ASK ME ANYTHING: MY "TOP 20" QUESTIONS ANSWERED!

First, I would like to thank everyone for sending in their questions as my interaction with my fans is an integral part of my business.

Second, I received over 330 questions over the past 10 days. I did not expect that great of a response, WOW, THANK YOU!!!

With that being said, I decided to put out a "Top 20" list instead of a top 10 list. Here are the Top 20 questions that I got asked the most, in the exact order.

1. Where will you travel? 
I am open to travelling anywhere (travel expenses are covered by the client obviously) where my services are desired.

2. What's been my biggest challenge so far as an Equestrian Video & Stills Photographer?
Writing my business plan, it was not easy to say the least. This took at least three months to get it down and finalized. Some decisions were unbelievably difficult to make and took me weeks, if not months to make a decision.

3. We all make mistakes in life. What's been the biggest mistake that you have made in life?
Not getting into horses, photography or videography when I was a kid or even as a teenager. Even though this was not a mistake I made by choice but rather by me having other interests in life. Regardless I'd do anything to go back even five years.  

4. Seeing how I've photographed weddings before, would I consider doing it professionally again?
No, however I would make an exception if it was a wedding ceremony held on a farm with horses involved.

Photographing weddings was a lot of fun back in the day when I did them, but times have changed and it's not something that I would consider doing again mainly because it's not where my heart is at. I still receive inquiries about shooting weddings but I politely decline because I want to solely focus on Equestrian. I also receive inquiries on photographing models, sporting events, kids birthday parties, grad ceremonies, but again, I want to solely focus on Equestrian. This is what I want my "bread and butter" to be.

Also the industry for wedding photographer's has become flooded over the past decade as weddings is still one of the top three fields in demand for photographers. I LOVE COMPETITION and I am every bit of a competitor as anyone else is but it seems every third photographer that you see or meet these days is a "wedding photographer" and I would much rather work in a less glamorous and low key field like horses. My passion is horses, not weddings. 

5. What's the #1 cause of blurry photos? 
Well it could be a few things, I mean all it could be is a dirty lens! Or it could be a bad copy of your lens (also known as "lens variation", we can get into this another day because this is a whole other topic to explore!).

It first depends on the type of shot that is being taken. If it's a subject in motion, then too slow of a shutter speed would most definitely cause a blurry photo. Also, if a lens wasn't stabilized well enough, it would also cause blurry photos especially at the telephoto end. There are certain techniques to get really good at stabilizing both yourself and your lens when taking photos, it of course becomes more difficult as you use a longer lens. Nothing beats using a tripod.

If it's a static subject, then not focusing on the spot that you would like can most definitely be a cause for blurry photos. This is why it's incredibly important to learn and know the different AF (auto focus) modes in your camera and which AF mode to use in any given situation.

Also not setting your exposure correctly could cause blurry photos. Under exposed photos kills fine details and also dynamic range in your photos. This is why I always suggest to properly set the exposure for any type of photo that you are about to take before actually taking the photo. Set yourself up for success by putting yourself in the best situation possible.

6. Who is your favorite horseman or horsewoman?
Warwick Schiller
Buck Brannaman when he was around

7. Who designed your logo and what's the story behind it?
I designed my logo. It took me quite some time to get it completed as it had many revisions. When I first started creating it, I looked at hundreds and hundreds of logos in the Equine industry and don't get me wrong, I've seen some stunning logos but I wanted mine to be different but yet still original. I decided on using a hoof pick because it's part of every horse lovers grooming kit...afterall, "No hoof, no horse" and it's unique because I have yet to see a logo with a hoof pick incorporated into it. I much prefer clean and simple logos with a striking but yet effective design. This is why I kept it black and white to make it more bold to the human eye while still flowing softly.

8. What's been your favourite type of Show & event to photograph so far and why?
I've enjoyed them all but I would say Gymkhana has been my favorite so far. I love the speed and the tight turns of barrel racing and the captivating smiles on kids faces when pole bending. Showmanship is the one part of Gymkhana that I haven't shot a lot of but even then it's still intriguing to me as it carries a lot of Equine Portraiture traits into the equation.

9. Where are you from?
Born and raised in Calgary, AB.

10. What's the one event that you have yet to shoot but am eager to wait your first opportunity?
Extreme Cowboy Challenge/racing

11. Will you be running a workshop in the future to teach and help people just learning photography?
Absolutely yes! I love working with others and assisting them in reaching their goals. My goal is to run these on an on-going basis, the frequency would depend on the time of year.

