Photography & Horse Showing are so much alike!

Since I've been out of school I've had a lot of time to gather my own opinions about things. Well, I guess I've always been opinionated anyways, but now I can say what I want and the only thing I care about are my own clients...since they are the ones paying me. I don't have to worry about grades any longer and now Kelly F is free to vent...so heck...why not vent on my own blog..ha..who would've thunk it! You see, I'm usually angry about something (its just my nature) and over the last few months I've been hearing all kinds of views on the issue of post production. For ex: I've heard of people saying how they cannot stand it when someone takes a bad image and just figures that they'll make it look good in Lightroom! So I decided to explain my views, in a horse girl kinda way, on post production of a good shot & a not so good shot. Here it is:

The Photographer: So you have an idea in your head of the type of photography you want to get into. You buy the camera body that tickles your fancy, and then you decide what kind of lens you'll need to create the perfect photograph that you have in your mind. Then a million other decisions..but I won't go there. Once your image "comes to life" you take that little file and handle it with care! You load it onto your computer and decide, hey, I kinda like this little guy...its a great one, gonna be a REALLY great one, all the right stuff is there. What a peach! So you decide its going to go to the exhibition. You edit, optimize and do all you can do to make sure this image looks the best it can possibly be!

The Show Horseman: Decides what venue he wants to compete in. Buys the perfect mare...decides what stud to breed her to that would give him the best chance to produce the right colt. The colt arrives and he loves it. Conformationally he has the potential to be a world beater, but first he needs a little attention. He needs the right feed, grooming & training to be a winner. Even the best can be improved. With the right "grooming" you can enhance qualities, with the wrong grooming, you can take away from the qualities and do more harm than good! Every show prospect needs to be groomed to bring out the best of that particular individual. For example, with a set of clippers, a comb & a pair of scissors, I have the tools to make something great look even greater!! I wouldn't necessarily waste my time on something that didn't have greatness in the first place, but I do know that I can make just about anything look at least a little bit better.

So, in a way...fitting a horse is kind of just like optimizing a file. I wouldn't walk a horse into the show ring without being fully groomed, fitted, bathed, clipped, mane done etc and I wouldn't send a file for printing unless I had completely optimized it either. So, if I think adding contrast improves, converting to black & white improves or even a little vignetting improves...then I will do it. Because sometimes all thats missing, is maybe some Ultra Clear Hoof Spray, face grease or a little Pepi Coat Conditioner!

In conclusion, what I want to say about post production is, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do! In a perfect world we would all own perfect horses and create perfect photographs. But we aren't always that fortunate. Sometimes we get some pile a crap horse we have to show for someone, a crooked legged horse to shoe, or we have to make a poor moving horse look like a decent moving horse. Sometimes we go photograph some really expensive bulls for a client, they are loose in a pen, running around like idiots and won't stand still in front of the background that the client has chosen. Instead they're drawn to the other side, where the lighting is poor and there are 100 other calves in the background! So what do you do....you do the best you can and with those results you use your post production skills to your advantage. This is real life! Sometimes you have to make the best with what you've got! We would all love to photograph everything to perfection the first time around, but lets face it...we're all human, sometimes we're not "on" and sometimes sh*t happens. Should we be ashamed that we resorted to using Lightroom or Photoshop to try to fix a poor image....NO! Sometimes that client needs that image irregardless! So you fix it up the best you can, give it to him and with his non-photographic eyes he doesn't notice anything was wrong in the first place and you spent this entire time sick to your stomach about the flaws...worrying yourself to the point that you're ready to vomit! An important thing, imo, is to know your client and know what is the most important thing in their mind. Is it the distracting background or is it that the bull is standing correctly and looks phenominal? I'll guarantee one thing...the city dwelling photographer that goes to critique the image will start slamming you left, right and center, but the stockman looking for a photographer that knows how the animal needs to look so he can sell it will have a totally different opinion. So who's critique matters the most...who's paying you? The fact that you got Lightroom/Photoshop happy may just have helped you sell that image to the cowboy who has never even heard of these programs. So....here's what I say; if you don't get perfection the first time, learn from the experience and move on! The only reason why one should feel ashamed is if they didn't learn anything by it OR if they deleted an image because they weren't wise enough to know that their client would've liked it and it was totally usable, technically and otherwise.

Depending on the situation you can't always re-shoot or get a different horse so make the best of what you have, learn & hold your head high. When you start at the top theres no place to go but down!

Just my 2 cents worth. You see, in my world, EVERYTHING somehow relates to horses or dogs. Thats just the way it is! Its through horses and dogs that I've learned to make a disaster into something not horrible, or something ok into something fairly good! You can't necessarily take the conformation/structure of an animal and change it, but you can emphasize the good points, try to hide the flaws and bring them out to the best of your ability. Because in some instances, what you got is what you got...so deal with it and look for better the next time. The point I'd like to make is this; be careful who and how you criticize....because its those people who take that extra mile to make something out of nothing that are the ones that will kick your butt down the road. Its through that extra effort that we learn to be better. Of course a lousy photo is still a lousy photo, and a lousy horse is still a lousy horse....but its through dealing with louse that we learn why we don't want to deal with louse and how to avoid getting louse in the first place :D Haha! So, if "lousiness" unfortunately happens to you, either go to the vet clinic and buy some "louse powder" OR if your image is "lousy" go get Lightroom!! Itchy yet?