Neowise Comet – Photographs Taken in Utah

A friend shamed me into getting up early this morning and driving to the top of Francis Peak along the Wasatch Front. (my wife and I drove up the evening before for me to find a likely spot to see the comet). I was a little off on my prediction as to where I would actually see the comet this morning but I am very pleased I took the time.

I apologize for the fact that these are not wild horse photographs, but I wanted to get them out for friends and family to see this remarkable sight.

Black & White Toned Photographs of Onaqui Wild Horses

Several friends have asked about purchasing some prints. Most want black and white prints with a sepia-like tone. I went through many of my favorite photographs and came up with just over 100 of my favorite. I am posting them here. Contact me for pricing if you are interested.

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Onaqui Wild Horse Photography – June 4

It has taken me weeks to get these photographs processed. The lighting was so perfect and varied, I had a hard time getting through all of the photographs I liked. I couldn’t get the ones I wanted to post to any fewer than these. I know there are too many, but I tried…

We were about a mile South of the watering hole photographing HUNDREDS of these magnificent wild horses. I had the sense that they were going to return to the watering trough. We got in the car and drove to the water. It was just before sunset and luckily, they did as I had predicted! Hundreds of horses on a run to the water! What a sight! Unfortunately the photographs don’t do justice to the experience, but I will remember that moment for the rest of my life…

Once the sun had set we were in a perfect setting to shoot some long exposures.  Some were more like “abstract art,” but I was happy with a few.

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wild mustangs, wild horse photography, photograph of wild horses

Photographing Wild Horses in Utah’s West Desert – Late May

I’m often asked if I ever get tired of photographing this herd of Wild Horses. The simple answer is N E V E R! Every trip is different. Different lighting, different foregrounds, different backgrounds, the horses have different attitudes. This trip was all about dark skies and rich lighting.

A few posts ago (the one with a lot of dust and wind) I felt that many of the photographs looked better in that very warm sepia tone. Another post a few weeks ago it didn’t feel like many of the photographs looked better in any form of black and white. On this trip to the Onaqui, even as I was taking some photographs, I said to myself, “this scene is meant to be in black and white”. I tried several of these scenes in the warm sepia tone but it just wasn’t what I saw in my mind’s eye. I saw dark, dramatic skies in a deep selenium tone. I hope you agree…

Onaqui wild horse 2020 foal

More Wild Horse Photographs for April – Lots of 2020 Foals

Here is the final batch of photo’s from my April trip to photograph the Onaqui Herd of Wild Horses. Several spectacular new foals. I think I have a new favorite foal! Hope you enjoy!  I can’t wait to see what the foals that belong to the South herd look like!

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Photographs of Onaqui Herd April

Had a short trip to the herd a few weeks ago. Found the North herd near the trough watering hole. What a sight! Horses everywhere. Lots of new foals (too many), but it was great to see them having such a great time. Went to find the South herd. Only a few horses on the flat, went up to the upper watering hole, nothing there. Then I noticed some movement a couple of miles south and East. There they were. Unfortunately not time to get there before sunset so I will have to plan on seeing them in a few weeks. This is only a small portion of my photographs. These wild horses are such a pleasure to photograph. More coming soon.

wild mustang, Onaqui herd of wild horses

Wild Horse Photography – March 2020

Got back to the Onaqui herd a few weeks ago. We drove several miles on back-roads before we found this group of horses. They were North of the trough watering hole. We photographed them for a couple of hours in harsh light. I spotted the bulk of the herd South of the trough watering hole up in the cedars. We drove to them, but they seemed unusually spooked and with few roads in the area we returned to the first group and prepared for sunset light. Great timing on our part. Still waiting for the grass to green up, but we could not find ANY HORSES that were distressed in any way. We also found and photographed the Old Man! He too wasn’t as friendly as in the past be he looked great! It looks like he will be with us for a while.

Photography of Swasey Wild Horse Herd – Near Delta, UT

I was asked if I had any photographs of the Swasey Herd of Wild Horses near Delta, UT. Just the excuse I needed to make the two hour drive from Salt Lake. Rumor has it that the BLM will be rounding most of them up soon. Glad we were able to find them! They certainly are a different herd the Onaqui. Very spooky. They would not let us get anywhere near them, very different than the Onaqui. They also did not come together in a large herd. Only bands of 3-8 horses. Glad we had longer lenses!

Timing was also perfect to photograph the Snow Geese migration. Every spring between 10 and 20 thousand snow geese make a stop in Delta, UT on their annual migration to Canada. I have photographed them nearly every year for 5 or 6 years. This year did not disappoint.

Onaqui Wild Horse Herd – February

As usual, the Onaqui herd never disappoints. We located several family bands just below Davis Mountain. The antelope (pronghorns) must be migrating back from their winter range because we saw a couple of herds that had nearly 50 antelope in them. Then we set out to find the rest of the “North” herd. We found them herd several miles North of Davis Mountain at the top of the foothills. We have seen the herd in this area once before. We named the valley “Dead Eagle Valley” for a dead eagle that we found there last spring. As some of the bands came into the valley we were able to position ourselves above them, and Simpson Buttes and the valley East of there is in the background. What a view! Several photographs in this post are panorama’s where I shoot 12-15 separate overlapping photographs in portrait mode and then stitch them together to form a panorama in Lightroom. Then we were able to hike to the opposite side of the valley and had the snow-covered Onaqui Mountains in the background! Wish we had lawn chairs with us, we could have spent the entire day there! We photographed them for several hours in that valley and then proceeded South and West to find the former Cremello band. We found them again near the main watering hole South and West of Simpson Springs. It looks like the black mustang has taken over the band once Ghost and the Cremello were captured, neutered and sold at auction by the BLM. No sign of the colt with one blue and one brown eye, but his mother and her two younger foals were there. I fear he was rounded up with Ghost and the Cremello. A sad thought to have as we left the herd and headed home…