Some of these are senior portrait sessions with students that own a horse. Others are portraits of horses with their owners at local boarding stables. It’s always interesting to try to find the best place to set up the portraits. Each stable has its own flavor and areas that will work well.

One of these girls is looking toward a career in horse management. She is also trying out modeling as well. Several pictures from her session became the building blocks for addition modeling work.

Schedule or Discuss your Horse and Rider Portrait Session

If you would like to discuss scheduling a portrait session with your horse, please send me a note or give me a call. For senior portrait sessions we can do some with your horse and some without so that you have a nice variety of meaningful portraits. For Megan, she wanted some portraits in her prom dress and I thought it would be really fun to have some of those with her horse. I think they turned out lovely and she selected one to make into a framed canvas print for her home. She picked others from the session for wallets and gift prints and of course I included some Facebook images with her purchase which her friends on Facebook went nuts over.

At liberty and Under Saddle

Although I am not showing any here, I do photography of horses at liberty and under saddle as well. Go up to the menu of this website and explore some of the other areas to get a good idea of what your horse and rider session can be. And since I have horses and I know horse photography, not only will you look good, but your horse will too. There are senior portrait photographers that will come out to your boarding stable for part of your sessions, but sometime they look at your horse more like a prop, similar to a basketball, a football, or a musical instrument. They don’t understand that if a horse is photographed with the wrong angle or the wrong lens it just won’t be pleasing to the horse owner’s eye. If you horse’s ears are back like he is angry or he looks bored and uninterested (ears every which way and eyes half-shut), it doesn’t matter how good you look, the portrait becomes average and a disappointment to you, the horse owner. I guess I look at your horse as your companion or your friend rather than as a prop and I think that makes a difference in the end result.

Peter DeMott Photography • peter@photosbypdemott.com • 937-478-6222 • Located in Germantown, OHIO • Serving SW Ohio, Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton, Eastern Indiana and NW Kentucky.

Related posts:

1. Early Fall is another great time to have horse and rider portraits made in Ohio
2. Senior Portraits in Snow, Horse and Rider Portraits in Snow & Family and Kids in Snow
3. Equine Portraits of Horse & Rider / Merlot and Patty

Megan chose several different images for wallets to give friends.

Here is the image they chose to make into a canvas print. It was fun to have a Megan in her prom dress with her beautiful horse.

It was fun talking with Megan’s mom about the portraits because she and Megan were having such a difficult time narrowing down their order. I said, of course, that they can order everything if the wanted. But, they didn’t take my advice and order lots of prints of every portrait. That was their dilemma, how to narrow their order.

Here is a link to her gallery. Megan’s Senior Portrait Gallery

Seems like spring will be here soon. If you have a horse and it is time for your senior portraits, remember that many photographers don’t know much about photographing horses. Since I do senior portraits and I am an equine photographer here in the Dayton, Ohio area, I can give you the best of both worlds.

Peter DeMott • Peter DeMott Photography • Located in Germantown, Ohio near Dayton • 937-478-6222 • peter@photosbypdemott.com

Related posts:

1. Morgan’s senior portraits and mom’s friesian horse portraits combined into one session
2. Senior Portraits in Snow, Horse and Rider Portraits in Snow & Family and Kids in Snow
3. Senior portraits with horse and dog and even donkey

My galleries allow for purchase of any sized prints including various types of surfaces. Lustre is the most popular because it does not show finger prints much. Realize that a prints up to 8×10 are strictly for a desk or bookcase display. A small wall print could be an 11×14 or 16×20, but getting these framed brings up the cost quite a bit. If you want to give something really special to someone consider getting a CANVAS on board. These look like paintings and have a very rich feel to them.

If you are willing to spend more for a wall portrait or photograph, take some paper and tape it to the wall and keep adding paper (making it larger) until it looks about the right size for that spot on the wall. You will find that, for example, an 8×10 looks exceedingly tiny when taped up to wall. Then measure the paper. You will likely find that the paper is 16×20 or 24×30 or some larger number that you would never have thought to consider.

Small prints can be lots of fun too. How many people want to tell their co-workers about the sport they participate in. Getting a good trail image that shows some speed or a water crossing can be fun to have at work to share.

