Travel Tips from an Equine + Canine Photographer

Being a traveling photographer has its perks and downfalls. I never expected to be traveling throughout the country on a monthly basis, and while it’s hard to be away from home, I’ve learned some valuable tips and tricks to making each photography trip a success!

I wanted to share 15 travel tips with you, I hopes of making your traveling dreams possible too!

Direct flights are the best option. The airlines have the power to change your connecting flight times, which can easily turn a 2 hour travel time into a 24+ hour travel time, which could affect your photoshoot schedule with clients.

Some days are cheaper than others to fly on, so double check prices on different days of the week.

If you prefer flying through a specific airline, I would recommend looking into their membership or credit card perks. This could grant you ability to fly your assistant for free, have private room access in airports, discounts on hotels and/or rental cars, and more!

If you aren’t particular to one airline, I would recommend looking into credit cards offered through banks, such as chase or capitol one, to see what travel benefits for your needs best.

Carry on your camera gear. I’ve heard horror stories of photographers checking camera gear iI’m and having it completely destroyed or lost/stolen. 

If you plan to have it in the overhead bin, paying extra to have early boarding or in zones 1-3 boarding, provides you with overhead space. If you’re in zone 5-7, and the overhead bins are full, you will have to check your bags as luggage.

I keep all essentials in my camera bag. This includes two camera bodies, two + lenses, four fully charged batteries, a battery charger, 14 sd cards (64-138gb ea.), my hard drive, laptop, charging cords for laptop and phone, beats and extra cash/second id. 

I always have two camera bodies and at least two lenses at all times in my bag. If for some reason, a body or lens gets dropped or malfunctions, you can continue working with your backup and continue photographing and providing a seamless experience for clients, attending to your broken gear after returning home from your trip. 

When/if leaving your camera bag in the car, take hard drive and sd cards with you. There’s nothing worse than having your car broken into and your bag stolen. Yes, gear can be replaced, but telling a client you lost their images and may or may not be able to revisit and reshoot, isn’t the professional experience you want to provide.

Book hotels when the weekly weather report is posted OR pay extra for refundable cancellations. When I travel, I will typically cover a 6 hour radius of the airport I fly in/out of, and if weather changes, my schedule will change too. It’s not fun having to pay for a hotel room 5 hours away, and a new hotel room closer, when you have to adjust plans to work around weather.

Plan in extra time. If you need to change dates/times for weather, or if clients and their animals need more time, or if you need a break to recharge, it’s better to have that option than have to cancel a client. Extra time is great for when you’re traveling around the holidays, or having to travel around a large event that causes traffic or road closures.

If you can pay extra for travel insurance, esp on flights, hotel and rental car, you may be able to receive a refund or credit toward another trip.

Have all of the important addresses, client phone numbers and photoshoot details accessible offline in case you don’t have cell service, and available for your assistant and your emergency contacts. Ive ended up having to backtrack during travel to find cell service, in order to contact the client or the photoshoot location, which cut into client time and wasn’t as professional of an experience as I wanted to provide.

I include in my important addresses local grocery stores and coffee shops. It’s cheaper(and healthier) to buy food from a grocery store than eating out 3X a day. Many hotels offer suits, where you have a kitchenette to cook in!

Life app - I have the life app, which allows both my husband, my emergency contacts, and my travel assistant to keep track of my location. This is an extra step of safety, but traveling and working on private properties with first time clients can be sketchy, and it’s better to be safe than sorry. 

If the property makes us nervous pulling in, I do send my husband a photo of license plates parked at the location. 

When booking photoshoots for sunrise or sunset, keep in mind if you’re going to have elevation changes. Sunrise in the plains will be immediate, but sunrise in the mountains may be delayed depending on the elevation of the peaks. Same for sunset. 

Use google map to your advantage! 3-4 months prior to a trip, I use google maps to locate barns or equine facilities that are listed on google. Pastures and outdoor arena are VERY easy to spot on google maps! From there, I can locate the business details, contact info and social media pages, reaching out to let them know I will be in the area on select days with availability for additional photoshoots.

I can research quality locations for dog shoots on the route to barns, fitting in those additional sessions for my dog clients.

Social media is great to provide your travel schedule to followers regularly, but curating an email list with past clients and those interested in your services is the best way to solidify photoshoots. If I don’t have a trip planned to requested areas of travel, I’ll offer the client the opportunity to either join my email list, and when I have 5+ clients in that area ready to book, I’ll set dates and travel plans. OR if the client prefers a more flexible a schedule, I provide a custom travel quote that will cover for a private trip to capture their photography needs ASAP.

Consider having a non refundable retainer for booking photoshoots. This ensures that your travel expenses are covered, even if the client cancels their photoshoot. I’ve flown across the country to end up being completely ghosted by a client before (and yes, I called, texted and emailed- all of which I could see were being opened and read), but I luckily had a nonrefundable retainer that ensured I only lost my time, and not additional funds for unexpectedly unnecessary travel. 

I hope these travel tips helped provide you with easier planning, an enjoyable trip, and more time behind the camera!

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The Trick to Black vs White Background Equine Portraits

"What's the trick to creating BLACK background equine portraits, vs WHITE background equine portraits?"

Lighting. It's all about the lighting.

*To start off, I ONLY use natural lighting, no artificial lights or reflectors. I achieve this by using a fully shaded doorway to the barn, wide enough where the horse can comfortably stand parallel to the edge of the door. This is most often the aisle way or a wide doorway into an indoor arena. I then adjust my camera settings to best capture the horse, ignoring the exposure of the environment around the horse as it will be fully replaced in editing.*

Black backgrounds - you want the shadows to wrap around the horse.

