Just Horsing About

I doubt my English teacher would believe that I still remember the famous poem Horses of the Camargue, strangely every autumn when the wind blows cold I think of the poem and in my minds’ eye I can see those white horses.  The early morning pink clouds were the first sign of the weather turning, as I stood watching the beautiful sky I could see the wind rolling in from behind.

The wind blows through my being and turns my inner peace topsy turvey, my head becomes fuzzy and I feel the grit between my teeth and in my eyes.  Without wind we won’t have rain, which we desperately need now, this earth is parched.

So instead of photographing sunrises and pears I decided to look for some horses.

 In the grey wastes of the dread,

The haunt of shattered gulls where nothing moves

But in a shroud of silence like the dead,

I heard a sudden harmony of hooves,

And, turning saw afar

A hundred snowy horses unconfined,

The silver runaways of Neptune's car

Racing, spray-curled, like waves before the wind.

With white tails smoking free,

Long streaming manes, and arching necks, they show

Their kinship to their sisters of the sea -

And forward hurl their thunderbolts of snow.

Still out of hardship bred,

Spirits of power and beauty and delight

Have ever on such frugal pastures fed

And loved to course with tempests through the night.

(Extract from Horses of the Camargue, a poem by Roy Campbell)

Like the Mistral, that wind that owns Provence and turns people slightly mad today’s wind does the same to me.  Choices I have, succumb to it and be paralysed or go with the wind and let it take me along with it.  That’s what I chose and ended up with some white horses at the Worcester Riding Club.

My selection of photographs for the day:  sunrise, the postman on his bicycle braving the dusty wind, and the horses who neighed to get into their stalls, nudging the gates in frustration, no nickers just a whinny with their heads held high.

“The essential joy of being with horses is that it brings us in contact with the rare elements of grace, beauty, spirit and freedom” -Sharon Ralls Lemon

When using high ISO's there is the danger of having too much "noise" unfortunately when shooting wildlife a photographer needs the speed.  Using the widest aperture often does not suffice and the ISO has to be turned to full throttle adding a grain.  One without the other is often impossible.

A last look and then it's back to the stable and home for me.  I really learned a lot again today, for one, turn you back on the wind, it will pass.

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