She Who Dances ... Knows

I took an assortment of events that I have photographed over the last nine years and seamed them together in a tapestry slide show. The slide show starts out with the Rolex Three day Eventing
Web definitions for Three day eventing
is one of the most exciting horse events I have EVER photographed. If anyone DOUBTS that horses are one of the MOST athletic animals, you need to watch what these horses do in three days. They break through all these barriers that you would scratch your head and say There is NO WAY. These accomplished Olympic equestrians come from all over the world and are peak athletes. My mouth just dropped as I watched these horses do almost impossible feats. It is a very dangerous sport for horse and rider. I did this years ago and I sprain my ankle really bad jumping from one spot to the other but I had to get this.

Then I did the International World Cup Polo in Palm Beach back in World Cup in 2001 and was lucky and captured the winning team. I just walked in with my two Nikons and three lenses and started photographing the players down at the finish line. Another group of skilled athletes. Filming polo is like sitting in the middle of five locomotives coming towards you at 40 mile an hour and the tracks meet in the middle. The polo players are all trying to push the other ones out of the way and all are trying to hitting a small ball thats not even two tennis balls sizes with a very long pole. Since I am an athlete, I shoot it as if I were in the game. I feel all the feelings and the rushes and capture shots that I cant believe I privately own. So I did well with that and started being hired as a personal photographer for individuals who wanted a photographer who only photographed them and so they were guaranteed to have a few power shots to blow up on their office walls. I wasnt interested in doing Fox Hunts but an emergency forced me to stay around this area for a while because of a very sick family friend and the people who had the money were fox hunters. Know there is lots of controversy about this and I know the truth. They call it fox chasing and so I did this for a couple of years. Gorgeous country-side, fabulous horses and skilled riders who are very gutsy. I ran most of the hunts and so it was pretty strenuous. I stopped doing them after a very bad horse accident that left me with a broken leg and ripped all my ligaments in both ankles. It took me a year to be strong enough to run again. Thats the year I started making these slideshows from my bed because I couldnt
move.

Then I came down with a very serious case of cat scratch fever and was in bed for months on every anti-biotic there is. I was rushed to the emergency room twice. Be careful when you are around a strange cat and watch your kids because it is a real disease and one that kicked my butt.




Then I did the game of Hurling which I was told is the #1 athletic event in Europe. They practiced on the polo field next to the cottage. It was a very brutal game and a lot of cussing Irishman running up and down the field. It was a challenge to shoot because I had to run up and down the field and hit the target each time. I love anything that challenges my mind and my abilities. I am extremely competitive and like to do things others say cant be done, especially in my fifties. Next, came Lure Coursing with dogs which was fascinating and fun to be around the dog people instead of the horse people. There is a big difference and I should know.
I took pictures of my daughter, Kelli, walking through the woods in a white nightgown and all I said was Hey Kelliwhen you walk into the spot of sunlight, dance like you did when you were a little girl." And she did... spontaneous and impromptu. No posing on this. I have my youngest daughter jumping on a trampoline with her boyfriend, my oldest daughter sky diving last month and I DID NOT film this. Some think I will do ANYTHING for a shot but not EVER on this one. Do I look stupid or what? Then my four beautiful and smart daughters dancing together, my grandchildren Austin and Alexia dancing as well and pictures of my son, Ryan, playing in a tennis tournament. All my five kids are in this and my kids are the coolest. The photo shoot that might seem cruel is when I was hired to photograph two Andalusian Stallions touching nose to nose for full page ads in the horse magazine Horse of Kings I thought everything was under control and they said they would keep it safe and then the one stallion attacked the other. No one was hurt and I was very close to it because I was up front and this was unexpected like two dinosaurs going at each other. Unbelievably exhilarating moments I have had and I captured it all 

Category:

Film & Animation

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• Rolex
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• eventing
• dressage
• polo
• world
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• fox
• hunting
• shakerag
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• Meade
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• dancing
• sky
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[souljaboy101horse]

7:23 is my favorite. I am taking photography right now in school and these really show me great examples of it.

;-)

[aquacize]

Are you the best equestrian photographer EVER? Love the motion in this.. and the Emotion! Great work! I watched in HD and really enjoyed it... watched it twice, in fact!

That's pretty incredible with the bee and the hummingbird... was there a winner? (besides you :)

Is that Leonard Bernstein?

Thanks for posting this.

~dan