Horses at Dusk
I had just finished up a fashion shoot outside of Lexington. It was just after sunset and I was cruising through the rolling hills admiring the scenery and landscapes, feeling grateful to be taking in such beauty after a successful shoot. I had just topped a hill, and entered into a great patch of light which perfectly lit some beautiful creatures on the side of the road. Kentucky is horse country; and while I had taken some images of horses before, there was something special about the setting here. The light at dusk gave it an ethereal feel, and filled in every detail on their majestic bodies. I knew that I had to turn around and least capture a couple of images. What happened was moving enough that I started a personal project that would capture horses at this time of day throughout the year. I called it Horses at Dusk. Not only was it the lighting on the horses, but it was also the interaction that I had with them. They were always communicating something with their body movement and seeming expressions. These are magnificent creatures with complex personalities. Some of those personalities are captured here. I wanted to capture everything, the horses, the lighting, the mood, the small things that are easily recognized by somebody that works with horses, but new to somebody like me.
For the image editing, I wanted something that was raw and simplistic, but something that would match the lighting by capturing all the detail of the lighting. I developed some custom settings that would give it dark undertones to match the mood of the lighting. Since doing this project, I’ve used those same settings for several fashion images.
I did several shoots in the summer of 2015, and intended to capture horses during each season. In March of 2016, I relocated to Hartford, CT. Perhaps, I’ll have the opportunity to “finish” this project in the future. For now, let’s just call it part 1.
I want to give special thanks to Emma and Le Tilghman for allowing me to run rampant with a camera with their horses. Most of the images below came from that session.
Farewell, Kentucky…. I will see you again soon.
Cheers!
Josh
