FLEETWOOD FARMS QUARTER HORSES, AB.

Could I live on a farm? Absolutely.

There is no better feeling than waking up to horse’s and hearing them whinny and call out to each other in the middle of the night. It’s quite the experience at Fleetwood Farms with complete isolation from any kind of traffic or in-city population. It was tough coming back in to the city last Sunday afternoon.

Ryan Smith gave me quite the tour of the place, in which we showed many parts of his property last Sunday on Facebook Live. Thank you again Ryan Smith and Brandy Lyn for the generous hospitality and I even got to meet Ryan’s mother, Judy Fleetwood.

I have built a comprehensive portfolio when it comes to my Equine Shows & Events and I have a solid foundation for my Equine Portraiture. However, prior to visiting Ryan’s place, I did not have a lot when it came to (and what I call on my website’s sub-section), “Horses Being Horses”. Just general photos of horses in nature, whether they are running, playing, sleeping, eating, whatever - just horse’s living in their natural environment.

The most essential element when photographing horses is that you have to watch them and you have to do this... A LOT. It’s all about being in the right place at the right time and the more time you spend watching and being near them, the greater chance you have in capturing the shots that you are looking for.

Even though I was at Fleetwood Farms for a couple days, there were very specific hours of the day in which I was taking pictures. Hey if mother nature gave us overcast skies for the two days, like I told Ryan… “You wouldn’t even see me because I would be out in the pastures all day and all night” haha. It’s just the matter of time before I get pictures of bucking, rearing and full herds galloping.

The pastures were so breathtaking during sunrise and sunset that I wanted to not just photograph the horse’s themselves but I wanted to sell the environment to not only give you all a clear idea of the wonderful home’s that these horse’s are living in but to make you feel as if you were right there with me taking it all in.

Admittedly, waking up for those sunrises were tough and this is coming from a morning person, but all in all I would do it any day of the year just to see these horse’s in this kind of magical light.

While out in the pasture, I ended up connecting with one of the fillies who just loved having her butt scratched. Each time I would stop scratching or look away, she would turn and re-position herself so that she could tell me to keep going haha. I am sure going to miss those foals, they truly are special

Click HERE to view all the photos.

YA HA TINDA, ALBERTA WILD HORSES

As already mentioned, there is not a lot of pictures from this past Saturday but I also did not take a lot. I only take pictures when I envision a great shot.

We ran into a couple studs within 15 minutes of my friend and I arriving in wild horse country (and I immediately thought this would be a great day for finding the wildies haha) but then following, I only ran into one herd of four and that was about 9 hours later on the way home.

I wanted to capture some really different stuff but this herd was just too alert the whole time so there was not a lot of opportunity aside from the distant portraits...and even then I was just too far from these guys to really get creative.

This made me realize just how lucky I got last December on the winter trip up there. Coming across a good size herd of 10 horses that wasn't phased at all by my presence. If it wasn't so cold that day, I wouldn't have had to make multiple trips back in the car for heat and would have wandered much further into the fields to get closer.

I am going to make another trip before the winter hits and hopefully can make it really count.

Click HERE to view all the photos.

FOALS IN WATER VALLEY, AB.

Thank you Lisa Janssen for having me out to photograph your two foals. I had a wonderful time! One foal was one and a half month's old and the other was just a day old, the perfect time for me to make my first trek out to Water Valley, AB. What a sight it was to see.

There was no running around and playing from the foals, mostly napping so I decided to capture those moments.

FYI, I am also still on schedule for my most anticipated photo shoot of foals in July.

Click HERE to view all the photos.

Another Round of Photographing Alberta Wild Horses Has Been Planned!

I know that the 10 days to reveal my most asked questions from my "Ask Me Anything" Challenge is not up yet. But there is one that I would like to reveal early and that is simply because I am getting asked this a lot and it's obviously something that many want to see happen.

"𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗮𝗺 𝗜 𝗴𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝗽𝗵𝗼𝘁𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻?"

