Review: Horse Photography: The Dynamic Guide for Horse Lovers

I recently purchased Carol J. Walker's Book Horse Photography: The Dynamic Guide for Horse Lovers (Horses Ponies) in hopes of finding an excellent reference on how to improve my equine photography.  My wife, Michelle, is a horse owner and lover and I have found that photographing horses has been a great way for us to share something we're both passionate about.  

I'm definitely a suburban kind of guy and my experience with horses prior to meeting Michelle was limited to taking one horseback tour through the Garden of the Gods about 15 years ago.  As I've learned to take better pictures and delved into the horse world with Michelle, I've found myself seeking to know more about horses and how their owners want to see their images taken.  I saw this book as the first big step toward obtaining that knowledge.  I couldn't be more disappointed.  

First, let me say that the book is very short - 98 pages in total, with only about a third of it being text.  Despite it's length (or lack thereof), Ms. Walker decided she'd cover nearly every topic in photography.  Unfortunately, while attempting to cover so many topics, in my opinion, she failed to cover any sufficiently.  

This book seems to be written for people that love horses and maybe like photography.  Her broad strokes of attempting to define basic photographic skills are mediocre at best.  Additionally, her example images are weak, at best.  Yes, there are many beautiful photographs in this book but they don't often highlight her points.  The captions are also garbage.  She probably mentions about 15 times how important it is to shoot a dark horse on a light background and visa versa.  She also beats a dead horse, pun intended, by constantly pointing out that her images always have the horse on level ground.  She also inaccurately discusses shutter speeds by stating that you can use a slower shutter when the horse is coming directly at you versus moving laterally across you.  

Another very poor lesson in this book was Ms. Walker's discussion on light.  She basically says to avoid backlighting like the plague, unless you're purposely trying to silhouette your horse.  The page is filled with images of silhouetted horses!  But she completely ignored the fact that you can expose directly on your horse or you could use fill flash to properly expose.  The lack of explanation on light, and in my opinion laziness in terms of properly explaining a concept, is repeated throughout this book.  

The only pages that I found helpful were specific shots on what moments to capture during a walk, trot or canter.  These were the kinds of moments I was hoping for in this book.  I wanted specific details with photographic examples on what a horse owner wants.  I wanted to find examples of images I could sell.  Unfortunately, those moments were few and far between.  

Ratings (out of 10):

Content - 4

Images - 7

Writing Style - 4

Overall - 5

Summary:

In conclusion, I don't recommend buying this book if you're interested in selling equine images.  If, however, you want a book filled with decent horse images and you're a horse lover who occasionally takes pictures, this book might be the one for you.  I find that good books on equine photography for professionals seem to be lacking.  Maybe I'll pursue writing a book of my own on the  topic in a decade or so!