To find the trail events that I have photographed go to the menu item at the top of the page that says GALLERIES/PROOFING.

Related posts:

1. Cracked Oats Crunch Endurance & Ctr
2. Cracked Oats Crunch Endurance Ride at Scioto State Park in Ohio 2011
3. AERC & UMECRA are all about understanding your horse and enjoying the outdoors

I will be adding to this post as I process some of the images from the session. Maybe another video clip and some of the best images from the session would be good to share with you.

This mini horse stallion that he was all that. The owner put him in the round pen for a bit to take the edge off half way through the photo session when he was just getting a bit too feisty.

Related posts:

1. Mini Horse Farm photography session at IONA Farm and VersatilityMinis.com
2. Trails End Equestrian Center Barn Door Mini Sessions at DLSC show
3. Morgan’s senior portraits and mom’s friesian horse portraits combined into one session

When I do portrait sessions or take pictures of people with their horses I do my best to capture the emotion of the moment. If I can capture JOY or LOVE or COMPANIONSHIP in that photograph I consider that a win for everyone involved.

This week I sold images from a senior portrait session (with permission of the young lady who wants to become a model) to a large retail equine supply company to be used in consumer promotions in late 2011 and early 2012. Another image that was purchased was from a session that I did with Patty and her horses (Patty is my wife and we have 3 beautiful arabs). But, in both cases it was not just the image, but the emotion expressed in the image that caught the eye of the business.

I’m looking forward to sharing the images and where they will be published once I have samples from the promotion. That will be fun to show you.

In the mean time, fall portrait time is now. For seniors and for seniors with horses, this is a great time for those cozy outdoor portraits in sweaters, scarfs, jeans, etc. For the horses, there are fewer flies and everything has greened back up in pastures and farms again with all this rain in mid September in our area.

For seniors wanting to consider modeling, having a good mix of styles of images for your portfolio is important. As you can see from my news above, my style and photography capture attention and show personality a little differently than the glamour and glitz that some photographers are known for. I hope you will consider me in the coming days and months as you consider where you will have your horse and rider portraits made or your senior portraits. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts about your portrait session.

Peter DeMott • Peter DeMott Photography • Seniors, families, equine, and children • Greater Dayton area and the region • peter@photosbypdemott.com • 937-478-6222

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Pictures from the ride are available here: Cracked Oats Crunch endurance ride at Scioto state park in Ohio

Cracked Oats Crunch is an AERC sanctioned endurance ride. At this particular ride, FEI vets came to take random blood samples for drug testing. Although I would find it hard to believe that anyone would drug their horses for any reason at this level of endurance riding, you could see it happen that the national and international events where the competition is intense. At this level, the old slogan for endurance riding makes endurance riding as a sport a joy to the participants, “ To finish is to win”.

As you can see, Endurance riding is a sport that everyone can participate in. Amy Whalen is a ride manager for several rides each year. Shannon Loomis goes all over the region participating in rides with her daughter. These are two folks that I can almost always depend on seeing at every ride we participate in. Bringing along your kids into the sport helps the sport to expand and flourish for future generations. Not only that, but meeting a challenge together and with horses is very rewarding and brings lots of good personal character traits.

Pictures from the ride are available here: Cracked Oats Crunch endurance ride at Scioto state park in Ohio

Peter DeMott • Peter DeMott Photography • peter@photosbypdemott.com • 937-478-6222

Peter DeMott is also available for farm calls in the region. To find out more about having a farm call visit to your farm or to your boarding stable for portraits of you and your equine companion check out this link: Farm call photography in Ohio, Northern Kentucky, and SE Indiana

Related posts:

1. Cracked Oats Crunch Endurance & Ctr
2. This weekend (8/27-28, 2011) I am am at the Abi-Kahn Competitive Trail ride near Caesar’s Creek Park in Ohio
3. Chicken Chase Endurance Ride in Clark State Forest in Indiana

The Royal K Open Horse Show is a fun and well run one day show

This open show had classes for all ages and levels of experience. Each year The Tacky Horse is the major sponsor and  puts together a charity horse show. The show had 45 classes and occurred on Sunday September 11, 2011. The address of the barn and The Tacky Horse is 185 N. Alpha Bellbrook Rd. in Beavercreek, Ohio.

