Photo Showing Tips: Outdoor

Recently, I have been getting emails and comments on my blog about Photo Showing. so, I thought that I would show you all some great tips for getting started in Photo Showing...or just taking pictures of your model for fun.


Lighting
I generally go outside to photograph my models because I like the natural lighting of the sun better than artificial lighting inside. If taking pictures outdoors, then I would advise you take the pictures either in the late evening or early morning, depending on the season. I personally like to photograph at about noon in the summer.

Photo taken at noon in early July.  

 Shade is also good to use for pictures. Sometimes when you take photo's in shade then your model doesn't stand out as much. I prefer to take a sunny picture, but when you have the right background it can look really good. Shade is good to use for Stablemate scaled models.

Gleam

If you don't watch where you place your model outside in full sun, you can end up with a picture not worthy of showing. A judge will usually overlook a photo of it is too bright and shiny.

Angle
A judge wants to see the full model when they are judging it. A little bit of angle can be very attractive and could even show the model off better, but if the angle is too strong then the judge could think that you were hiding part of the horse, or the judge wouldn't be able to see enough of the model to judge it properly.

This picture is beautiful and attractive, but the judge wouldn't be able to see the
whole body and so it wouldn't place well, or your model could be DQ. 

Lighting is beautiful, color very rich, but the angle is too strong to photo show this picture.

 Background
Your background is very important in an outdoor photo. Usually a judge appreciates a little bit of overhead sky and a appealing background. Make sure that your background is in scale to your model. Your footing also matters. Preferably the rocky ground of the above photo isn't the best. Try to think about "would a real live horse put himself in these conditions, or could I make something better for him that would be more realistic?" Another thing to remember is that your background footing and/or  background nature isn't tilted in the picture.

Look at the angle of the cement and the background. A judge will place
a straighter photo higher than this one.  

This picture is OK. Not much gleam on the model, BUT his
hooves are very deep in the thick grass and their is no
horizon. 

This is much better. Some sky, and some grass, which help make
a really good picture. 

Okay, I think I have covered the most important parts of  producing a really good photo. I am sorry if this post has a lot of corrections, but my sisters are playing a movie and I am distracted from it. 

~CBL

P.S. If you are interested in joining MEPSA (It is awesome!) or you are just looking for more model horse photography tips, feel free to go to the MEPSA website at:http://mepsa1.tripod.com/

Lead Ropes!

Hello everybody! I am very excited to show you some beautiful lead ropes that match the rope halters......four of them will be in the giveaway!

I am very sorry that the lighting isn't best. I was taking these at 9:00 p.m. yesterday evening. 

The lead ropes are made out of the very same thread as the lead rope. 

Random picture of Phoenix. I also took this photo last night. 

I am sorry this post is so short....but I am very busy today. Have a nice day, everybody!  Right now the giveaway includes four lead ropes, and seven rope halters, so don't forget to enter!

Good luck!
~CBL

DIY Rope Halter Tutorial

I told you yesterday that I would make a tutorial on how to make rope halters. They are pretty easy to make, but be warned: it is really hard to knot a piece of embroidery floss with large hands!

You need:
Embroidery floss or a small piece of cord, thread, twine, nylon thread, or whatever kind of string is in scale to the horse's face.
Scissors
The model you want the halter to fit.

While you can make rope halters for any scale, I chose to use a Classic for this tutorial because Dexter (the Classic) needed a rope halter. 

STEP ONE:  Measure out about 22 inches worth of embroidery thread for Classics. For small Traditional's use 28 inches, for large models, such as Trooper or SBH Phoenix, use 32 inches. make one end about 3 1/2 inches shorter than the other (don't be afraid to eyeball it). 

STEP TWO: Take a small piece of light colored thread and tie a simple knot in the middle of the loop that is created if you put it like the picture above. That knot will help to get a good start on your rope halter. 

STEP THREE: Make sure that the longer end of the thread is on the horse's left side. Put the knot as pictured below:

STEP FOUR: Make two knots on either side of the horse's head. It should look like this:

Do the same on both sides. 

STEP FIVE: Now we will tie a simple knot with BOTH THREADS to create a little loop down below the muzzle. Then do another knot over the loop knot you just created with BOTH THREADS so that you can secure it. This is important. 

STEP SIX: Do a simple knot again with both threads underneath the cheek.

STEP SEVEN: Now we are going to put the short section of thread away, we are going to use the long one now. Take the thread that you are using and make a simple knot with a loop. 

Note the loop. 

Secure the loop with another simple knot.

STEP EIGHT: Now bring the thread that you just did the loop with across the face to the nose band. Tie a knot over the small knot that you did in the fourth step. Take off the light colored thread. 

Cross the face to the other knot on the muzzle and do it again so that it looks like this:

STEP NINE: Take the strand we put away on the right side earlier and the strand we just worked on and tie them together.  Put both strands over the poll and tie to the loop on the left side. It should look something like this:

Now tie the two strands on the loop that you made in step seven. 

FINISHED PRODUCT:

Now Dexter has one like his big friend, Ashleigh!

I LOVE this picture. They are so cute!

All done! 

So there you have it, a tutorial I thought would be much easier to do. It may be a little hard to understand, so just comment if you have a problem and I will answer it as fast as possible. 

I am sorry if the pictures are blurry, my little sister took them and so I had to delete some and use photos from yesterday's halter making session. 

Have a great day, and have fun making your halters!

~CBL

Rope Halters

Today I made five rope halters. This was the first time I had ever made any kind of rope halter. It was a lot of fun, and I (if all goes as planned) will do a tutorial on it sometime this weekend so that you can make them for your models!

I used more embroidery floss for Heza Copper Cowboy's halter. 

Krypton Kismet does not have his halter on properly  in this photo. 

Get excited, the tutorial will be fun! 

~CBL

My Accidental Breyer Box Hoard a.k.a "The Stack."

Hello!
           I am hoping that everybody is having a very nice, busy Tuesday. My day was full of cleaning and school. I decided to clean out my closet this afternoon. I had been keeping my Breyer boxes up on the top shelf, so I decided to pull them down to see how many I have. What I didn't know, was that I had been piling up breyer boxes since the middle of last year.

13 total in count.


However, my mom has/had been wanting me to get rid of the boxes. I however, got a brilliant idea with what to do with them-I got the idea from a show photo on this blog: http://mistystarstudios.blogspot.com/.

 I cut out the info sheet on each box that had one...

 ..so they could be used as documentation cards for Red Devil Live!!!

I kept a Classic Mustang box and the 2012 Christmas horse box.

..I only ended up not cutting two boxes.

And that is what happened to my accidental Breyer box hoard!

~CBL

HORSE OF THE WEEK


Beautiful!!!!