12. Why a blog?
Great question! In today's day and age, you need to have either a blog or a vlog and originally I wasn't going to have either but over the span of 6 months I was convinced by others to start a blog. I do enjoy reading "certain" blogs, however I don't particular enjoy writing them mainly because I am not a good writer as writing is my biggest weakness. However, because writing is such a critical aspect of any business (no matter the size), I had to get better regardless and what better way than through writing my own blog? 

As far as a vlog goes, well this wasn't going to happen because video editing requires an insane amount of time and I just don't have that time. Besides I would much rather put my time towards other things like doing what I do best, capturing moments for others. Vlogging is an interesting way of marketing yourself, I am not a huge fan of it, but I see why it's become so insanely popular in the past five or six years. Also I don't particularly enjoy talking about myself, so that is why you would never see me with a "daily" vlog, plus I don't like being on camera, I much prefer to be behind the camera. I am all about quality over quantity and that is why if I did ever have a vlog, that it definitely wouldn't be a "daily" one.

13. Spring is almost here, what is the one thing that you are looking forward to the most?
Green grass, gorgeous pastures and extended sunsets. I am very much looking forward to taking advantage of the additional hours of sunlight. Expect to see my Equine Portraiture sessions taken to a whole new level once Spring arrives.

14. Horses teach us something new all the time. What has your horse taught you? 
My mare has taught me quite a few things but the three that stand out the most are:
1) She has taken my already great ability to control my feelings and emotions to a whole new level. 
2) She has made me a much more observant person.
3) She has made be a more patient person.

15. What's the one thing that you would love to see happen for your equestrian career in 2018?
Well this is a secret and there is actually not one, not two but three goals that I am working unbelievably hard at for 2018. Whether they happen this year or not, or perhaps next year or in three or four years, regardless I am unbelievably determined to make all of them happen eventually.

16. Do you have an assistant?
No I do not but this is in the works for the near future.

17. What's your favorite food?
Vietnamese.

18. What is your favorite breed?
I love them all but Appaloosas, American Paints, Arabians, Fjords and Clydesdale's are at the top.

19. What are your favorite Equestrian Sport Disciplines?
Gymkhana and Mounted Games. I also have a deep love for Cowboy challenge and Liberty work.

20. Were there any other professional photographers that you saw as a role model when learning photography?
No not really as I self taught myself on everything right from the start. However, there are a handful of professional photographers and videographers that I do follow today through Social Media but more so from an "Industry and Tech Trend" standpoint more than anything. 
 

ASK ME ANYTHING: GOT A BURNING QUESTION?

Do you have any burning questions you'd like me to answer? Something bugging you about the photography and/or videography industry? Well, now's your chance to find out the answer. I have created an "Ask Me Anything" challenge where you can in fact ask me anything. Anything at all. Whether you want to know what I'm reading, what I'm writing, what I had for lunch, or really anything at all, here's your opportunity to find out the answer to whatever question you have for me.

I created this opportunity so that I could communicate with my fans and address any questions they may have, while at the same time we all let loose and have fun!

I will let this challenge run for a full 10 day stretch and then I'll post the most asked and the most unique questions that I receive in a new post. All questions that I receive will be answered regardless.

Please either send your question(s) to hello@stevenquon.com or send them through Facebook messenger and I'll do my best to answer it at the end of the 10 day duration.

MY JOURNEY IN PHOTOGRAPHING HORSES

I am still very new when it comes to photographing horses. I took my very first photo of a horse (which happened to be my own) with my smartphone back in June of 2015 and then I went a full year before I started taking casual pictures of horses with my camera. At this time, taking pictures of horses was almost an after thought to me, not because I didn't enjoy doing it but rather it was just too unfamiliar to me and I was so preoccupied with other happenings going on in my life.

I would take fun pictures here and there anywhere from once a month to once every couple months, but I only shared them with a few friends. I did endless amounts of reading on how exactly to photograph these animals, as well I had to learn the conformation of a horse and how they can (and most importantly should) be photographed.

At this stage, I was also becoming a much more knowledgeable horseman in learning their language, personalities and how they communicate with each other. It just so happens that it was during the same time when I was auditing various types of Equine Shows & Events across Southern Alberta - mainly Gymkhana, Horsemanship, Cowboy Challenge, Barrel Racing, Western Pleasure, Liberty, some jumping, some Cart Driving for my own pleasure. I spent a lot of my time at clinics and listening in on lectures.

As a spectator I did shoot one show from the stands, 200 ft away from the horses and their riders. I experimented, had fun and thought to myself, hey I will have to try this again sometime!

This (and the overwhelming support from many others) eventually led to educating myself on knowing what to capture and ultimately knowing what sells. There was a good learning curve for me mainly because photographing horses is significantly different than where my experience comes from, this included me having to adjust my style from an artist's point of view to cater to what the audience wants.

