I got back a few days ago from a fun trip to Poland. This was partly to see my girlfriend and her family and enjoy the Polish countryside, but it was also to shoot another day for my people and animals project. In case you're not up to date I have now done 4 separate and great fun shoots for this project.
Here are the others:
Koc-pol cat*PL blog post - renowned cat breeders
Holebrook Farm blog post - horses, dogs, and some pigs
Bristol Mounted Police blog post - horses that are not afraid of a fight
The idea behind the project is to concentrate on the interesting people who decide to spend large amounts of their lives with animals. They are often great fun people, who aren't just like everyone else - they have a passion that they pursue constantly, often working far more hours than the norm, but doing something that they love. And as well as all this they have some beautiful animals that make wonderful props in a photo.
Krzysiek and Marta are no exception to this - they are two exceptionally passionate people. Krzysiek got on a horse for the first time about 15 years ago and loved it so much he moved on from running a shop, bought a large amount of land, built some stables on it and has worked in partnership with horses ever since. Marta works for Krzysiek at the stables and seeps excitement to all those around her. Whilst I was taking her photos I could see just how much she loved horses and riding. I said to her at one point:
"You look like this is exactly where you belong Marta?"
"Yes," she said, giving a smile that proved exactly what I thought. Hopefully I've managed to show this in my photos.
As keeps happening in this project I find myself awash with picture ideas and possible photos. The hardest part of a shoot like this is deciding which images to concentrate on and which to pick as my final few. I want to show you everything, but ultimately I need to pick four for my project that grab the essence of what I'm searching for in these shoots. Those selected images are seen in this post.
However, wait a few days and I will be posting a little bit more about this shoot, telling you the ins-and-outs of what I get up to arranging shoot like this.
I love being a photographer, and shoots like this are why.
Visit the stables website here: www.koniekasztanka.pl
Huge thanks to Krzysiek and Marta for all their support, and also a massive thank you to Olga for her constant help.
more to come...
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Labels: animals, horses, people, personal, poland, project