Horse and Rider

This image has made the rounds recently -- 500px.com, facebook, and the Bay Area Photo Club. It has only appeared in black and white until now. I always envisioned it as a high contrast black and white, but when I retouch an image I always work on the file in color until the very end and then do the black and white conversion. So those of you who have seen the black and white version either online or in print, this is the layer before the black and white. It was one of those rare instances of good luck ... when you have to react fast and things work in your favor. I probably took about 12 frames of Lauren in this basic pose. And for a brief second at about shot #3, the wind kicked up just enough to blow her hair in this great line following the horse's neck.

So, I took the shot and hoped for the best -- hoped that f/4 was enough aperture to carry focus from the horse to Lauren, hoped that the flash had recycled and was ready to fire, hoped that in my rush I framed it correctly. And at the end of the shoot, it's one of those frames you scroll to and zoom in a couple of times just to see if you got lucky.