by Max Waugh
Toward the end of my extended Yellowstone trip, I ventured out to the McCullough Peaks wild horse range in Wyoming. I'd never had much luck there before, but with a trip from a friend, we managed to find a band of over ninety of the horses, the vast majority of the population there. We spent an afternoon and the following morning with them, which was a lot of fun.
It's a much more challenging shoot than I expected. Even though you have a lot of wide open spaces, the horses aren't always active. On this morning we waited around several hours before they finally got a bit rowdy. The other issue is that there are so many horses milling about, it's very difficult to get clear views. This was one of the few fighting shots I got without other horses either in front of or behind the subjects.
Canon 1DX
Canon 500mm f/4 IS
ISO 400
1/2000th
f/8
Max
Comments
11 commentsMax: what an excellent action shot, especially so with such a clean and uncluttered background. My only minor suggestion would be to bring up the contrast a bit as the sage appears to be flat. Great otherwise and congrats. Richard
Richard, thanks for the suggestion. There definitely was some room to bump the contrast a bit, which made a nice subtle difference.
Max
Max,
Sensational image, wish you had posted a large version.
Ken, you can see a slightly larger version by clicking on the Print link.
Max
Really nice moment, I'd love to see these wild "mustangs" one day, much more attractive than their Namibian counterparts.
Max,
Thanks for the link, it looks much better larger
Great interaction, beautifully captured !
Jagdeep Rajput
Hi Max,
Good job capturing the action here - great that both horses are up on the hind legs - and that out-stretched hoof is wonderful! I thought the same thing as Richard re: the contrast when I first looked at the image, and also wonder if a very slight reduction in exposure (or at least the highlights) might bring out a little more detail on the white portions on the horse on the left? Just a thought.
Cheers
Brad
Great action and poses you captured here Max, a nice symmetry to the poses.
Perfect timing, Max. Congrats on a good one!