Horses & Ponies in New Forest
Hey you! Are you planning to visit New Forest? If you do , you don't want to miss the Horses & Ponies you will find there on those beautiful landscapes!
I've been there quite a few times now and I will tell you when it's the perfect moment to go and how to get a lovely and unique memory of it!
Also if you want to see more pictures of New Forest and nature in general, don't forget to visit my instagram!
NEW FOREST?! WHAT IS IT?!
First of all, New Forest is an attractive large British land, located in the South of England and famous for its ponies, deer and wildlife and popular with walkers, cyclists and horse-riders.
The New Forest national Park is one of the most important areas in the country for lichens, beetles, bats and fungi. Many of which dependent on very old trees, including some rare species.
In these ancient, unclosed woodlands you can enjoy the beauty of nature, tranquillity, the magic vibes of the forest, stunning British lands but also entertainment and fun at the same time!
New Forest offers challenging hikes, also short distance walks for family in charming villages, lowland heaths, ancient woodlands and coastline, peaceful countryside with rolling hills and panoramic views.
I really encourage you to visit this area for a lovely weekend trip or wild camping, have a picnic and spend the day exploring, you will never get bored trust me.
I didn't know how many beautiful horses there are in New Forest before I went there, I was literally taking hundred of photos, they where everywhere and I can't wait to get back there for more!
Horses & Ponies in New Forest AT SUNRISE!!
Sunrise is a magic phenomenon that make me astonished every time I see one. Makes me feel like I'm in a fairy tale and I love to stop everything I'm doing, clear out my mind, enjoy the moment and just listen the sounds from the nature and only then, taking as many pictures as possible with that beautiful lighting scenario which will last for 1 hour or so.
So get up early! It's time to photograph during this special moment!
It's very moist and muddy early in the morning in New Forest, so get something warm to put on and don't forget your wellies of course, if you don't want to end up with freezing feet!
Remember to take some snacks, a huge cup of coffee and water with you, you don't want to find yourself without food or drinks in the middle of the land, miles away from the shops and restaurants!
A good place to see ponies and horses is at Beachern Wood near Brockenhurst. They are bay, white or chestnut colour. Please remember not to feed them, not to leave your dog off the lead and not to scare them! Other than that, just enjoy their beauty!
There are lots of them and they seem to be very happy to pose for you, as you will see on my photos!!
Photography Tips
I will try to give you as many tips as possible to take a beautiful picture to the Horses & Ponies in New Forest, but remember that every situation is different depending on the light, weather and time of the day!
What I personally love is playing with the natural light, especially with sunrays filtering around the subject. It's very easy to get a wonderful vibe and warm colours at sunrise in New Forest because of the usual fog they get there, that makes everything magical and vibrant!
Usually I don't have to change much in post-production, I try and like to keep the natural light as realistic as possible during the shooting, so don't forget the following if you don't want to spend too much time in front of your computer to fix your photos:
Clean up your lenses!! You don't really want to clean the spots out in Post!
Make sure you bring a tripod with you, you will need it for early morning photos and many sunrays effects! ( Will explain later)
Check your White balance!!! This is quite important if you want to avoid post production colour grading!
Manual focus on the details you want to catch. (Eyes, etc etc). Be precise, you don't want to find out all your photos are out of focus when you get back home!!
Check you have enough space on your card!
Bring enough batteries with you!
Make sure you bring the lenses you need, don't bring them all. Just bring what you really need. My suggestion would be a prime 35mm, prime 50mm and a 18-130mm. Don't bring 2000 lenses for no reason or you will end up with a lot of back pain at the end of the day!
Some Camera settings tips on early morning photography:
Use your tripod to be able to drop the shutter speed to 1/50, so you don't have your hand shaking.
Remember, 1/50 shutter speed is meant to be used when your subject doesn't move much.
ISO, try to stay as low as possible, depending on your camera. On the 80D you can go as high as 400-1200 to be able to denoise in post.
Aperture must be open to the max level. in my case I was using a 50mm lens with 1.8 aperture, this way you get in focus subject and bokeh and defocused background. The lower the aperture the blurred the background!
Having the aperture that way will allow you to lower the ISO values cause more light will come into your lens, giving you a cleaner picture at the end!
What if it's cloudy!!??
Well, we are not always the luckiest here in UK, aren't we. It's not uncommon to find a rainy or/and foggy day so be prepared, because rain ain't stop us!!
What tips for foggy photography? Here's mine:
Try to catch the minimal effect of the fog, leaving the background blank and focus on the subject.
Take advantage of the contrast the fog gives. Fog being white/grey-ish and subject being darker creates a very nice effect where your subject pops on the viewer's eyes.
Less is more! Try not to include a lot of elements in your photo, try to focus on a single subject and try not having your background too busy! The lighting is not helping you, being so ambient and not directional so yeah, keep it simple!! You won't regret it!
Remember the white balance, very important! Don't get too warm or too cold, just, you know, white!
White horses and white fog? No worries! Find something dark to have the horse pop with the same contrast concept I explained above, like the woods in the background, some trees, a bush.. Anything!
