Imagine being behind the lens, capturing photos of the majestic Icelandic Horses in the mystical and breathtaking scenery of Iceland.

Take a visual journey through the land of fire and ice, where I spent 10 days photographing the stunning beauty of the Icelandic Horse in its natural habitat.

As soon as I arrived in Iceland, I knew this was going to be a trip unlike any other. The landscape was covered in colorful lupine flowers, and I saw ocean, waterfalls, mountains, and glaciers everywhere. For the next 10 days, I would photograph one of the country’s most iconic animals: Icelandic Horses.

This experience was organized and lead by photographer Phyllis Burchett. Almost exactly a year before I boarded the plane to Iceland, and on the heels of turning 50 during the pandemic lockdown, I found out about this opportunity and couldn’t pass it up.

Phyllis organized six different equine photo shoot setups that ranged from waterfalls and river crossings to horses in meadows of lupine flowers.

A team of four talented horsewomen moved the herds or individual horses to the locations and into the specific spots where we wanted to photograph them. They endured rain, rivers, and early mornings, as well as being dive-bombed by nesting sterns, just so we could get our shots!

The joy of capturing this experience through my lens is one I will remember for the rest of my life. Through capturing the beauty, grace, and sheer majesty of these magnificent creatures against some of the most breathtaking backdrops that nature has to offer, Iceland left an indelible mark on my heart.

The original print version of this photo portfolio, published in the July 2023 issue of Horse Illustrated, earned a 1st place award at the 2024 AHP Awards in the Self-Supported Publication Editorial Design category for graphic designer Cynthia Kassebaum and writer/photographer Shelley Paulson.

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Photo by Shelley Paulson

Today, the traditional sport continues, but not without controversy. Animal welfare activists feel it is cruel to encourage the hounds to hunt and kill a fox. Others would argue that other means of controlling the fox population (i.e.. traps, poison) are equally or more cruel than a quick kill by a hound.

Because of the controversy surrounding the tradition of live fox hunting, many clubs have shifted to a drag hunt, where hounds and horses follow a scent dragged across the countryside minutes before the start of the “hunt.”

Traditional red coats are still worn by hunt staff members, masters, former masters, whippers-in, and male members who have been invited by masters to wear colors as a mark of appreciation. Photo by Shelley Paulson

The dragsman lays a scent using a bag pulled along the ground in 1- to 3-mile sections across the countryside, with stops for the horses and hounds to catch their breath (called the “check”).

During formal hunt season (from fall through early spring), an important tradition is coat color. Regular members, both male and female, usally wear a three-button black hunt coat that distinguishes them from staff. Photo by Shelley Paulson

One of the benefits of a drag hunt is the predictability of the path the riders will take through fields and forests. Drag hunts are also more efficient, and last just a few hours instead of all day, because the hounds aren’t as likely to lose track of the scent as they would with a live animal.

Also read – Fox Hunting with George Washington

Area landowners give the club permission to use their land for the hunts. Planning a route in advance is another advantage to drag hunting. Photo by Shelley Paulson

Reimagining fox hunting in this way allows club riders to enjoy their timeless equestrian sport; there are currently over 160 registered drag hunt clubs in the U.S.

I had the pleasure of photographing a drag hunt with Minnesota’s Long Lake Hounds at the peak of fall color in 2020. Established in 1959, this club has a rich history of hosting drag hunts and hunter pace events in the summer in fall.

Hunts involve a lot of cross-country galloping. At the beginning of the season, sections between checks are shorter due to the heat and horse conditioning. By fall, clubs can plan sections with more distance between them. Photo by Shelley Paulson

Hunter pace events award the group of horses and riders that cover a route closest to the optimum time, which nobody knows in advance. Hunter paces have a variety of jumps and are meant to mimic the pace and terrain of a fox hunt, which can be another great way to experience the thrill and camaraderie of “hunting” without all of the formalities.

The hunt master calls the pack with the traditional hunting horn. Photo by Shelley Paulson

As many of our horse sports come under increasing scrutiny, it is good to see some rethinking of the traditions to the benefit of our horses as well as other species.

