My nephew wanted some photos of his new carriage with his two ponies. Of course I accepted the challenge. My nephew and my brother-in-law (both manning the carriage) chose the location: a wonderful national park called Kampina. I chose the time slot: late in the afternoon. I hoped to find some nice light with the low sun. However it was pretty clouded, therefore I created an extra challenge for myself: fast changing (low) light conditions in which it was harder to exposure well, and which required adjusting iso settings regularly in order to get decent exposure times. But we (I was accompanied by my man with his Fuji cameras) managed.

The Kampina is a pretty diversified park, with woodland but also heather fields. We did most of the shoot in such a field, where my man and I both took different positions, and my nephew drove up and down the path a couple of times. You only have about 3-4 shots for each time he passes, so quick composing is required. After some mistakes composition-wise (tree sticking out of his head) I did some practise shots while waiting for the carriage (also good for testing exposure). For the shot above I made the following practice photo:

But first we had to drive to the heather fields, passing a different type of landscape, more forest like:

Sometimes it is difficult to find the right balance between landscape and carriage. In the next photos the carriage is probably too small and too dark, but I like the trees and the skies 🙂 .

Moving on to the next location:

Not sharp at all, but I like the dynamics:

Just before going home, everyone is getting tired, but the ponies are still curious to see what is going to happen:

As I mentioned before, my man Lex also joined the shoot. I want to share two of my favourites from the photos he took:

And then heading home, just before it’s getting dark. I like the silhouette with the hats.

It was a nice experience, one of my favourite landscapes, but now with extra props 🙂 .

Thanks for reading!