A Pony A Day Again

A Pony A Day

Oklahoma: Part 3

When I was in OK last weekend I had a few hours to spend in Tulsa with my other sister, who isn't really my sister at all but she really is. :)

Sara's all grown up now, with a real husband and a real house and real kids, and being with them for the afternoon was a trip back to 1987, but without the 80s-era side ponytails and tight-rolled jeans.

Sara's little boy is a tiny replica of her brother, Tommy, when he was three years old. Naughty, determined, and super-sweet all rolled up into one really cute package.

He couldn't quite figure out how to say my name, so when he wanted my attention it was: "Hey! Hayhayhay!" (love!)

This was the first time I'd met little Maya.

I'm a sucker for a snuggly one-year-old. She's at that fun Exploring Stuff age.

Maggie was there before any of the human kids.

She's very helpful with them.

I wish I had a scanner so I could show you photos from when Sara and I were 8 years old, playing "Statues" in the front yard.

Or photos from college, when we were ... well, neverMind. :)

Happy Birthday, Sara Kate. :) I love you a zillion and hope you come out here to see me soon. Bring those kids. But when they start to scream we'll leave them at my mom's house, k?

Oklahoma: Part 2

Dear Universe:

Please

let me have acres to keep a herd of rescued ponies

the means to keep them healthy

the ability to listen to what they are telling me

and a donkey to keep them safe.

kthx!

New favorite shot. Ever.

I was being followed. :)

I have many horsish things to say. People who know me are very aware of that. If you are a horse person, please post your local horse rescue's website in the comments section of this post. I'm hoping to go somewhere with this .... I'll start with our local rescue: Colorado Horse Rescue. Your turn. :)

Oklahoma: Part 1

This last weekend I was in Oklahoma for 48 hours. During that time, I photographed

22 horses

17 dogs

3 human children

3 cats

1 donkey

and 2 reindeer disguised as Oldenburgs. :)

Most of this weekend's critters were rescues of some sort. Lisa's dogs, including sweet one-eyed Hootie, found her, rather than the other way around.

This is little Nellie Belle.

Don't let her looks fool you. She's not really that small.

And this is Sky:

Corkie the ...

Gah! This is one of my favorite shots EVER.

And this one too. I loved the big dogs. They were tricky to photograph because they just wanted to be close (I'm an excellent scratcher).

Jake:

Nellie Belle and her dad (who, btw, is a big, tough motorcycle cop) are superClose, and this shoot was a surprise for him (even though he pulled up from work right as we were in the middle of shooting! Whoops.)

It really was a treat to be able to shoot in such a pretty corner of my home state. I'm glad to be back in Colorado (especially after two years of dreary Washington), but there's just something about rolling-hilled northeastern Oklahoma and its big-hearted people (witness the 43 rescued animals that I met this weekend, and that doesn't even begin to include the strays that my aunt feeds and doctors daily) that I'll always look forward to visiting. Except for in the summer, because really? 112 degrees with 90% humidity? Maybe not then.

Thanks to Lisa and her pack for inviting me out to their home and for agreeing to pose in the middle of the road for me. :)

Stay tuned for horses tomorrow. Lots and lots of horses.

Happy November!

Ireland and Reese

I lovelove doing shoots in people's homes. Everyone is more relaxed (notably toddlers!) and I think the photographic results are more representative of the day-to-day interactions of parents, kids, siblings, and pets, which is exactly what I want to come away with.

Two-year-old Ireland was a little nervous when we shot at Chautauqua last week, but as soon as I showed up in her house yesterday morning, she grabbed my hand and gave me the grand tour, starting with the big girl room and moving along to tea parties, puppies, and kitchenGolf with no reservations.

It is my suspicion, however, that her parents were the ones who wanted to play with the blocks. Baby Reese didn't mind, though.

