Saddle Horses in the SnowThe winner of Tamron's "My Winter Exhibit" contest captures horses on the wintry North Dakota plains. |
Article By Jennifer Gidman Images by Anna Meidinger |
Anna Meidinger spends most of her time raising cattle and horses with her husband on their farm in Wishek, North Dakota. When she's not lugging hay to feed the livestock or grooming the horses, Meidinger roams the plains to take pictures of the animals under her care. The last two winters provided particularly amazing images - images that won Meidinger first place in Tamron's "My Winter Exhibit" photography contest. Her winning exhibit, "Horses in Snow," showcases pictures taken with her Tamron SP 28-75mm F/2.8 and SP 70-200mm F/2.8 lenses. |
"I'm so honored to win this contest," says Meidinger. "Because we live on the farm, my favorite things to photograph are anything in nature, but I especially love photographing the pets, horses, and livestock. For the images in this exhibit, I wanted to convey the spirit of the horses during the winter season." |
Using the 28-75 and 70-200 lenses allows Meidinger to capture compelling shots of her equine residents from a variety of perspectives, whether she's observing them heading home from the prairie at sunset or documenting a more intimate reaction to a horse's encounter with the season's first snow. "I love using the 28-75 for wide-angle shots when I wanted to get the landscape in there," she explains. "And the 70-200 is superior when it comes to this type of photography. It lets you get rid of the distortion that's common when photographing large animals such as horses. Plus I love the image quality of both lenses. The sharpness is wonderful." |
Meidinger tries to show the horses in their normal surroundings, without interfering with their routines, to truly capture their essence. "For the most part, I go out there without a lot of planning," she says. "I look for situations and just see what happens. I try to show the horse's personality through their interaction with each other and their body language. If you're able to zoom in on the eye and the facial expression, you can do a little bit of storytelling. The wide-angle shots show the environment, which sets the mood as well." |
The 70-200 enables Meidinger to keep her distance to ensure natural behavior. "These are tame horses," she says. "Most of them are saddle horses, so they're really friendly - some of them are too friendly! I like to stay off to the side so they act more like themselves. With that 70-200, you've got the variety so you can get up close for detail shots without getting too close physically. The versatility of that lens is ideal." |
Unlike the harsher light of summer on the North Dakota plains, more subdued winter lighting allows Meidinger to show the horses in their best light at almost any time of the day. "Any time is a good time to shoot in the winter here," she says. "The days are shorter, and it's usually overcast, which makes for great photos." |
Meidinger uses matrix metering to calculate her equine exposures against the gray and white winter landscape. "I'll expose for the horse, then use exposure compensation for the snow," she says. "The 28-75 and 70-200 lenses really come through in that regard, too. You don't have to do much exposure compensation; usually I don't have to go any more than one stop. I also watch my histogram and highlights to make sure everything's OK, and I like to shoot in RAW - it's easier to fix the exposure and make other minor adjustments in post-processing." |
Meidinger selected the Tamron SP 60mm F/2.0 macro lens as the prize for her winning exhibit. "I thought the 60mm would be nice to complement the other lenses I have," she says. "I'm looking forward to heading out and using it!" |
To see more of Meidinger's images, check out her "Horses in Snow" exhibit on MyPhotoExhibits.com. |