A Day in the Life of an Arabian Horse Breeder Johnny Johnston Photo Shoot - Portraits with Hope

Part 1

The first method that Johnny Johnston used taking portrait type pictures with Arabian horses was what I've heard referred to many times as "doorway" shots. Johnny put the subjects up just in front of the barn doorway. The door at the far end of the barn aisle was closed to block out the light. He then placed himself in the light shooting towards the darkened barn aisle adjusting his camera settings on the subjects. This darkens out the background and "highlights" the subjects.



In this particular location, the barn aisle is concrete and so is the surface right outside the door. The concrete butts up to the driveway which was made of crushed rock. Johnny Johnston was set up with his camera on the rock and Rose (who's job it was to get the horse's ears) was in front of him or off to whatever side he directed her towards to change up the angles.



After taking a few shots Johnny Johnston became concerned that there was glare coming off of the rocks causing Rachel to squint. Despite Rachel's attempts to keep her eyes "wide open" the pictures kept coming out the same so Johnny moved from the doorway onto the grass to get better pictures of Rachel's eyes.



Those are the pictures with the flowers to the side. It only took a couple of pictures in that location for Johnny Johnston to realize that the "squinty" eyes just happen to be Rachel. He moved her around a couple of more locations trying to best capture Rachel with Hope but gave up on a "wide eyed" look.



Just like shooting family portraits, taking these types of shots with a horse and a human together are tough. When the horse looks good, the human doesn't and when the human looks good the horse doesn't. Poor Hope thought we'd all lost our minds over this little episode.



Rose Corey's antics dressed as a bear (covered with a big brown beach towel) and growling around didn't impress her in the slightest. The stick horse that whinnies only got the flick of an ear. Shakers with rocks mean nothing to her. Even the reflective ring didn't get her attention. But if Johnny thought Hope was tough................wait until Dandy hit the stage.

Which ones do you like?

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