitlyn riding the horse bareback across the field, my ears pick up a familiar sound; the squawking of Canada Geese flying overhead. I spin around and see the familiar ‘V’ formation of at least a dozen or so geese approaching from the north. Since there’s no reason to expect getting any details in the birds themselves, it made more sense to expose for the sunset instead, which of course causes the birds to became silhouettes against a beautiful sky. I find the perfect settings, wait for the shot then take it. Perfect!

By now Caitlyn and her horse were ready for the shot, in fact so ready that I could already feel the rumble of the ground behind me as the horse started it’s run. Furiously resetting my camera settings, I aim, focus and fire off 10 frames in under two seconds…just long enough to capture 3 good frames.

Sometimes doing things in reverse works out for the best. and sometimes they don’t, like the time I was sick and I tried putting the cat in the refrigerator and the my cereal in the kitty bowl. Hey, now there’s something to conceptualize!

Kevin Kratka