Tag Archives: equine photographers

The Year For Sunflowers

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A friend just reminded me that I said in a prior post I had more images of the Onaqui in sunflowers. I must say that in the thirteen years I have been photographing the Onaqui horses I have never seen this many sunflowers. It must have been due to the winter and spring weather we had.

Hope you enjoy them….

North & South Onaqui At Watering Holes – Late September

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Another glorious trip to see the Onaqui. Luckily we were able to be there when each herd came to the watering holes.

Great Blue Heron Visits Onaqui Wild Horses

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We had an OUTSTANDING visit to the Onaqui herd last week. As usual, the desert is once again different than I have ever seen it before. There have always been sunflowers this time of year, especially along the roads. This year the sunflowers were more prolific than ever. It just so happened that the North Herd was right in the middle of a huge patch of sunflowers. We spent several hours photographing them. I have not yet processed all of them so I will only post one photo of the herd in sunflowers as a teaser. The remainder of the photographs in this post are of the Onaqui Horses and a Great Blue Heron. We have seen many different birds that you normally would not expect to see in the desert (geese, ducks and Bald Eagles), but this Great Blue Heron was a first for us.

It seemed like this might have been the first time the herd had seen a heron as well. I first noticed the heron when several of the herd had their ears perked up and were all looking at something. Then the herd would get too close and the heron would fly…scaring the herd. It would fly off a bit, land, and the would process would repeat. Here are a few of the dozens of photographs I took of this unique encounter. More sunflowers with the Onaqui to be posted soon.

Unfortunately I have to “downsize”  every photograph I post here so the quality is not great.  If I post full-sized images the page will take forever to load and Google will not be happy.

If you don’t see images click on my website title.

Onaqui Wild Horses – July

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I just got tired of processing all of my Pryor Mustang photo’s and I was missing the Onaqui. Headed out a few days ago and photographed both the South and North Herd. I haven’t photographed the Onaqui for nearly a month! Not a lot of fantastic photographs but it was nice to see all of my favorite horses!

Onaqui Herd – Early Winter

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Headed out to photograph the Onaqui Herd hoping to get some nice storm clouds and forecasted lightning. No go for thunderstorms and lightning. I believe the North herd was in the valley North of Davis mountain. We decided to try and find the South herd. It took a lot of looking to finally find a portion of the South herd. We drove an drove, noticing a lot of stud piles but few horses. Finally, just before turning around we saw a small group miles in the distance. I had not seen the herd in this area before so it was new territory for me. We finally caught up to them about a mile due East of Slow Elk Wash. It was a remnant of the Cremello and Ghost’s family band. The Cremello’s son with one blue and one brown eye was in this band as was his younger sister with two blue eyes. We photographed them for nearly an hour perched on the hillside. There was a “watering hole” in the distance and when they started towards it we quickly drove to meet them there. Unfortunately the water was turned off. I have been told that it is the ranchers that control which watering holes get water not the BLM. The herd appeared to be waiting for us to turn the faucet on, which we could not do. We’re hoping that this weeks storms get them enough water where they are currently grazing. The closest water we saw was the watering hole South and East of Simpson Springs…

We drove back to the closest water and photographed a small family band kicking up a huge dust cloud on the way to water.

wild mustangs, wild horse photography, photograph of wild horses

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

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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

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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

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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.

Photography of Swasey Wild Horse Herd – Near Delta, UT

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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

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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…