Taking a photo in your style is great but it's useless if it's not in the form of what the audience wants. This is where I had to really adapt. Again, my background from many years ago was shooting portraits of people in a studio, corporate headshots and covering a handful of friend's weddings - not horses, or even anything horse related. So it's quite the change once you bring in a 1000+ lb animal into the picture especially when they have their own language.

Approximately summer of 2016 was when I found my passion for photographing these beautiful animals but the idea of doing it professionally still never crossed my mind. Why? I felt that my lack of experience was going to be my biggest downfall and that I was too late to join the party. 

One thing that I know in the photographic (and video as well) industry is that experience is huge! It is king! It is THE one thing that everyone looks for in a photographer (and videographer). I felt that my just over a year of experience in photographing horses and the same goes for auditing Equine Shows & Events was just not enough to even consider doing this on a professional level. 

I was constantly told that I was not ready. I lacked the experience. I needed to read more, audit more, observe more, learn more from others, educate myself more and then in a few years I could reconsider, but to not even consider it at this time because I would fail. Well I agreed that I lacked the experience but I disagreed in that I wasn't ready. If i wasn't ready then I knew that I was very close and that I was willing to do whatever it took to get me there.

However, with all that being said, as the days, weeks and months went on I still knew deep down that I had skill sets that I could market to the Equestrian world right now - I just had to get better, so in the spring of 2017 was when I started shooting horses more seriously and more frequently. My initial goal was to see how quickly and how well I could progress throughout the course of the year, and then re-visit the idea of doing this professionally down the road.

My photos started selling in Fall of 2017 and that was when I decided to take things on from a professional business sense. Even with that being said, it was not an overnight decision, it took a lot of careful planning and decision making to make the call in launching my services at the time that I did.

Don't get me wrong, even though I see myself as an educator to others teaching them and sharing my knowledge on Photography and Videography, I still very much consider myself as a learner in the Equestrian world. Like I have mentioned, horses teach you something new every time you are out and I just keep implementing the building blocks for next time.

HOW I GOT MYSELF INTO HORSES.

How exactly did I get into horses? 

A past relationship that I was in. She had two horses and during this time, I had always shown and had a steadily increasing curiosity and interest for horses, I just knew nothing about them. When I mean nothing, I really do mean nothing. I had no idea what a mare was and I had no idea what a gelding was. I was completely lost when I would hear the term "hands." 

She would spend a lot of time with her two horses but (aside from a couple times), she wouldn't really let me visit them or see what she does with them. She would always tell me how amazing her horses were and how much they meant to her but never let me do much more - it was frustrating. She would always propose ideas in terms of me coming with her to see her horses but it would NEVER happen, ever. Empty promises - it was incredibly frustrating.

I've only gone with her to see and visit her horses a couple times and I immediately knew right from the very first visit that I had a passion for horses. I had a tingle inside me, a sense of excitement that I haven't had in many years, perhaps a decade. It's not a feeling that we as humans experience often - if anything, perhaps only a few times in our lives. 

I would always ask her questions about her horses and she knew that I was very curious about them but what she didn't know was that my growing passion for horses was for real and that I had my goal set of eventually one day buying one of my own.

So when we parted ways, something didn't feel right, and I'm not referring to the feelings after being with someone. Even though I never had the chance to spend much time with her horses, I had a big black empty hole inside me because the one person that I knew and would talk to everyday about her horses and horses in general was no longer a part of my life. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that my passion for horses was for real and that it just wasn't a temporary interest that would fade weeks or months later. 

I didn't know if it was even possible for me to be around horses ever again because I didn't know a single person who loved horses and lived in the same city. I have many horse friends but unfortunately they all live in the U.S and other parts of Alberta. So because of my lack of contacts, I was stuck in a rut for many many months. 

Eventually life carried on as usual, life got in the way, yada, yada, yada. I went back to my daily life, yet I always had horses on the back of my mind. It was a deep curiosity that I had, I just didn't know how to peruse it.

Roughly around November of 2014, I was just sitting at home one day during my vacation week, completely bored out of my mind, realizing that the hobbies that I was once very much into for the past seven years, I have lost complete interest in and that my passion for horses was still burning inside me. I knew I had to do something about it. We all hit a point in our lives where we change, we lose interest in hobbies, sports, etc, because new ones come into our lives. This is exactly what I was going through, a huge shift in my life that would change my life forever.

As much as I wanted to be around horses, I just didn't know how to go about finding opportunities to allow me to do so, so life again would carry on until Christmas. Well here I was once again on my Christmas break with no desire in past hobbies. I would watch endless horses videos on YouTube just to get some sort of satisfaction. But at the end of the day, I just wanted to be around horses. Plain and simple. 

