Eleazer Davis Farm in Boston USA

After so many months in the UK of horrible, wet and cold weather it’s making me miss the Boston weather even more. Why do we Brits always discuss the weather? I spend most of my day either checking the reports (none of them match), talking to clients about weather updates or replanning my already full diary because of poor weather. 

What it does give me is the ability to be super flexible with my diary and timings. Knowing the likelihood is that I will need to rebook shoots as the weather changes though-out each season I work closely with each client so we have back up plans, A, B, C and sometimes D. Especially when there’s more than one family member involved in the shoot, it all has to be managed without stressing anyone out. And if I do toot my own horn, I’m good at managing my diary and making sure everyone feels looked after. 

Hilariously, when I went to photography Lisa and Seija at their beautiful home farm in Bedford, Boston, MA I accidentally packed the British rain. Luckily it stopped as we were shooting and for nearly 2 hours we got lucky and the weather sisters had my back! 

This location had so many amazing backdrops. We started at the front of the barn using the big sliding doors and I wanted to begin with the first 2 horses (we had 4 to photograph in total) and I definitely wanted to start with both Seija and Lisa together to make sure we captured the most important memories first. 

After this set I concentrated on Lisa with her two love bugs together. Normally when you set this pose up you have to keep the horses heads apart and then when everyones ready I’ll say 1,2,3 and let the horses relax, most horses will immediately talk to each other and after 1.5 seconds ears go flying. I don’t know what they say to each other but clearly it’s always something rude. However, on this occasion these two horses kept chatting and their ears stayed forward, what an extra bonus and beautiful to see.

Then, without moving locations we changed up the pose and reduced the shots down to one horse each.

The next location was at the other end of the barn. As I had been walking back and forth though the shoot set up my eye kept landing on this spot, and it’s because of the framing, check it out in the next few images and whizz me a message to let me know if you agree, does your eye land straight to Seija and her horse?

I got lucky that the background is so natural and soft, the colouring of the doors adds to the softness of Seija’s outfit. So we did a few more shots her from different angels.

We then moved around the farm using their gorgeous fields, all the while not straying too far with the youngsters. Also, check out these wonderful outfits that Seija picked for them both, I love when clients know what looks great and stay true to themselves.

I also wanted to involve the dogs into the shoot, I make sure I set up the dogs when it’s super safe. I get to know the horses first to see what their personalities are like and whether I think the horse will stand while the dogs get comfortable.

Over the past 16 years I’ve learnt that a dog doesn’t like to turn their back on a horse, it’s not safe for them. Ive seen many photographers struggle with asking an owner to get their dog to sit in front of them or the horse and the dog just won’t do it. I quite agree, if I were the size of a dog I don’t think I would turn my back on the tonne of animal behind me! Therefore I normally ask the owner to put the dog the other side of them so they are in between. This works nearly 100% of the time. Look at this cute pose that Lisa did with her dogs just lovely.

We then went for the ULTIMATE SHOT! Horses and dogs all in. To do this safely you’ll see thatI I’ve chosen a prop for Lisa and Seija to sit on. Other than being somewhere the girls can relax which feeds straight through to the horse, it allowed a physical divide between the horses and the dogs, so they settled into the pose really quickly. I love this shot, all the family fun is clear to see.

Then… it rained. That didn’t stop me though. On my walk around I had spotted a long line of indoor boxes and I knew I could stand at one end and have Lisa in front of the mid way door letting the light fall on her and her horse. I love the results of this set up and pose, so I’m thanking the weather for forcing me to think outside the box on this one.

And to finish off this epic shoot I wanted Lisa to sit on a fence and give her best cowgirl/ranch look, I think she nailed it.

Thank you Lisa and Seija for trusting me with these memories. It’s a huge privilege to be asked to photograph someone half way around the world and I hope to visit them soon in their new home soon.

If you’d like information about booking me for a shoot please call 01980 348220 / 07890 738283 or fill out my contact form and Ill happily give you a call.