Just One – children’s photography in Essex with ponies

Today’s ‘Just One’ image from a recent children’s photo shoot in Essex is a bit different from normal but I love it, I just love it. Sometimes I take a picture that even at the moment of pressing the shutter captures my imagination and makes me so happy, as I know I have something special.

This image is individual and it is also universal. The pony stands on the righthand side looking straight at the camera, the focus on her eye. Horses are such majestic animals and I’m always thrilled when part of a family photography session involves photographing the children as they ride.

I love the composition – the dark side of the frame is filled with the pony’s head (Zara is holding the pony just out of the frame) and the light side with the second rider, Zara’s sister Niamh. The shapes bring everything together with the eye being drawn in from the righthand side of the picture and then heading up to the pony’s eye before echoing straight back to the rider in an equilateral triangle. It’s a strong composition but also an interesting and experimental one, and I love it.

And in the background, Niamh is on her pony. For the family, so much is captured in this one image – the relationship between the sisters; one horse so still, so quiet, ready to go; the other clearly moving as we can see from Niamh’s body language as she leans back a little as she brings her horse to a stop.

As you can imagine, we also captured many other pictures of the children horse-riding that are more classical in form and which really show the fun and the excitement of this wonderful hobby, but this is the image that grabbed me most – the image that I love and chose to be today’s ‘Just One’ preview from our family horse-riding photo shoot in Essex.

I do hope you enjoy this image and if you would be interested in arranging a photo shoot for your own family – with or without ponies! – please contact us – we would love to hear from you.