Ireland wasn't quite sure about my 5D and big lens until she pulled out her very own camera at the end of our session and started shooting everything in sight. It was like watching a shorter, much cuter version of myself. Now I know how my dogs feel. :)

Seriously, I want these blocks:

We went out back for a few minutes--it was cold and snowy yesterday, so that didn't last long.

Meanwhile, back indoors ...

We ended with a tea party ... plasticFrenchFry tea is decidedly delicious. Please note that Reese is gnawing on a drumstick. :) Love!

Thumpkin

Autumn is my favorite time of year.

Ever.

In the history of times of year.

Sport + Ali

Lately I've a little unimpressed with my keeper ratio, and last week I had a mini internal meltdown regarding my apparent lack of photography skills. I did a Typical Haley Freakout (THF) and considered feeding my 5D to the bears and going back to school for biology.

(This is all making perfect sense so far, right?)

While I'm still seriously thinking about going back to CU for the spring semester (strongly encouraged by Mentor 1), I decided to save my 5D from bearDeath (also strongly encouraged by Mentor 1) and keep shooting, but maybe switch things up a little and get out of the processing rut I was in. To shoot for fun and not worry about what anybody thinks of the results, because maybe changing things up would inspire me to do something different (strongly encouraged by Mentor 2, who mentioned he would feed ME to the bears if I stopped shooting).

ANYway, I went hiking with a friend today. I decided to process a couple shots in the Regular Haley Poulos style, and then just goof around with the others. And ... it was fun! I'm not sure I'm crazy about how I did them, and tomorrow I might say ICK BLEH but I figure I'll post them anyway, because Sport is darling.

Meet Sport!

Then I shot this comPLETELY out-of-focus over-exposed thingo and LOVELOVE.

Sport wasn't really too sure about the thing I was pointing at him, and I was using my plastic 50, so I was all up in his face and stuff.

Sport has a story. He was a stray who made it from a shelter in Kansas to The Animal House in Ft. Collins, where Ali worked. He was adopted out to a person who returned him after a biting incident, and who then requested that he be put down (GAH!).

Ali swooped in and fostered him, rehabilitating him from the terrified dog he was into a pretty brave, trusting little guy. She failed as a foster mom, and now Sport is in his forever home. :)

Bumper Stickers

Hello!

Someone (two someones, actually) once (technically twice then, I suppose) told me that I lack direction. YOU HAVE NO DIRECTION. I think they meant it as an insult, and at first I saw it that way too, but then a friend pointed out a bumper sticker to me: "Not all who wander are lost."

I liked that very much, and decided to live my life by the wisdom of bumper stickers. Good plan? I think so.

That's all I have to say about that.

Here are a couple more of Moose + Steve from last week:

Little Moosey reminds me of a serious little boy. He's all puppy in that he wiggles as though he has no joints and he chases bugs and he does naughty things like eating horse poo and barking at strangers, but he definitely looks to Steve for guidance and takes his jobs (heeling, sitting when told, reluctantly spitting out horse poo, etc.) very seriously. He's going to be a Good Dog.

Moving on:

I hope this next photo creeps you out as much as it did me. :)

I do have more grape and winery photos from the Western Slope trip a couple weeks ago, but they're sort of on the back burner until I finish up this Monterey sailboat batch.

SPEAKing of Monterey, my mistake was in not staying longer. The weather on Saturday was crap, and that's the only time we had to get out on the boat. So rather than shooting Glory (my intended subject) from another vessel, I was onBOARD Glory shooting Glory. Tricky!

I should post the before and after boatPics, so you can see how gray it really was out there. And flat and bleh. But I'd never been on a sailboat before, so to me it was still a lot of fun, and my crew was great company. :)

This afternoon I'm going pumpkin-picking with the Dino, my little cousin. Yesterday I had a family shoot up at Chautauqua, so hopefully once I get these boat photos done, I'll have time to process the pumpkin pics and some from yesterday before I go to Oklahoma in a couple weeks for a few horse shoots. (yay!) Until then, the wandering continues. :)