Extreme equine photography

I visited Anna’s place, a dainty blonde woman, for the first time in autumn last year. I’ve been dreaming of a photo session with majestic mountain peaks in the background, for a long time, but finding the right place wasn’t easy. When I came across the Facebook profile of Horses in the Tatras, I knew straight away that the search was successful.

What impressed me the most after arriving to her stable was, apart from the breathtaking views, the bond between Anna and her KWPN horses: chestnut Aragon and bay Tabasco. Why? – you’ll ask. The Internet is full of photos of horses, posing in beautiful places. However they are not free. The halters, bridles and sometimes even saddles have been removed with the use of Photoshop. I don’t condemn this, it happens to me as well to use the possibilities offered by this program, but I treat this type of interference as a last resort, not as a basic method of work. I consider passing several hours a day in front of my computer monitor as a waste of time. That’s why I put a lot of time and effort in finding people who will enable me to realize my ideas in the most natural way.

Here it is time to return to the relationship between Anna and her horses. The trust and bond that thanks to systematic work and unquestionable talent have been developed between them are simply unbelievable. Do you know many stables where you can lead a horse to the mountains, take off the halter at the chosen place and ask for rising, Spanish step, trot, gallop, etc.? Do you know many places where, if it happens,  the horse won’t run away to the stable, but will do its best? In any case, for 20 years of my work, I haven’t encountered many such cases. Horses in the Tatras are just such an amazing place. We can go everywhere, ask horses for everything, and they will just do it for us.

Delighted with the effects of our autumn session, I returned to Anna’s place in the winter, in search of melting very fast snow. Remembering now three hours spent with horses in the mountains, in a cold and windy day, I think that this type of photography should be called extreme photography. Nevertheless, the beauty of this Dutch horses breed, captured in the photographs against the background of these unique Polish mountains, made the effort to make up for it.

It is also impossible not to appreciate the involvement of horses that met our expectations with an interest. It’s hard to call Aragon a classical beauty. This chestnut gelding is not alike a wild stallion, which my artistic imagination would like to see in this place. He’s a peaceful, devoted and good-natured horse, as his nickname – Pimpek – proves. However, there is nothing he won’t do for Anna. What’s why, this calm, friendly horse, during our session bends the neck in a bow, hugs his ears and stands prancing his forelegs like the wildest stallion. Afterwards, he makes a real show ahead of us, trotting with a dance step, galloping with the tail thrown over his back, sniffing and fuming like an purebred Arabian horse. Really as if he knew what we expect from him …This session will certainly be one of those which will remain in my heart and memories forever.