LOTS and LOTS More Photography and Life

Outrider Pony At Churchill Downs

Churchill Downs

Churchill Downs

Churchill Downs

Churchill Downs

Diana D and Zorillo

Zorillo

Diana D and Zorillo

Diana D and Zorillo

Lee A and Magnatli at the Horsepark Costume Party

Thomas the Hackney at the Horsepark Halloween costume Party

Lee A and Magnatli at the Horsepark Halloween Costume Party

Kentucky Horse Park Halloween Costume Party

Shires Drawing the Horse Drawn Tour at the Horsepark

"Anna from Frozen" on her Fjord at the Kentucky Horse Park

"Ilse from Frozen" at the kentucky Horse park Costume Party

Snowy Egret at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress in Orlando Fl

Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress in Orlando Fl

Feline Resident at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress in Orlando FL

Dharma at Wolf Park

Wotan at Wolf Park

Dharma at Wolf Park

Dharma at Wolf Park

Kanti at wolf park

Kanti and Bicho Arguing at wolf Park

Kanti at wolf park

The second half of 2014 Has been exceptionally busy for me.  There have been a lot of real changes in my life this year, and if I really sit and think about them, I get super overwhelmed.

Let me try to share the things I've learned about myself in the last few years in just a few sentences.. ha!!!

I am highly sensitive: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/26/highly-sensitive-people-signs-habits_n_4810794.html

I am an INFJ: http://www.personalitypage.com/INFJ.htmlhttp://www.personalitypage.com/INFJ.html

Which means I'm a highly sensitive, artistic introvert that has a difficult time with major change.

I don't think any of those things are a negative. I actually have learned to work within the confines of my psyche and draw strength from my perceived "weirdness" and I'm happy. (as a friend recently said "You're not weird, you're interesting.")

Turns out that being highly sensitive isn't that rare. Being an INFJ is.  This concludes the portion of my blog where I share too much

I haven't touched my saddle in a couple of months. I hate that I haven't worked on it but my brain apparently needs a rest. Photography is downright easy compared to making little things so I assume thats whats going on.

So I've turned (obviously) to photography. I've been photographing and photographing and photographing lately.  The photos sort of chronicle what I've done in the last few months.

I went to a "women in technology" day at Churchill Downs in September that connected me to several local, dynamic women and was so refreshing!  While I was there, I shot several photos because there was NO WAY I would go to Churchill Downs and not take pictures.

Then I got lucky and Diana D. who works at Churchill Downs and is a model horse person invited me to go take some photos of her off the track thoroughbred, Zorillo (Little Sheik).  That was great fun because when photographing a 6 year old "Thoroughbred off of the track" it's more of a negotiation than a "Stand him there and let me take photos".  Standing still is not his strong point. Being Beautiful is.  Diana has a very laid back calm, personality which is perfect for Zorillo.  She handled him expertly and he absolutely loves her. (As you can tell from the photo where he's actually hugging her back).

Next was off to Wolf Park in Battleground Indiana.  A photographer who usually photographs horses got together a small group of photographers to go to "Wolf Park" in Battleground, Indiana.  I saw the invite the week before the trip and quickly jumped in.  The interesting thing about going up to the Wolf Park to photograph wolves is that we would be allowed to go into the various enclosures with the wolves.  It was an amazing experience to say the least.  We had an hour long dissertation on what to do and what NOT to do when around wolves and then were turned loose with some wolf park folks to photograph to our hearts content. I took over 2,000 photos in an 8 hour period. I will never ever forget it.

Then I went ot the Kentucky Horse park to take photos during the Kentucky Horse Park Halloween Costume Party which was organized and put together by the folks that run the breed barn.  It was a wonderful little show and RJ enjoyed it.  Thankfully it was a Stunning day outside and the light was exquisite!

Last week I went Orlando Florida for "Susecon 2014" which is a convention for all of the people that use the Linux operating system called "SuSE".  It was a week long learning and networking convention held at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress in Orlando, Florida, a mile from Walt Disney world.  Turns out that Florida actually does get quite cold in the winter and most of the days topped out around 47 Degrees.  Too cold to sneak off to Disney so I didn't leave the hotel much.  On Thursday It did get warmer so I had some time to go out and shoot a few photos.  It was very windy though and I got cold really easily so I didn't take as many as I would have wanted.

I have also started to post a photo a day on my twitter account here: http://www.twitter.com/heathermoreton

I went on all of these excursions while Anthony was out of town a few weeks with a new job and I worked a full time job and took care of my elementary school agedson.. We also now have a 9 foot pool table that I practice on every night. (I Play league pool too!) So "busy" doesn't even begin to describe what I've been.


Today I'm going to try to get back to my saddle and muster up the energy to go for a long walk.

