Meet Liz.  She loves to ride horses, teach others to ride horses, and swing dance.  This young lady is a cowgirl through and through.  Therefore, it should have been no surprise when Liz asked if we could include not one, not two, but THREE horses into her senior portraits.  And yet somehow I was a little surprised.  Being the ‘city slicker’ photographer I am, I can honestly say I’ve never photographed a horse in any of my portrait sessions.  In fact I’ve hardly ever been around horses, except for a few touristy chuckwagon dinner excursions, which (let’s be honest here) hardly qualify as horseback riding at all.  But I love a creative challenge, and so I happily took on this assignment.

I met Liz in little known open space along the Sand Creek, adjacent to the Urban Farm where she spends several days a week tending to the horses.  Surrounded on four sides by housing developments, warehouses, and even a busy highway this area is respite of rural living located smack dab in the middle of urban sprawl.   Despite its unusual location, the setting was perfect for Liz’s session.  Tall native grasses, cottonwood trees, and an area for the horses to splash in the creek provided the perfect opportunity to create the illusion of country living.

The session went perfectly.  The weather was cool, the horses were cooperative and Liz’s sweet country girl personality shined through.  As the old cowboys of the west would say:

Yippee ki yo ki yay!