The show lasted from about 10am to about 6pm and the last three classes had some rain to deal with.

After the show, I did some Mini Portrait Sessions with a couple of the participants and boarders at the barn.

Royal K Horse Show pictures are available for review here: Royal K Horse Show . There are over 1000 images and the gallery displays the pictures in order of go. Please order pictures within 30 days. Share this post and link using the buttons at the bottom of this page.

I also do farm or barn calls to capture portraits of you with your horse, senior portraits with horse, or horses alone. If you are interested in a farm call session please call to schedule.

Peter DeMott • Peter DeMott Photography • 937-478-6222 • peter@photosbypdemott.com

Related posts:

1. Costume dressage horse show at Dancing Horse Farm in Lebanon Ohio – perfect for October
2. Trails End Equestrian Center Barn Door Mini Sessions at DLSC show
3. Morgan’s senior portraits and mom’s friesian horse portraits combined into one session

The photography session was very fun with the farm bringing out various little tiny horses to photograph. Bonnie Harris and Ashley Harris really know their horses and they know how to show them off too. They were so small that I had to lay on my stomach to get low enough for the right angles.

IONA Miniature Horse Farm, Clayton, Ohio Bonnie Harris

Versatility Farm & Training Center, Brookville, Ohio Ashley Harris

I still have about 25 images to prepare, but I just had to share a couple of the photographs with you. Here are a couple of images from the session.

When I finish up I should have a couple more I can share with you.

If you have mini horses, consider a mini horse farm call session for some beautiful photographs. Not a Mini Session, but a mini horse session.  With mini horses portraits are usually without people in them so that they can appear to be regular sized horses in the images. However these horses are about belt high and are the tiniest little things around.

Peter DeMott • Peter DeMott Photography • 937-478-6222 • peter@photosbypdemott.com

Related posts:

1. Getting ready for a mini horse photo session
2. Baby miniature horses, what could be cuter at IONA Farm Miniature Horse Farm
3. Trails End Equestrian Center Barn Door Mini Sessions at DLSC show

Well early and late fall can also be a great time for horse and rider portraits and senior portraits with horse as well. Evenings are cooler now and the flies are less of a problem. It is more comfortable for both horse and rider.

If you want color in your portraits, please call and schedule with me early as this is a fairly popular thing to do in the last week of September and the first couple weeks of October. Since it starts getting dark sooner in the evening we have to schedule a bit earlier in the evening than when I was taking portraits this summer. Sometimes if things get timed perfectly, there are colorful leaves in the trees and on the ground, but this can be difficult. One year I took some lovely fall portraits and there was a carpet of colorful leaves on the ground and still in the trees as well, but twenty minutes after the session it became blustery and the wind blew all the leaves from the ground and the trees became almost bare of any color.

In early fall, when there is color in the trees is easier to time than trying to plan for a carpet of leaves on the ground. Also, there are fall foliage color calculators on the internet which will tell you when to expect the most color in the trees.

If you want fall color in your horse and rider portraits or in your senior portraits call me now.

Peter DeMott Photography • 937-478-6222 • peter@photosbypdemott.com

Related posts:

1. When to have equine portraits made in Ohio and Northern Kentucky
2. Senior Portraits in Snow, Horse and Rider Portraits in Snow & Family and Kids in Snow
3. Beautiful fall portraits with horse at Trails End Equestrian Center in Dayton Ohio by Peter DeMott

One of the girls that I photographed with her horse said, “Do you do senior portraits?”. My answer was, “Yes, I do on-location senior portraits in the Southwestern Ohio area, where do you live?”  As it turns out she lives right near me in the Centerville area and she would love to have senior portraits with her horse. I gave her my business card and hope to hear from her soon.

More pictures from this event can be seen and purchased here: Abi-Kahn Competitive Trail Ride

Peter DeMott Photography in Southwest Ohio near Dayton • peter@photosbypdemott.com • 937-478-6222

Related posts:

1. Cracked Oats Crunch Endurance Ride at Scioto State Park in Ohio 2011
2. Scioto Endurance ride and competitive trail ride on June 25th and 26th, 2011
3. Early Fall is another great time to have horse and rider portraits made in Ohio