Getting the Details

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 Getting the Details in the Shot





A shoot entails capturing images that either you want or your client wants. In this case I was asked by the owner of the horse team to capture his draft horse in as many facial expressions as I could muster. Most every shot was a typical closed-mouth plodding kind of boring shot. I walked back and forth waiting for a shot of the horse to give me something but after twenty minutes of walking through freshly plowed fields, my legs were weary, as the soft overturned earth was difficult walking through. My feet would sink in several inches and it was tiring lifting them back out of the earth only to sink in again while trying to keep up with this magnificent animal who took it in stride.

What my client needed escaped me and because the horse was working I didn't feel comfortable prodding or verbally encouraging him for a shot I couldn't seem to capture. At one point he rolled his eyes toward me but that wasn't much to work with, more a warning to stand clear. I took it but it was not accepted. Then when nearly an hour had passed the draft horse shook his head and dropped his chin when I was finally able to grab what the owner considered a great shot.


Now remember that of all the shots I waited for this one was the only one which I was able to sell that captured what the owner defined as an expression. He said it was typical of a draft horse to roll his tongue when he was beginning to get into the job at hand. So this one was a winner. I've added the watermark-email as protection since he bought this as an exclusive use rights managed image for a specified time.

Quite honestly I was close to giving up and trying it on another day as my legs were exhausted, but I stayed just long enough to capture this. Patience was the go away word for the day. The idea that I was able to maintain a constant focus which showed in great detail this particular draft horse's nostril and chin hairs and small beads of sweat was done without the use of AI-Servo which means I was keeping the same pace, the same distance and the same height for a long enough time to reach the level of sharpness in the details which can often be lost without the use of AI-Servo when your subject is moving.



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