Hope you enjoyed the photos and the "blah blah"!

Rest In Peace Cigar

Hopefully, if you've been reading my blog for a while, you know how grateful I am to live in the state of Kentucky.  I don't know if growing up here gave me my love for horses or if somewhere in my DNA I loved horses and living in Kentucky just facilitated it. But I do love it here..

One of the BIG reasons I love living here, is that an hour away, to the southeast is the Kentucky Horse Park.  I make it there at least twice a year.  Hopefully, if it's been a good year, it's a lot more than that.

In 2008, I had just had my son and I was an out of work System Engineer.  My entire life, I've wanted to be an artist or do somethig artistic for a living but I had NO clue how to go about doing so. I had surrounded myself with non-artistic people because that is essentially how I grew up.  My husband gave me my first DSLR (I'd had film SLRs in the past).  It was quite a learning curve compared to the sharp, clear, beautiful pictures from film.  But less expensive (sort of) and instantly gratifying. I entertained the notion of becoming a photographer for a living.  I had post-partum depression pretty bad and I really wasn't in my right mind. What I did have in my favor was an eye for composition (thaks to my art training) and my love for horses.

On the day the above photos were taken, Alysheba had just come back from Dubai that week and I wanted to get some of the first photos of him back on US soil.  I thought that maybe would help my career. (It did not, I am/was clueless on how to market myself)  There was another, what I assume was a more famous male photographer there who was sort of snotty to me. But I didn't care. I had my son with me and I was on familar ground.

I got some great photos of Alysheba.  He was really a wonderful horse.  I wish he was around longer so that I could've gotten more photos.

I then turned my lens on Cigar.  Cigar had been there for some time and although I knew he was a great racehorse, I didn't know until recently how truely great he was.  On that beautiful, warm, fall day, I took photos of the old man that showed his real personality.  He played with his handler and was generally well behaved, as he always was.  Getting a photo of cigar with his head UP and not buried in grass is a coup for someone who isn't at the horsepark every day.

 I got very lucky that day..  They let Kona Gold out in his paddock while cigar was standing there and kona proceeded to HAUL BUTT around his paddock for seriously, a good 6 or 7 minutes with cigar watching the entire time.  Ears up, intensely interested..  Lucky for me.

Although my photos were blown out (see the white fence with no detail?) because I was new to photography, photoshop now saved my butt.. and in going over my photos again, the photos I thought were "bad" are actually just showing his personality. So I'm sharing them here with you.

Be grateful for the champions that are still alive. Take as many photos of them as you can. Even if that champion is a horse in your back yard, or in the barn where you ride. You won't regret it.

Lots of Photography

Been Shooting a lot of photos lately.  Not the typical, "This is a conformation Shot" kind of photos either..  More "arty" ones that are a bit different than normal.  This has made my artistic soul very very happy.

The above photos were taken when I was in Nicholasville, KY with Shannon DeWaal Hayden, Eli Hayden and Morgen Kilbourn Rossomando.

I'm still working on my western pleasure saddle though.  I have the jockey pieces pinned in place, just need to glue them down but I wanted to "live with them" in their spots for a week or so to make sure they are where I want them.

Hope that you are having a lovely fall!!

Western pleasure saddle silver

Tiny bullet keeper and Latigo keeper in silver

These will get engraving

Closer and closer

I'm actually excited about this one and I like it!

My brain this weekend

 

I was actually productive in the Studio this past weekend.  Saturday found my brain bouncing all over the place but Sunday, with less than my usual amount of caffiene, turned into a nice, quiet studio day. Lesson learned. Less Caffiene on the weekends!

The Western pleasure saddle is almost completely put together.  The pieces fit like a nice, tight puzzle and I've adjusted and readjusted how the seat sits on the bottom skirt so that it's as perfect as I can get it.

I'm running out of sheet silver though so I'll need to make some sales stuff soon to cover the cost.. :)

Saddle silver changed

I took the acorn off of the fender silver.. it will be replaced with a more elegant acorn seperate from the other plate. 

The second picture is of my favorite part of any saddle..the drawings.. I love to draw..

Western Pleasure Saddle in Progress....

I'm going to have to rethink that fender silver.. it's clunkier than I'd like.. but the rest of it is coming along well :)

Happy Saturday!- Few Photos from Nationals this year

I know, I'm a horribly lazy blogger.  I'm just tired and behind on all of those things I want to do.  Like years behind.. lol

Above are a few photos from the CM Plastic Division at the 2014 North American Model Horse Nationals.

Today I'm making an effort to get some stuff on my studio computer organized.  Seems like lots of stuff that I don't need to keep and a lot of stuff that is in the wrong/what!? folders and I need to sort that out..

Hope that your weekend is organized!