When Aryn of Equine Avenue and her students asked me to come out to the Hummingbird’s Nest Ranch in Simi Valley to photograph them with their horses, I had no idea what was in store for me. I can honestly say that I’ve never been in a barn with chandeliers before. It is truly an amazing place and the girls had a fabulous time hacking and jumping on the grass course. 
Last week I headed up a neat little barn across from the Paddock Riding Club in Los Angeles to meet up with Aryn and Dimitri for some portraits. I’m pretty sure that Dimitri knows that he’s Aryn’s best friend but he got more than a few treats during this session as a reminder.
We had a special portrait session with Brandi, Leo and James Bond who own… ahem… are owned and loved by Jodi. These were 3 of the most lovable horses I’ve met. The boys seem to almost smile when you love on them and Brandi kept checking out my pockets. I wonder if she smelled the peppermints that were in there earlier for my horses. These three were all so good and even posed for a group photo with their “Mom”.
Earlier this year I shot an equine portrait for my friend Joy while at a horse show in OC. Joy and Visual Energy (Eny) did really well that day and won their first blue ribbon in jumpers together. Neither of us had any idea at the time that this would be their last show because within a couple of weeks, Eny became very ill with an antibiotic resistant staph infection and died. Eny spent more than a month in the hospital while Joy and the vets did everything they could to try to save him. In hindsight, I look at these photos much differently now and am really glad that I was able to take some photos that day. Joy will always be able to look at them and remember the good times she had with her best friend.
The best thing about horses is that they never want any more from you than a scratch behind the ears and a few carrots and riding is just like being able to fly without wings. Here are a few photos of my horses Mia and Shadow taken at Ernie Howlett Park in Palos Verdes. After shooting most of my equine work at horse shows, it was nice to be able to take some nice relaxed portraits of them.
My friend Angela rode her mare Cavatina in the Las Amigas de la Lomas Grand Prix in Palos Verdes. She’s an amazing rider and trainer and it seemed like her and Teeny went around effortlessly even though the fences were 4′3″. We were all there to cheer her on!
