In my house, we know Christmas is over when there is some new project in the works. My husband seems to get a break from his freelance work right after Christmas, and there is usually some home-improvement project to do. His task this week is building some painting storage for me. There can never be enough space to store artwork, frames, matboard, and other big flat stuff, so he is constructing some vertical flat files under the stairs. I am spending some time in the studio too, but so far it's been on things like matting new prints, and tweaking things on my web site. My new Christmas toy is a digital SLR camera. I've been playing with it just around the house and barn, so far, but I can't wait to take it to a horse event! It is really going to come in handy when photographing horses for commissions, which leads to my topic of the day.
On my web site, I have posted new detailed information on portrait commissions, and how to think about photographing your horse. This is something that most horse owners don't think about, it seems. Folks say, oh, I've always wanted to have a portrait painted of "King". But now King is getting old and graying around the muzzle, and they don't have a single decent picture of him from his younger days. I hope the information I've provided will help, because let's face it, artists can't always work miracles. We don't know the horse personally, and don't know that he changes color with the seasons. I can usually move parts around a bit, like moving a leg back or forward, or putting the ears up. I like to photograph horses for commissions myself--I can remember things about the horse that might not come through in the photographs. Sometimes seeing how he moves helps me know more about how he's built. However, the advantage to taking lots of your own photographs of your horse is that you can photograph him at different times of day, in different lighting conditions, even in different seasons. I'm pretty much limited to the hour of time I can schedule a visit to the farm.
For more information on this, visit the part of my web site devoted to portraits: http://www.aleciaunderhill.com/portraits.htm
So here's a New Year's Resolution for all horse owners: I will take lots of pictures of my horse this year!
Even if you're not ready to have his portrait painted, you'll have a nice photo record of him for your albums.
Happy New Year!
