We all love wild horse images.... and enjoy wild mustang videos!!
It is fun and wonderful and soul stirring to watch wild horses do the things they do in videos shared by those of us lucky enough to go out into mustang land and observe them in person! And we all enjoy beautiful images captured in the wild and shared on social media.... but how about what it took to capture the images and videos so that they may be shared with others?
What does it take to be the observer, photographer, videographer, and documenter of wild horses out in their wild places?
It takes a lot... we don't talk about it much, because, well we are so caught up in the magic experienced when in the wild, in sharing those moments with others, that we don't want to bring down the room by talking about the time, equipment, and money that is needed to be out in the wild regularly - that is boring stuff!
But that is not really fair to us or to you to skip the boring stuff.... to not admit that it takes quite a bit of work, dedication, and dollars to do what we do to bring back those moments of magic to the rest of the world.
Some of the very boring details of how I capture wild horses on camera.... I carry three cameras: one with a long lens for those shots that make it look like I am close to a wild horse that is most certainly not within touching distance of me, a camera with a short lens for those big wild vista shots, and a third camera that is for shooting videos. I also drive a high-clearance 4x4 rig that is now 10yrs old with a lot of miles, bumps, and scrapes from our adventures into some very remote places, and every couple of years we put some very expensive tires on her to drive over rocky trails and through mucky mud. And fuel.... the cost of fuel just keeps going up and is now around a $100 for just one day of travels out on the range. And time and effort..... hours of driving to and from the range, hours of driving on the range, and hours at the computer sorting and processing images after being on the range with wild horses.
And I don't mind, truly, I have no plans on stopping my visits to wild places.... I cannot imagine my life any other way! But wanted to share with all of you just a little peek behind the curtain to see what goes into creating and bringing back these moments of magic - something that is priceless and yet does in fact have a pretty hefty price attached to it.
So, the next time you find yourself smiling at the beauty of a still image or a video, remember that in that image is hours of practice and skill, a big chunk of our budget, and our very heart and soul in the things we share with you. And although it is awkward (at least for me) to put our work out there with a price tag attached, neither is it fair to be expected to give away our work as if it did not cost us anything to create, each image has a piece of us in it, and has cost us in some way to capture, create, and share with the rest of the world.