Joan of Arc

Yesterday I had the pleasure of going out to shoot with Mary Cornelius and Sharon Fibelkorn. What fun, thanks for having Emily and I ladies, it was a blast! Mary has a great description on her blog about this statue we shot: Adventures of a Shuttermonkee.

Here are a few of the shots I took. The statue is all done in gold gilt.

Going home today

As our trip comes to an end, we reflect on how very fortunate we have been. Not only did we see many wild horses, we were able to approach and at times even wander in and around the herds for hours at a time. It's always hard to leave, but I already look forward to next time.

Here's some shots from last night.


It's pretty bad when my 7 yr old daughter starts to get bored walking among wild horses and begins to play with the grasshoppers. Much more fun I suppose! I turned around to see her showing Grampie and demanding a picture. Below are the shots my Dad was taking at the same time I shot these.


And so the sun sets on our fantastic journey...

Local Terrain

I thought I would post some "other" stuff I have been shooting while out. I must have 4k images by now. Ok that's probably exaggerating a LITTLE bit.

Here's a few samples of the local terrain we have been hiking in this past week.

Back to the Steens

Well, after two days of searching everywhere in and around Burns, we went back south to the Steens. We found our first herd and hung out with them for over two hours, the next group was 2 young bachelors up by a water hole, and the third, was a complete accident. While turning around, we noticed a tiny flicker in the trees, turns out it was 17 horses! It is completely amazing how they are nearly invisible in the open desert.

I am wiped out, we spent nearly 5 hours out in the afternoon sun in 98 degree heat. I'd do it again in a heart beat I tell you!

Here are some images my father took,






and some I took:

Another LONG day....

200 miles covered on BLM and Nat'l Forest roads, and NO wild horses. Lots and lots of sign they were there, but the timing wasn't right I guess. I was however rewarded with great light and a herd of ranch horses alongside the road. You probably wouldn't know they weren't wild if I didn't tell you, but that would be cheating! It gave me some time to play with exposures and shooting right into the sun, here are a few of my favorites below.

By the way, I have a gallery showing in Seattle starting Aug 7th and running through the month. I just may add some of this trip into it, stop by and see if you can! I'll post more info when I get home, so watch for it.

Today's Spoils

Well after a long day scouting, I do have a funny story. After a week of hunting and stalking herds, and seeing them close, far and everywhere in between, we have come to learn you just see them when you do, where you do.

Well, this afternoon, we were out 100 miles into nowhere, literally, and came upon a herd after passing a ranch. They were on the BLM side, outside of the ranch fence. All the colors were right for the area. They were hot and placid, so we decided to stop. We carefully got out, and did our little "meet the wild horse" thing, and walked up pretty close. So far so good, they were tolerating us. We shot and shot, and crept in closer and closer.

I was thinking, these guys are really good, when I happened to look down and notice something. "Um Dad, we've been duped" I said as I noticed every one of them had shoes on.... :) NICE! We laughed and laughed at ourselves. SO I do have some great shots of some real nice ranch horses. Hmm, funny, in the excitement of spotting them, I never noticed saddle mark scars, and the big round rears and deep chests that are all tell tale signs of Quarterhorses. :)) Feeling stupid now, at least they didn't have bridle paths! About that time 2 of them walked up to me and demanded to be petted, sweet!

We did get to see some pelicans, who knew they were way out here, and other water birds, and antelope again. Here's some images of my "Not so wild" horses. I also added a couple sunset shots from last night at stinking water.

Steens herd, wild horses

Here are a few more to show from the Steens herd since I have time to go through them a bit, we are not finding much up North out of Burns yet. We spent most of the day researching with BLM, reading maps, and scouting 140 miles off road in really open, rough, hot desert. So here are more Pintos until we we find them here :)