Horse Photography in the Wake Forest, NC Area

Here’s a little history about how I became specialized in equine photography and how it has become a passion for me……

When the day came to retire from law enforcement after eighteen years of service because of a busted knee, I contemplated what I was going to do to make up for the loss of income. I lost a lot of sleep thinking about how I will help support my family, but I was not going to let it beat me. After all, I was a veteran police officer that dealt with the worst of society for many years and a simple thing like finding supplemental income was no problem! Right? What should I do??

I had already been partaking in photography as a hobby since the early 90’s anyway, with an occasional paying gig, so I thought I would just dive in and go full time with it. So I thought…..

My early struggle was to decide what niche to fill. I despised doing weddings and I can’t chase down children for family portraits with a bad knee. Then, the idea smacked me upside the head when I see horses everywhere around Wake Forest, NC. I mean, it seems that every country road I drive down has a horse in the field or even a farm dedicated to horse boarding and training.  I have always admired horses. And, despite having a few bad experiences with them like almost being bucked off, one stepping on my foot and one that was super stubborn and would rather eat than listen to me, I still liked them.

That was it!! I would focus(pun intended) on horse photography!!

Now what? To build my portfolio, I had to do a few shoots for free. I quickly found out that I not only liked photographing horses, but doing so helped bring out creativity that I did not realize I had!

As I mentioned earlier, there seems to be a sizable population of horse owners in this area and I have been on and seen some remarkable farms.  Farms that are full of color and great backgrounds for this type of photography.  I have also photographed horses on small plots in back yards.  Do not think that just because you believe you have an unflattering back yard fenced in for a horse that you can’t take great photos.  There’s a lot I can do with depth of field and camera positioning to bring out the beauty of your horse.

Now, I also had to decide how I would go about the type of packages I would have available. I do not do horse events unless I have been hired by a horse owner or the manager of an event. I don’t just travel to them, shoot away and hope I can sell some images while I am there. I tend to lean more towards the security of a more guaranteed  payment.

I still delve quite regularly into commercial photography as well as events, but the core part of my business entails photographing horses and their owners.
As of now, I rely mainly on word of mouth and referrals to get my business, as my website does not quite get the traffic I would like. That’s another story for later…..

(Enter plea for help here) Having said that, if you or someone you know has horses, I would gladly put a quote together for you 😉