Take Awful Photos of Your Sale Horse - I Would Be Most Grateful!

I would really appreciate it.  You see I've got a horse for sale too, and I just don't need the competition right now.  

If you just don't have the time to take bad pictures, then just don't take any at all.  That is almost as good. 

If you really must take good photos, then please don't put them in your horse classified ads.   Tell people they can e-mail you for photos.  It works for saddles, so why wouldn’t it work for horses too?  Again, I appreciate what you are doing, and I just want to thank you.

Awful Sale Horse Photo Tips

There are a lot of ways to get a nice blurry picture.  You could lock the camera focus on a distant tree in the background.  Just hold down the shutter partially without the horse in the frame.  Don’t let go.  Push the shutter button down all the way once you see the horse entering the frame.  This will create a sharp background and lessen your chances for a horse in focus.

By all means, do not pre-focus your slow old camera to the point where a fast moving horse will be, as it increases the likelihood that you will get a sharp photo.

To create a nice motion blur, leave your camera on automatic and just push the shutter button. 

Taking photos in auto mode is the most randomly effective way to get a blurry photo. 

The faster the horse is moving the blurrier your picture will be.

If your camera has a sports mode, avoid its use.  Instead try the landscape, portrait or even night modes for maximum artistic effect.  

Try this.  Get as far away from the horse as you can, zoom the camera way out.  Zoom out as far as your lens will go.  When the horse is nicely placed in the distance buyers won't see its flaws.  If you are photographing a pony for sale, you don't need to move back as much.  Of course, these kinds of photos are good for me too, because they also won't show your horses good qualities either.

You may have heard of peak of action.  Different sports have different optimal points that make for awesome photos.  For example, a dressage horse trotting with its closest front leg up, and with a slight bend in the knee, freezes a nice point in time.  

If you're trying to achieve a nice trough-of-action photo, be sure to have that same leg is on the ground with the horse leaning forward past it, and with the hind legs kicking out gleefully behind.   Of course, different rules of thumb apply to hunter jumper horses or western horses.

In fact, if you're selling a dressage horse in the same price range as mine, I strongly encourage you to take a lot of these kinds of photos.  Again, I can't stress enough how thankful I am for your efforts.

To create blurry, fuzzy, dark, or seriously over exposed horse photos, sometimes it helps to use an old camera.  The older your camera is the better.  Old slow cameras are a great tool for completely missing the action and getting the trough-of-action photos I mentioned earlier.  A lot of the newer cameras take really good photos and make up for many of our shortcomings, and we don’t want that.  

Try this test to see if your camera is old enough.  Place your camera on a regular bathroom scale (digital is best).  If you camera resisters any weight at all, especially if it weights more than a pound or two, then your camera should be just fine.  If your compact camera doesn't fit in your pocket, your camera is probably old enough too.

In summary, if you're having trouble parting with your beloved horse, be sure to follow these horse photography tips.  You will achieve success, and you'll have a warm fuzzy feeling inside knowing that you helped out other horse sellers in the process.