I no longer ride, but I grew up around horses and understand the passion. I am a portrait photographer, that is how I see myself and what I do. If you want portraits of your horse, or you and your horse, then I am so very happy to be a part of that with you. What that means is that I will work above and beyond with you to get the highest quality photographs that I possibly can, that you will treasure and be proud to display. I will get to know you and what you want, and to do that I may visit your home, paddock, livery yard or stables. We will discuss how you visualise your final images and how best to achieve them. Then we will make a plan, set a date and time and capture those images. We may require more than one session, because we have the weather and the temperament of animals to consider.
Then I will skillfully retouch images where necessary to remove any unwanted distractions such as dirty marks, lead ropes and so on. Working with your direction, if required, I can dramatically enhance your image into a fine art work that can be reproduced in large scale format for full effect. Or we can choose to stay true to the image and reproduce a very natural portrait with the barest of enhancement. This is about you and your horse.
I do not attend events or go to showgrounds. There are other photographers who do that. I will capture ridden shots, including jumping, lunging, and your horse at liberty, as well as standing shots, but what I do does not work at shows.
So, if I am what you are looking for, then we need to agree the details. I am based in Hillcrest, KZN, and happy to travel for free within 25 kilometres. Beyond that I charge R5 a km. I would prefer to come see you, discuss exactly what you want, see where you think we should shoot, meet your horses. There is no cost for that consultation, other than travel.
We can arrange any time of day and day of the week for your portrait session, but the best times of day are just after dawn and before sunset, or on a day with flat, overcast light. I need a booking fee to secure a date and time, but if it is obvious that the weather will be against us, we reschedule at no additional cost. I will shoot in light rain, it can even add a certain quality to the image especially if there is drama in the sky but we have to be sensible. But the rain must be light, you and your animal do not look your best in the rain and even the best professional cameras will only withstand so much! I will use artificial light such as camera flashes. If your horse is skittish about these things we may need another solution, but we can work around most things.
The package I offer includes hair and makeup, even for gentleman riders! This is important because we use a primer that diminishes skin shine and redness. It greatly reduces the time in post-production to process your images. It is far more cost-effective for me to bring a hair and makeup stylist with me. And it is just lovely to be a little pampered! I allow up to 3 hours of photography as part of the package. If we need more time, for whatever reason, we agree that and it is charged accordingly.
I will process your images in a natural style in the first instance. Although if we shoot with flash or other artificial lighting some of the effects can be quite awesome with very little effort, particularly if Mother Nature gives us a perfect sunrise! I will quickly provide you with some low resolution images for you to have on your mobile device and to share on social media, because I understand how important that is. I will present all the images that I am comfortable to present on an online viewing gallery between 4 and 8 weeks after shooting depending on workload. At this stage we can discuss if you would like additional processing to enhance certain images that you may now be considering for large scale wall art. This will be quoted for separately.
You now need to decide which images you like, which you love and which you absolutely must have as an A0 canvas or as a framed fine art print! And of course, you will want some more for social media and to put on your mobile device. That’s okay too!
I do also offer a range of fine art albums and I can produce a video with a slideshow of your images which can be quite stunning. If agreed in advance all of these products can be used for commercial purposes such as sale or stud. I will release images of suitable resolution for inclusion in sale catalogues. Your investment includes your consultation; travel within 25 kms of Hillcrest; up to a 3 hour session of photography, rescheduled in the event of inclement weather; post production processing of your images; social media taster images delivered within 48 hours of your shoot; an online viewing gallery of your images delivered between 4 and 8 weeks after your shoot, a disc of low resolution images. Additional hours of photography are charged at an agreed rate per hour.
Your images can be reproduced into prints, albums, canvas, heirloom fine art framed prints and video presentations. There is no minimum order requirement. Prices are subject to change but at time of writing, as an example, an 8” by 6” print is R195 while an A0 canvas is R2995. High resolution images for sale catalogues etc are R500 – montage images are available. A short presentation featuring both video and still image slideshow, licensed for commercial use is available on request.
Please contact me for a no obligation consultation and to discuss our rates and availability.
[email protected]
Sandra 079 752 2124
