Onaqui Wild Horses – Nov/Dec

Posted on December 23, 2022December 23, 2022 by ghuggins

I have had several visits to the Onaqui but haven’t gotten around to posting. Here are photos from a couple of recent visits. Lighting was very different between trips, horses very hard to find.

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

Posted on June 2, 2020June 2, 2020 by ghuggins

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…

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More Wild Horse Photographs for April – Lots of 2020 Foals

Posted on May 28, 2020May 28, 2020 by ghuggins

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

Posted on April 21, 2020April 21, 2020 by ghuggins

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.

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Onaqui Wild Horse Herd – February

Posted on February 28, 2020February 28, 2020 by ghuggins

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…

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Wild Horse Photography – Wild Horses Running

Posted on August 18, 2017August 18, 2017 by ghuggins

On this trip to Utah’s West Desert I was specifically hoping to photograph this herd of wild horses while they were on the run with a long exposure time. The idea was to blur the background, lets etc., but having some part of the horse(s) sharp and in focus. It takes a lot of luck and timing to get an acceptable shot. I have not had a chance to process any of the “normal” photographs from this trip, only those that I liked with the “motion” effect. We had several other photographers on this shoot, and met a very nice gentleman from Midvale if I remember right. He knew each and every horse in the herd, knew when they were born, knew who was related to who. Very impressive! Another great evening that I will remember for a long time…

Photography of Onaqui Wild Horses and Lightning – July 20

Posted on July 25, 2017July 25, 2017 by ghuggins

Wow! What a trip we had in late July to the Onaqui herd of wild horses in Utah’s West Desert. The herd was using the Simpson Springs watering hold on the Pony Express route. They had already left the water when we found them. After spending a couple of hours photographing them we left to find another herd to photograph at sunset. We did find the other herd, but they were nearly a mile form the road and we were quickly running out of light. There was a storm brewing, so we decided to “focus” (pun intended) on photographing the storm and hopefully some lightning. We were not disappointed! The lighting was once again remarkable. The panoramic photograph of the sunset was made by stitching 14 photographs into one. The panoramic photograph spanned over 180 degrees. The lightning was another rare opportunity. No rain and lots of lightning. What a fantastic trip…

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Photography of five wild horse mares - Onaqui Herd Utah

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Panorama Photograph of sunset and storm in Utah's West Desert

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New Photographs July Onaqui Herd of Wild Horses

Posted on July 18, 2017July 19, 2017 by ghuggins

We had a GREAT visit to the herd in July. It was so hot the herd didn’t graze much. Spent most of the day at the watering hole. That gave us some unusual opportunities to photograph them. Lots of fights (some real and some just “jousting”). It allowed us to have a lot of horses in the background that sometimes helps simplify any distractions.

There was a fierce fight near/in the watering hole. The brown stallion was fighting with the gray all day long. Both stallions were on their hind legs just seconds earlier. Then the brown stallion decided to run to get away from the gray. They were on the edge of the watering hole surrounded by other wild horses so that meant they ran through the water. Great opportunity that I was glad I was able to witness and get a few photographs of…

So many photographs to process but here are a few of what I have processed thus far…

Latest Photographs of Onaqui Herd – Wild Horses

Posted on July 5, 2017July 5, 2017 by ghuggins

Another great trip to Utah’s West desert to photograph this wonderful herd of wild horses. I worry every trip out that the herd has been rounded up. With so many foals this year they are really multiplying quickly. I have herd rumors that the BLM will be using PZP on this herd rather than rounding them up and taking them off to holding pens.

I am no expert on any of this, but PZP seems like a better alternative than simply rounding them up and shipping them to massive holding pens for the rest of their lives (or until they are slaughtered).

The main watering trough that this herd uses regularly was dry! I did find them nearby, but they were moving to an area that I have never seen them in throughout the 7 years I have been photographing them. I hope to get back to them in a few weeks to see what has happened. I will keep you posted.