A couple of days ago was the season finale of this years Mariah Meadows Barrels & Poles series. (Equine, cloverleaf barrel races & pole bending races to those reading this that have no idea what I’m referring to).
Cloverleaf Barrels 
Pole Bending
It was kind of a strange day for me, because I knew it was the last time that one of the competitors, Annie, would be there. She and her boyfriend, Dylan, are moving to North Carolina in a couple of days, so this was going to be the last time she would be at a Mariah Meadows show. I think it was because of this, that I put in a little more effort taking candid shots for this last show of the season – not just of Annie, but of everyone…
It made me actually think about the photos I take at the shows, and which ones are actually of any real lasting value. I’m not trying to take anything away from all the photos I take of each of the riders when they are in the arena – because what they do in there is fun and exciting, and they are constantly working to improve, and better their runs and times, and frankly the whole point of why they are all there in the first place. But from a photographers perspective, unless there’s a miscue or mishap of some sort during a run – the photos from one run, for the most part, look pretty much the same as the photos from another run, and usually not really all that memorable.
So when I thought of what I’ll actually look back on, months or years from now, I realized that it won’t be photos of their runs so much, it will be the candid type photos that I took of them during the shows – the ones that sometimes, might not even have much of anything to do with horses at all. That’s way I love candid photography, the memories that candid photos invoke are deeper and in a lot of ways, “more real” of how things actually were/are.
These are some candid’s I took, not just of the last show, but of various shows… These, are just a few of the photos that I will look back on years from now, and remember, and smile. 🙂
And to Annie and Dylan, it’s sad to see them leave, but I wish them nothing but the absolute very best as they ride off together to their new adventure and chapter of their lives! 🙂 🙂 🙂
