it looks dark on my monitor also. Agree on cloning out the white spot. I probably would have tried it without any sky behind her just to see how it looked.

It is a lovely photo though, great emotion and posed really well.

Good job.

I really like your second shot, the colors are nicely saturated and it takes you to a summer day.

when building a floral arrangement for a still life, use odd numbers...i.e. 5 roses, 3 daisies etc.

Try and make sure that they are all at different heights. Also make sure that they are proportional with your vase, the flowers in the photo are not tall enough for the vase.

Also, the glass should be really clean and free of condensation, if you want the water droplet look, make sure they are big enough droplets to show what they are, otherwise the glass will just look foggy.

yes, in a former life, I was a floral designer.

I would have exposed for the yellow rose, you can see the exposure problems on a couple of the petals. Also it could be sharper. The background sucked a lot of light out of the photo.

Did you try rendering the boy on the tracks in black and white? That setting lends itself well to that treatment and it might solve the very pale complexion issue.

Just a thought.

Scott Kelby has a great set of three books on Digital photography. I have them downloaded and refer to them frequently.

I recommend them as they kind of cut through a lot of the wordiness of other books and they tell you how to do what it is you want to do.

I've watched this thread with interest as my main shooting generates from the horse industry.

I think the one point that many of you overlook is that those are HER horses. She has every right to limit or prohibit the photographing of those horses.

You might not like it, you might not understand it, you may even think she's a B*(#^%tch. They are considered property and she can do with them as she wishes.

There are many horses in the world to photograph, stop dwelling on the constraints that this woman put out, and move on to those horses that can be photographed. I work out of a show barn and I can assure you that photographing those horses would not be allowed by anyone that wasn't a fairly proficient equine photographer. The trainer is not rude, she not a bitch, she's not anything except protective about her brand and her product. It's her right and it was the right of the owner of the horses in the first two photographs of this thread.

I spend a lot of time photographing horses, here are a few that I've done.

The new Saddlebred at the Farm


This one won a calendar competition


Carolyn's big win on a really tough horse

Thank you, it was a lucky shot at a breezy moment.

Turn their bodies slightly to avoid a blocky look. I the photo you posted I would have, as one person suggested, remove the glasses. I also would have set it up so that the upper half of the body was slightly turned and I would have shot more up at the body and the dogs, you kind of shot into the lower body and leg area.

Also, when posing the family try to have them hook a thumb in a pocket or bend an arm. Don't amputate by camera if you can help it.

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Silhouette photos with a horse are really fun! Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

It's composed well but I would have added a little more saturation and I would have upped the black or shadows depending on what you use to it.

Hi! I live in Pendleton, NY, welcome neighbor~

I'm glad you like them. A couple of things you'll need...

Inside a barn is pretty dark, I have f2.8 lenses.

Motion on a horse usually takes a shutter speed of 640. That can be tough if you've had to jack up the ISO because its dark.

Horses are herd animals, they clump...that said they are also always on the alert because they are prey not predators. If you are looking for that "Flight" look, get someone to help you and have them come up out of the bush or hold something up that they will turn and look at.