Well I wasn't planning another trip until the start of Spring but it looks like I will be making another trip up to Sundre, AB a lot sooner, as in within the next couple weeks.

Obviously my "Deep Freeze Wild Horse" album from late December 2017 was a big hit and I want to repeat that with another album and make it even better. The good news is that it likely will not be -40C again so I will be able to spend a lot more time out there shooting. I am looking to capture another herd this time around if possible.

If the weather holds up, then I have other things in store planned as well on this same trip. And who knows maybe I can catch a sunset as nice as the one I got from last Fall.

If you have yet to check out my album of Alberta Wild Horses from this past December, you may view the album in it's entirety here -

https://www.stevenquon.com/wild-horses

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DEEP FREEZE WILD HORSE CAPTURES

This was a big project alright but it is complete...for this winter at least. I can't say that I will go shooting again in this specific area in -40C weather mainly because if you get stuck or stranded up in this area of Sundre, AB you are walking. Well I was incredibly fortunate to not have anything bad happen - huge sigh of relief.

I was on the road for 6:30am yesterday to arrive in Sundre AB Wild Horse Country for 9am. I went to my original spot where I've had luck spotting wild horses in the past but they were not there when I arrived so I drove off another road and not long after, out of nowhere was a complete herd right at the road eating. I wasn't expecting them to be there so I carefully parked, got out and thankfully I did not scare the herd away. It was just deadly cold so I had to work as fast as I could, there was no time for pretty shots.

Even being covered in thermal base layers from head to toe, several layers of sweaters, two jackets, a neck warmer and my winter hat, I lasted no more than 8 minutes at a time before I had to get back in the car to warm up for a 1-2 minutes. I was able to get three solid 8-9 minute sessions out in the cold before I nearly I just about got frostbite and had to hit the road. After each time going back out, I had reduced mobility because I warmed up for no more than a couple minutes in the car in case the herd was to leave. I knew I had to make the most out of every second that they were in my presence. It was one of those times where I just had to tough it out with the conditions to get the end result.

In my first time out, I did manage to go quite deep into the field and trekked through enormous amounts of snow, bushes, but I also had to remember just how cold it was and to not get too far from the car. I could literally feel my fingers and bones freeze as each second passed. Near the end my ability to operate my camera took a huge hit so I missed some shots that I was bummed for not getting.

The good news is that I was still able to get a few shots of one member dancing around but unfortunately my ability to operate my camera and track with it took a huge decline since I've been already out there for 6 or 7 minutes when this happened and I was getting quite frozen again haha.

I will say that it got quite challenging working and stabilizing my telephoto lens and it quickly got increasingly more difficult as time went on haha.

I will be back in the Spring of 2018 to get shots of these guys playing and galloping around.

The herd was mostly eating but at one point they did start playing and running around but it unfortunately was bad timing because I was in the car warming up. Just as I caught the final act of two members of the herd rearing up, I was grabbing my camera and was just seconds late of nailing that shot. Had I had full mobility in my hands, I would have gotten it. That would have been an incredible shot had I not been half frozen in the car.

The foal was the star of the show. He was oh so curious about my presence and I guarentee that he will win your heart after you see his photos. Hope you guys love these photos!

All photos can also be viewed on my website in the "Wild horse" section and also by clicking HERE.

All photos are also up for purchase in my online store.

TRAIL RIDE HORSES: SUNSET GUIDING AND OUTFITTERS

New material from yesterday out in Sundre, AB at Sunset Guiding and Outfitters. A friend of mine went trail riding while I stayed back to get more photos of horses to build up my portfolio. 

Click HERE to view all the photos. 

SUMMER HEAT WILD HORSE CAPTURES

Headed out to Sundre, AB early this morning to photography wild horses. It turned out great! A lovely herd of four or five (including two foals) spent quite a bit of time around me so I was able to get some great photos. 

Click HERE to view all the photos.