So after the new year going into 2015 was when I started looking up all the barns and stables that I could find and contacted them left, right and center. I would explain my situation and offered to do barn chores in exchange for lessons and just having the opportunity to be around horses. I immediately jumped on the very first offer that came in - a huge English stable that homed over 75 jumping and show horses an hour away from home. I remember the day prior, setting up my appointment to be there and that night I could not sleep due to too much excitement built up inside me. 

The following morning, showing up at the barn at 7am sharp on a very cold winter Saturday morning to start with morning feed, almost brought tears of joy to my eyes because I was so happy to be given the opportunity to be around horses again. The second that I heard the nickers from the many stalled horses as soon as that barn door opened, I immediately knew that this was where my heart was at. I knew that my passion for horses was here to stay.

So for the next 8 weeks I was out there every Saturday and Sunday for 12 hours a day mucking stalls, mucking paddocks, turning out and bringing in horses, feeding, and doing just about any other barn chore that you can think of. I would be on the road by 6am to arrive for the start of morning feed at 7am and finish the day with a one hour riding lesson. Well unfortunately I could not carry on because the stable did not have liability insurance for volunteers if they were to ever get injured so we had to end things there. I was so incredibly bummed out and discouraged when this happened.

The next thing you know, I am back to where I once was. The following weekend felt so awkward not being at the barn doing chores. I was so determined to get me back to a barn, so this was when I got in touch with my horsey friends again and they suggested (with my situation) that I am far better off doing paid lessons with a trainer than mucking stalls for 15 hours every weekend for a couple lessons. So here I am again back to the drawing board but this time I'm looking up trainers. I found a great trainer who (was still quite a ways from home) I ended up doing weekly lessons with for two months, leading into Easter long weekend.

It was great to be around horses again! This was where I got to ride a 17hh horse and experienced being on the lunge line for the very first time. If you know me then you know that I do not like heights, in fact I am terrified of them. Being thrown onto a 17hh horse was pretty nerve racking for me haha. All I remembered was bounce..bounce..bounce..bounce and that I was going round and round in circles haha. 

After a couple months of lessons with this trainer, I wanted more! I wanted to be around horses more than just one day a week. I was so happy and thrilled that I was willing to do anything to explore more and bigger opportunities. So I contacted more barns and more would reply back to me, but it took some time so in the meantime I spent six weeks at a Therapeutic riding center for kids. There is no better feeling in the world than watching children getting on a horse and seeing the smile on their faces, having their fears, worries and everyday struggles immediately vanish. 

I eventually ended up volunteering at another large barn in exchange for doing barn chores again. So I did chores, harrowed the arenas, filled the waterers, mucked paddocks, fed the horses every single night for the next four months, didn't miss a single day in those four months! Would take my barn clothes to work everyday, change and head off to the barn straight from work. I was having the time of my life! I was so busy at this place that not long after I ended up discontinuing lessons with my trainer who I have been seeing at the time and I no longer had time to make it out to the Therapeutic riding center.

I ended up buying my mare exactly one month after joining this stable. One month. I knew that I wanted a horse of my own, I just wasn't expecting to buy one so soon. I am a risk taker (because life would be boring if we don't take risks!) and this was one that I was willing to take. 

It just so happens while at work on a Monday morning, I, for some odd reason was browsing horses for sale in local ads. I wasn't shopping, just browsing. Not long after I spotted the mare that I ended up buying. 

Her ad immediately caught my attention because she has the same interests that I have - cowboy challenge, obstacles, trails, etc. She was also a smaller pony, which is what I prefer to ride from my short experience riding 14, 15, 16, and 17hh horses. The seller was also not terribly far from home and next thing you know I am driving out to see her that same night. 

I remember driving out to the premises that night repeatedly telling myself how crazy of a thing I was doing, what business do I have looking at a horse for sale, I am in no shape or form ready to own one of my own.

Turns out, a few days later I pay another visit to this same mare alongside a vet. Exactly a week later, I have officially bought my first horse. 

What?! Are you crazy?! You bought a horse when you still know very little about them?! 

I was constantly being reminded that green + green often results in black and blue.

Yet despite all the people doubting me, I was so incredibly determined to make this work, and if you know me, you will know that I get that much more motivated when I have people doubting me.

So this was when I started reading horse books. Book after book after book. Video after video after video. Everyday, every night, every spare moment of my days would be spent educating myself on these animals. Then I started attending horse shows, clinics and lectures.

I was totally not expecting to buying my first horse so soon but like the saying goes "We buy things when we least expect it" LOL. This day was when my life changed forever. No life, too busy with the horses!