Etchinghill Summer Equine, Pet & Portrait Session with Maxine & Co

While most of my work revolves around weddings and portrait sessions, from time to time I like to get some animals involved, too! This pretty epic day had been a long time in the planning, ever since Maxine expressed an interest last year in having some proper photos taken with her horses around her paddock in Kent. It then grew to include her husband and other close friends of theirs too.

All in all, there were 5 (larger) horses, 2 Shetland ponies, 3 dogs and 6 people. The animals definitely outnumbered the human subjects on this occasion! This was such a fun shoot, and everyone (animals and people alike) all behaved themselves in some lovely warm sunshine in the Kent countryside, with lots of action shots as well!

Back in December 2018 I was teaching a friend of mine how to use her new camera whilst Maxine was tending to her horses. The idea was to get some lovely natural photos of them being fed and generally 'horsing around' (pun totally intended!). After sharing some of these with Maxine, she expressed an interest in having some photos taken in summer some time when the weather was better and the horses all had nice shiny coats.  

After skipping 2019, we started to plan for this equine session again earlier this year, and settled on a date everyone was available. The idea was to bring in more people and have quite a complex sequence that covered all the bases and involved all those who had a hand in running the yards at Maxine's house. And we can't forget the faithful dogs!

So everyone had a turn during all stages of the process, I swapped back and forth between two couples, enabling one to get ready for the next part while I was photographing the other. It certainly worked well but there was a lot of ground to cover. After lots of time spend in the sunny paddock we headed to the nearby woodland to finish off in the shade. 

When the main shoot was done, I still had some time at the end for Chloe and her partner to have their own mini session with her two horses. I'll let you in on a secret - Chloe had been helping me with the lighting for most of the day, and had now changed into a lovely summery dress for her time in front of the camera - a great idea!

If you'd like to arrange your own equine photo session and get some amazing photos like these, my pet pawtraits are still only £50 for a half an hour session, or you can get in touch for a personalised quote for a longer session to enable us to get lots of gorgeous photos of you and your four-legged friend - just like Maxine did!