An Ex Racehorse Turned Supermodel - Emma & Crunchie
It seems to be a consistent theme with my photoshoot blog posts that they always involve casting our minds back to many months ago... On this occasion we are re-visiting a summer photoshoot with Emma and her striking chestnut ex-racehorse Crunchie, or if we're being formal It's Crunch Time.
This photoshoot actually came about because I had followed Emma & Crunchie's journey on Instagram (@crunchie_the_exracehorse) for some time and loved Crunchie's unique and eye-catching face marking as you can see pictured above. As a result of this I approached Emma and asked if she would be interested in doing a portfolio model shoot with me as I thought they would be a perfect fit for my website and advertising. I was thrilled when Emma said yes and we got to work organising a date for a Summer photoshoot.
It was a beautiful Summer's day (remember those!) in August when I drove to Essex to meet Emma, Crunchie, Storm, Barnaby the dog and our ever so helpful assistant's, Emma's Mum Denise and her friend, Boo.
We started as always with introductions and a walk around all of the available locations that we can use to take photographs. Crunchie is stabled at the most beautiful private yard surrounded by a large house, smart pebbled driveway, barns, fields and a church. Perfect photo scenery!
Having had a look around we started with the first of Emma's three outfits and headed to the barns. With the sun being very strong initially we used the shadow of the barns and the textured walls as backdrops, and then moved onto the pebbled driveway and eventually the field that was located on the way back to the stables. Below are a small selection of these images, use the arrow to scroll through:
Following the above images, we gave Crunchie a bit of time to have a snack and a break and Emma got changed into her next outfit. This was a more casual but still smart combination of a white blouse and denim shorts, a perfect outfit for the summer's day!
For this outfit we went both into the field behind the stables and used the gate of the arena as two further locations. The field was lined with hedges and had the church stood tall in the background:
Finally it was time for a ridden outfit. Whilst on most photoshoots we do not generally include riding clothing as an outfit, we did in this case as we were also capturing some ridden photos and this would fit the theme of Emma's Instagram of Crunchie's progress.
When including riding clothes on a photoshoot, do exactly what Emma has done below! Smart and clean riding clothing and tack is essential. For these images we used a beautiful dark wooden wall on the way out of the yard, and a gate to one of the fields. These are actually some of my favourite images from the whole shoot!
I hope this blog has been helpful in giving you an idea of what to expect from an Equine Portrait Photoshoot with me, Lillie Bell Photography. Please do not hesitate to get in touch for a no-obligation chat to find out more!
I will leave you for today with this cute photo of Crunchie finding his photoshoot either hilarious or so relaxing he is ready for bed, you decide!
lillie@lilliebellphotography.com