When I last had my camera in my hand it was back in April of 2015. Almost two full years would it wind up getting packed away untouched. As I moved out of the basement in NC and to my girlfriend’s parents house. For a few months as I went back to work at the company I had quit before. At least this time I got a significant raise for coming back, part of my deal. Seems like that’s the only way to get a raise at that family owned business. You gotta quit and let them sweat it out for a few months before they realize how badly they need you.
I don’t think that was necessary at all, they certainly could have just recognized it before I quit and given me a raise, I was doing a totally different job from what I had been hired to do.
But anyway, I don’t look back with regrets. I think it only helped me get to where I am today. After I moved back and had a decent salary I purchased a car. Only a few years old, 2013 Hyundai Sonata. My dad had bought one new off the lot in 2013 (so expensive) and I snagged one just a few years later for a significantly cheaper price. I did also get the base model, so no heated seats. (oh darn)
But 2016 came and went, I shortly moved out of the in laws house and into an apartment with a coworker and long time friend. Same one I was making Youtube videos with before. And we worked together at the previously mentioned job. We had now both worked there on and off for years. He would come on until he needed to focus on school and would quit again. But throughout all the bullshit of that job, we kept each other entertained if nothing else.
But the slightly more important part of being back at that job, at least in pertains to my photography career, was that I was back working with my older brother. The one who got me a job there in the first place. A professional photographer for many years. Went to school and got a degree and everything. Mostly sport photography but then went all in with product photography for a book that seems like it will never come out. He was actually hired on at that job as a photographer but quickly transitioned into another department that actually needed full time work.
Point being, now I was joking around with on a regular 40+ hour week basis with someone who knew all the answers I would soon start asking. It became a routine towards the end of me working there to pepper him with questions at the end of the day. But I am getting quite ahead of myself here, that wouldn’t be for a few years when I fully dived into photography.
For the most part I bring it up because looking over my next camera outing event, I took all these images in RAW. So clearly at some point he explained the difference with shooting raw or jpeg and I decided I wanted more control over the images and I also was learning how to use Photoshop. At this point I would have had a few years of just messing around with it. From the YouTube videos I was making I would do a little Microsoft paint type drawing but with more control.
That brings us up to March of 2017. We had taken a trip back up to NC to visit my dad and his girlfriend. Although I remember us panning for rubies, I think that may have been a different trip. This one it was decided that we would go horseback riding. Well some of us did, I was more interested in playing photographer for the day than I was about getting up on a horse. So my girlfriend, sister and my dad’s girlfriend all went horseback riding. The place they had looked up wasn’t too far into the mountains, but they did say online to call for directions as Google maps would take you the long way around a mountain instead of over it. Which lead to my sister trying to take short hand notes very quickly over the phone. One of them was simply “if you mountain, TOO FAR”
But we arrived without any trouble and it even started snowing a bit. Now for a bit more backstory, my girlfriend was medium amount of experienced I would say. Many hours of riding lessons. My sister had never touched a horse before. And my dads girlfriend was raised on a farm in Oklahoma and probably has spent as much time on a horse as I have in a car.
1/125 Sec - F5 - 70mm - ISO 100
1/160 Sec - F5.6 - 70mm - ISO 100
1/160 Sec - F5.6 - 70mm - ISO 100
In order of appearance, my girlfriend, my dad’s girlfriend, my younger sister.
These images would have still been shot with the Canon Rebel T3i, as that is the only camera I owned that that time. And still using either my kit lens 18-55 or that Tamron telephoto. I can’t at all remember what it was, only that it was likely 70mm judging that I probably just shot all of these with that lens and didn’t switch. Just moved my feet.
Something else worth mentioning is that I did edit these, as I mentioned I was beginning to learn photoshop. I don’t have the files anymore so I can know exactly what I did to adjust these. But looking at the raw files compared to the ones above it looks like all I did was tweak the brightness and contrast. If I had to guess I probably just did the auto setting.
Also my sister did this right after taking that first picture and I’m sharing it here.
1/160 Sec - F5.6 - 70mm - ISO 100
The riders were introduced to their steeds and mounted up. A quick walk around inside the fenced area before they went off for a trail ride.
1/200 Sec - F5.6 - 116mm - ISO 200
( At the time I was editing in photoshop and then saving it as a PNG. I just had to resave this one as jpeg so I could upload it to my own website. Stupid 20mb limit)
1/80 Sec - F5.6 - 55mm - ISO 500
Although I missed the focus a bit here, you can still see the moment where my sister phased into the mind of this horse. Becoming one with it.
1/40 Sec - F4 - 23mm - ISO 100
Now I’m not an expert on horses, heese as I think they should be called in the plural form, but I’m not gonna go picking one’s nose.
All in all a very pleasant day, the women went for their horse rides while my dad and I went inside the little house they have as part of their ranch. Made chit chat and waited for them to return. Then they brushed the horses down and gave them treats. Once we got back to my dads house I pulled up the pictures, edited them in photoshop and shared them with the others. Even if I didn’t get any spectacular shots here, it was a fun day. I’m glad I brought the camera with me.
1/60 Sec - F5 - 43mm - ISO 250
Also there was a goat.