Below are examples of raw images that show the shadows wrapping around the horse, and the edited versions against the more suitable black background.

White backgrounds - you want the light to wrap around the horse.

Below are examples of raw images that have light wrapping around the horse, and the edited versions against the more suitable white background.

If you have an image with DARK shadows, it's going to be VERY obvious and look out of place against a white background. Below are some examples.

Can you see the shadows wrapping in the first (raw) image? Specifically by the withers, shoulder and the tail area? Now look at the edited version against the black background - which looks much more natural, and then the white background - which doesn’t match the lighting at all. Can you see the difference?

Here’s another comparison of the lighting setup being ideal for black backgrounds. Can you see how the shadows and dark points on the horse are TOO dark and don’t match the white background? Especially near the withers, the elbow and back of the legs. Can you see the difference?

If you have an image with halo or back lighting, it's going to be VERY obvious when you place it against a black background.

Below is an example of a lighting setup that would be ideal for white backgrounds. Check out the lighting that is coming from the left of the horse, wrapping around the neck, chest, face, and legs. It’s even spilling over the croup a little too. This creates a much more pleasing white background portrait than the black.

Now if the client wants a mix of both, or doesn't know if they want a black or white background, your #1 job is to find a location that has a more balanced lighting, where you can more easily lift lighter shadows and/or control an any extra light wrapping around the horse.

OR you can photograph specific poses in a location that is more suitable to black background portraits, then shift to a new location to photograph additional poses that are more suitable for white background portraits.

So let’s talk poses.

Poses where the horse’s body is perpendicular to the edge of the door, are going to be more suitable for black background portraits, simply because the lighting naturally gets darker as you go further into the barn. (If you have my Equine Portrait Posing Guide, some of the poses that are easier to shoot as black backgrounds are, Straight Forward, Ground Stretch, Booty Pop, The Walk Away, and 45*.)

Poses where the horse is parallel to the edge of the door, are going to be easier and more pleasing to edit for white background portraits. (If you have my Equine Portrait Posing Guide, some of the poses that area easier to shoot as white backgrounds are, Profile, Full Body Shot, Bow, Tail, Curtsey and Criss Cross.)

I hope this was helpful, and that you are able to approach black and white background equine portraits with a new mindset! And don’t forget to give yourself some grace as you learn to read the lighting - it takes time to hone that skill. But - nothing can be considered a failure, as long as you are learning something new every time you try. 💕 Now go have fun with your cameras at the barn!

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Posing Guide for Photographing Horses

How you pose a horse for a portrait can make or break your photograph. Here are my best tips to set yourself up for success and elevate your photos of horses. (Images below are straight from my camera, and have not been retouched.)

1. Know the horse breed and/or riding discipline. There is a BIG difference on how you would photographing a hackney pony who drives, vs a quarter horse that dominates the western pleasure world. A big of research a head of time on the breed and/or discipline can set you up for success, but when in doubt, don’t be afraid to ask the client, as it shows you care about the details of their images.

2. Legs. Nothing makes my eyes twitch more when I see a horse standing like a drunk giraffe. Take the time to either square the horse’s hooves, park them out, or stack them as desired. If the horse won’t allow for their legs to be placed, I always prefer to see all four legs, or will capture the horse in motion, taking a step forward.

3. Elbows. When you reposition a horse, especially when asking with a turn on the forehand or haunches, step the horse back and then forward to ensure all four hooves are going the same direction. This will also ensure that elbows or hip bones aren’t popped out.

4. Weight distribution. Nobody wants a photo of their horse looking like a wet noodle blowing in the wind. Make sure the horse’s weight is balanced centered over their front hooves. This will ensure that their chest and shoulders are equally balanced in your photos too.

5. Butts. I like big butts and I can not lie! Well, actually I like round butts, and not triangular butts. Make sure your back legs are set under the hocks (or further out if breed standard calls for parking out), especially for the back leg closest to the camera. This gives the butt a rounder and more muscular appearance, vs a triangular and weak hind end.

6. Muscle Tone. Engage those muscles! This can transform your horse from a lazy couch potato into a show stopping and awe striking horse.

7. Bending. Under bent will shorten their neck, or make it appear as if they have NO neck. Over bent will stretch out the topline and turn your horse into a drunk giraffe with unbalanced weight. Learn your angles or be ready to shoot through the movement!

8. Ears up! Unless you’re getting bloopers or the horse is listening to communication coming from two different directions, those ears should be up and forward. This gives the horse the air of more confidence, desire to either connect with the viewer, or commit to the movement they are doing in the image. 

9. Details. Take a moment to fix the details before you photograph. Reposition bridle keepers, adjust the reins so their loops are even, remove the grass from the horse’s mouth, wipe off slime, clean out dirt from the nostrils, rebrush flyaway manes or forelocks, etc. etc. These seem like little things, but when your little details are in order, they will make your image go from good to GREAT!

10. Expression. This is most important, to the horse AND the owner. If your horse is showing tension or discomfort, you should not be photographing portraiture work until their needs are addressed. Focus on creating an atmosphere when your horse is comfortable and happy to engage. This will result in positive body language and expressions, making it a much more desirable image for fine art and/or sentimental portraits for your clients.

I hope this was helpful! Give yourself some grace as you learn to recognize, and either work with the horse’s behavior or find a clear way to instruct the owner to correct these horse posing details. Now go grab your camera and have fun at the barn!

Want to learn more?

I offer private virtual and in person mentorships, group workshops, and downloadable courses!

Learn more!

Equine Portrait Posing Guide

A step by step guide to learn my 20+ poses for fine art Equine Portraits using natural lighting.

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Horse & Rider Posing Guide

A step by step guide to learn my go-to poses when photographing Horses & Rider.

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