This article about a new approach to fox hunting amid controversy appeared in the October 2021 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

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Photo by Shawn Hamilton

Here are a few simple tips for taking pet photos that will elevate your results. These tools can be used by all levels of photographers with any type of equipment, from phone cameras to mirrorless or professional DSLR cameras.

Reviewing Your Pet Photos

Modern cameras, both digital and phone, have many advantages over the old film equipment of the past, the most useful being the ability to instantly view your results—no more waiting several days to see if you captured your friend on her horse at the last show without cropping her head off.

You can now study your composition, timing, and focus in the camera before continuing to snap away. This tool can be the key between creating an ordinary photo or an inspiring image that excites the viewer and perhaps wins a photo contest!

By looking at the image in the camera and asking yourself, “How does it look, and how can I make it better?” you can check for proper focus as well as distractions in the background, and then recompose your image to improve its overall appeal.

Here a few key things to think about when taking pet photos, as well as shooting and reviewing the images in your camera.

Selecting a Subject

Good photos start with good subjects. Dirty spots on a horse, tangled and matted hair on a dog, or bold logos on clothing can be distracting and will take the attention away from your subjects. Take the time to prepare your models, if possible, before taking pet photos.

◆ Horse/Dog: Should be well turned out and clean.

◆ Tack/Equipment: Should be well fitting, clean and in good repair.

◆ Rider/Handler: Safe, simple and neat clothing is best; avoid logos and words on shirts. Shirts should be tucked and buttoned.

Background

Avoid busy backgrounds that take the viewer’s attention away from your subjects when taking pet photos.

Choose a simple and clean background and place your subjects a decent distance in front of your backdrop to draw more attention to them.

◆ Blurred Background: Blurred backgrounds can be achieved by adjusting your camera aperture (the opening where light enters the camera) to around f/2 to f/5.6—the smaller the number the bigger the opening, which allows more light in. This is good if you’re in a darker lighting situation or if you want to blur the background. Or you can use portrait mode on a point-and-shoot or phone camera. This decreases the depth of field and will give more detail to your subject, blurring out what is behind it. The farther away your background is from your subject, the more blurred it will be.

◆ Black Background: A black background can easily be achieved by placing your subject in front of an open barn or indoor arena doorway with the sun shining directly into the door. Place your subject just in front of the shadow where the light will hit them, and make sure any lights in the arena or barn are turned off.

◆ Framing: Take pet photos to the next level by using something to frame your subject, such as a doorway, window, or trees. This can add to your image and attract the viewers’ attention even more towards your subject.

◆ Distractions: Watch for things such as fence lines or trees poking out from the top or side of the subject. We’ve all seen plenty of images of a tree unfortunately growing out of someone’s head.

Photo by Shawn Hamilton

Composition

◆ Heroes, Friends and Villains: When taking pet photos, think of your subject as the Hero and everything else as ether Friends or Villains. Friends support the hero and villains distract from it.

Villains should be removed either physically, such as relocating a blue bucket or pile of manure, or by zooming in and/or recomposing your image to take it out of the frame. To recompose your image, try moving a few feet in one direction or another to shoot a different angle so you can avoid things you don’t want in the background.

◆ Rule of Thirds: If you break an image into thirds both vertically and horizontally, the human eye is naturally drawn toward the intersection of those lines. The rule states that something of interest should fall on one of those intersections, as opposed to smack-dab in the center of the photo.

Overall Appeal

◆ Mood and Interaction: Mood and/or interaction can bring an emotional feeling to an image and tell a story. By setting up your shot, reviewing it on the camera, and adjusting anything that needs to be adjusted, you will be ready for that special moment.

◆ Action: Stopping motion is more technical and difficult. Point-and-shoot cameras have a sports mode, which tells the camera that you want to stop a moving target, allowing the camera to automatically set a higher shutter speed.

