Workshop with Giana Terranova!

Just yesterday I had a fantastic opportunity to work with one of the best equine photographers out there! Giana Terranova is on the forefront of the equine photography industry. She attended the same school I am currently in, the Savannah College of Art and Design! She hosted a photo workshop with horses and locations for all of us to practice shooting! The workshop gave some fantastic tips on how to handle lighting because you can't use big crazy flashes with horses! Along with lighting tips she included her methods of posing, getting the horse's attention, and how to achieve the infamous black background image. This was a great learning experience and I'm so glad I go to such a great school full of opportunities like these! I've been following Giana's work for years and was always curious as to what her methods are because her image ALWAYS turn out wonderful! The workshop started off with Giana talking about her business and how she got to where she is now. Covering everything from working with the clients at the photo shoot to getting your name out there in the industry! Then we moved on to the barn. At the barn we really just worked on some black background images and the posing and techniques that go along with it. Some of which I already knew but she gave such great advice on how to make the process easier and the photos more successful. On the right is an image that I got during this portion of the workshop using Bogart, aka Bogie! After this we moved onto the next portion of the session, outdoor portraits! It was a little after 2 PM so we really focused on how and where to take photo in such strong lighting. We focused on techniques such as finding a buffer for the light and the best ways to pose the horse, along with getting the horse's attention and keeping it!

We used a couple different horses for this, a gray horse named Frosty and a bay horse named Gunter. It was great practice going from photographing a gray horse in the sunlight to photographing a bay horse in the sunlight. You have to expose differently for the two, otherwise the bay will be too dark or the gray will be blown out! To the left is an image I got of frosty during this part of the workshop! He really is such a cute boy! After this portion of the workshop we moved on to adding a person into the picture, Literally! One of the photographers that was participation is also a model so she was kind enough to volunteer for us! She did a fantastic job! Working with a person and a horse at the same time is definitely more challenging! I was using my 50mm 1.2 lens so getting them on the same focus plane was essential! Having to position yourself strategically so they're both in focus is hard! I nailed it a few times but more

times than not I missed one or the other! Definitely something I need to practice! I did have a great time working with the models, both human and equine! It was such an eye opener to things I've never even thought of! To the right is an image of the model and Gunter! I need to start shooting more and getting more experience with these kinds of things! I'm a little more confident after attending this workshop, it gave me an outline as to how to pose horses with people and different ideas on how to do things! Horses have a super short attention span so it's important to be patient and be done when they're done! I can't wait to start implementing these tips in my work I do now. Not just with horses but with all of the work I create! Such an amazing oppourtinity! I'm so glad I went!

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