Taken on April 11, 2011 under arena lights in unseasonably warm weather at 1/500 sec, f2.8 as Wizard frolicked and showed off his physique. I’ve been experimenting with the arena lights and hoping for this image for a few weeks now, and last night he ran under the perfect patch of light, muscles rippling and neck arched. Some photos require a team of helpers and some are simply a dance between photographer and subject.
Summertime,
And the livin’ is easy
Fish are jumpin’
And the cotton is high
Oh, Your daddy’s rich
And your mamma’s good lookin’
So hush little baby
Don’t you cry
One of these mornings
You’re going to rise up singing
Then you’ll spread your wings
And you’ll take to the sky
But until that morning
There’s a’nothing can harm you
With your daddy and mammy standing by
Summertime,
And the livin’ is easy
Fish are jumpin’
And the cotton is high
Your daddy’s rich
And your mamma’s good lookin’
So hush little baby
Don’t you cry
–George Gershwin
I’ve gotten ZERO saddle time this month but at least I got to get some fun photos of my favorite horses in the snow…
At Moonlit Run Equestrian Center, the horses strutted their stuff for the camera…
Apollo, a Belgian/Quarter Horse cross and Atlas, a Percheron, storm across the snow-covered pasture.
Atlas always seems to have a little smile on his face.
Ashton is a Percheron/Thoroughbred cross and he also enjoyed some fun in the sun and snow.
On to the next barn…
Mary the Morgan pranced and played in over a foot of snow…
Noodles the barn kitty was happy to be a snow bunny.
On to the next barn!
And Wizard and JR looked like two little kids at recess when they were turned out after being indoors overnight:
OK, now that we’ve all had our fun in the snow, can we please have SPRING?
PS: Product Rave: Ariat’s Bromont winter paddock boots are insulated and amazingly warm, even in snow. I was able to do hours of wintertime shooting in my Bromont boots.
The Melody Bar. The Court Tavern. Plum Street Pub. My college years were filled with late nights and local rock. The Court Tavern was my favorite place in town, but I probably spent the most time watching bands at The Budapest Cocktail Lounge. At the end of school, my husband-to-be Jonathan Andrew played in a band called The Angry Monsters. The Monsters played with all the great bands in town and I had the opportunity to spend a lot of time immersed in New Brunswick rock.
Members of a few of these bands had a reunion show at Maxwell’s in Hoboken, NJ on Saturday night.
First up was the female-fronted quartet The Mellowtraumatics, a late-90s band which boasted two future Jersey rock powerhouses. Front-chick and rock vixen Christina Alessi would go on to greater success with Hoboken-based combo Hey Tiger, who self-released the successful debut September and subsequently opened for Bon Jovi at Giants Stadium (which I photographed – woo hoo!). After the break-up of The Mellowtraumatics, guitarist and riffmaster Pete Marceau went on to join Hero Pattern and prove to be the missing piece this promising band needed in order to take the next step – a number of well-received indie releases and a handful of get-in-the-van tours across the country. The reunited-for-one-night-only band closed their set of funky and atmospheric tunes with their classic “Stalker”, much to the delight of the Mellowtraumaniacs in attendance.
The second act of the night were Manalapan natives Ben Trovato, who formed in high school in the late 1990s aand hadn’t performed together for nearly a decade. On Saturday night, they were back to their old tricks- frequent tempo chances, spastic riffing, and heart-on-their-sleeves high school poetry. The band is fronted by the multi-talented Val Emmich, who is once again releasing music independently after Slow Down Kid, his major-label debut on Sony Records in 2004. Emmich can also be seen on the small screen on shows such as Ugly Betty, 30 Rock, and Cashmere Mafia. Ben’s set was the truest time capsule of the night; hearing them brought me back to late nights at the Budapest Lounge, when they played with such New Brunswick luminaries as The Angry Monsters, The Rosemary Pure, and frequent guests from DC, Anne Summers.
Third out of the gate was the band who organized the event, Small AM. Formed in Sparta, NJ in the late 1990s under the name Wisemaster Joshu, the band evolved from a jangly, rootsy quintet into a double-guitar rock powerhouse, taking equal doses from international supergroup Radiohead and local legends Prosolar Mechanics. After several years gigging on the local scene, Small AM released their self-titled full-length debut in 2002 on local label Childlike Records. Reuniting for the first time in 5+ years were vocalist/guitarists Jim Fitzgerald and Damien Musto, bassist Jim Lovegrove, and drummer Ralph Capasso. Opening the set with standout “Heather”, the band tore through the majority of their self-titled album, including a bruising rendition of “Anyway”, a few unreleased numbers from a never-completed follow up, and an outstanding new song entitled “The Starting Line”. They ended with the perennial set-closer “Perfect Day”, repeating the signature closing riff until band and crowd alike were sated.
Closing the night was the reunited original lineup of Jersey mainstays The Milwaukees. To celebrate the tenth anniversary of their classic breakthrough record Missile Command, Milwaukee-in-Chief Dylan Clark was joined by the original rhythm section of bassist Dave “Posty” Post and drummer Scott Pohlman. The band tore through songs from their early period with the energy and passion for which they’ve been known throughout the local scene for the last decade plus.
By Sarah & Jonathan Andrew
I returned to Hickory Ridge Farm for another portrait session. It was three weeks since my last visit to the farm and what a huge change in the weather! Last time, we had golden leaves and a little cool air. This time, we had bare trees and an arctic blast! But our participants were game and the horses were fun as always. And Ghost the Barn Cat got in on the action and posed for a few frames.
First up was Echo, a Quarter Horse gelding. Though the winds blasted through the trees, he stood his ground and posed gamely. I love his expressive eyes.
I had a special request for a customer favorite that I take, a portrait of a horse with a black background. But this time, it was TWO horses: Shiloh, a smart and sassy Quarter Horse mare, and Lakota, a versatile and easy-going Appaloosa gelding. They were veterans of the process and stood like they were models in Horse Illustrated.
I get a lot of inquiries about this type of photo. Many photographers think that the image is manipulated and the background is replaced- that would be much more difficult than what I do! I stand the horse in a barn entrance, set the exposure, and shoot. I do remove distracting windows or beams but the photo is not very different from what comes out of my camera.
Then I met Cisco, a black and white overo Paint gelding. He’s another versatile guy. He must have had some halter training at some point in his life, because he squared up his feet and posed beautifully for every shot. He also floated around the paddock when we did our liberty shots. He was actually more animated than expected, because he heard a loose horse headed our way from the nearby state park. It was a chilly but fun day- horse people are a hardy bunch!
Rock and Racehorses: Sarah K. Andrew 