On more sophisticated cameras, you have shutter priority. This means you select the shutter speed, and the camera will alter the aperture depending on your lighting conditions. Shutter speed is calculated in fractions of a second, and the minimum shutter speed needed to stop a horse or dog in motion is a 500th of a second or higher.

Many higher-end cameras also have continuous focus or continuous tracking, which allows you to track the subject in motion, keeping it in focus at all times. The faster the speed you use, the more light is required, so it’s best to shoot action on a bright sunny day.
Happy shooting!

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Keron Psillas Oliveira is the Equus Film Festival 2019 Artist. Courtesy Keron Psillas Oliveira.

EQUUS Film Festival welcomes Keron Psillas Oliveira as the official 2019 EQUUS Film & Arts Fest Artist. The festival is December 5-8, 2019, at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Ky., in the Wrigley Media Group Theaters. The pop-up gallery will be located in the International Museum of the Horse, where all of the festival’s artists and authors can be found.

Equus Film Festival 2019 Artist Keron Psillas Oliveira is a photographer, writer, instructor and mentor, with an extensive background in the print and publishing industry. She spent nearly two decades in the printing and publishing industry where she was raised in Shepherdstown, W.V. In 2006, Oliveira became a professional photographer.

Oliveira teaches week-long photography courses, equine photo workshops and maintains a robust mentoring program for students in the U.S. and abroad. She is the former director of the Art Wolfe Digital Photography Center. Oliveira is a longtime assistant to and continues to teach with photographic legends Sam Abell and Arthur Meyerson. She co-leads photography tours in Europe and other locations with Charlie Waite, Meyerson, Strabo Tours and other professionals. She leads private tours in groups of two to six in Great Britain, Europe, Eastern Europe and South America.

Her published works include the highly acclaimed Forty Years Later, Meditation for Two, The Alchemy of Lightness, and Dressage for the New Age, with longtime collaborator Dominique Barbier. She self-published Four Days in Havana and Loss and Beauty, creating solace in a land of infinite sorrow.

Loss and Beauty won the prestigious Best of Show award for Photobook 2015. It was recognized by Karen Davis and Paula Tognarelli of Davis Orton Gallery and The Griffin Museum of Photography, respectively, as an exemplary photo essay and a finely crafted book. This highly acclaimed exhibition continues to tour the United States and will soon travel to Europe.

Oliveira released Cavalo Lusitano: The Spirit Within in November of 2018 from Veritas Editions. It has already garnered important awards, including being a Rfoto Folio Selection for 2019. This hand-crafted fine art museum book and portfolio include work gleaned from 12 years of photographing the Lusitano horses in Portugal, Brazil and the United States.

Special Events at the EQUUS Film Festival

This year’s EQUUS Film & Arts Fest will host over 15 international equine authors and 11 international equine artists in the pop-up gallery located in the International Museum of the Horse. Literary works and beautiful artwork will be on display and for sale. Visitors will be able to meet their favorite artist, filmmakers and authors, as well as have them sign their works, creating a total personalized experience for the guest.

World-renown equine artist and author John Hockensmith will host a reception for EQUUS filmmakers, artists, authors and guests at his gallery, Hockensmith’s Fine Art Editions Gallery, 146 East Main Street in Georgetown, Ky., on Friday evening.

About the Event

The EQUUS Film Festival is the leading showcase for domestic and international equestrian content, including feature films, shorts, documentaries, music videos, commercials, training, educational materials, art and literature. Content is now available on Horse Network on demand to all devices.

EQUUS Film & Arts Festival is the first event of its kind to offer a home to equine storytellers from around the world through feature films, documentaries, videos, commercials and short films, as well as cultural elements of fine equestrian art and literature. Founded in 2013 by Lisa Diersen, president/director and an avid, lifelong equestrian. Diana De Rosa, an international equine photographer and journalist, joined in 2015 as co-organizer of the NYC event. De Rosa has traveled the world and recorded equestrian history for more than 35 years.

Visit www.equusfilmfestival.net and like us on Facebook and Twitter.

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