On Horseback #1
When photographing any subject remember the rarity or the notoriety of the subject does not improve the quality of the image. If you have to travel half way around the world and clime the highest mountain to get a photo of the last snow leopard in the world, if the composition is bad and the lighting pore it’s still just a so so picture of a cat.
I am told the woman in this photograph is a celebrity. That’s nice. But does it change the image in any way?
I like the position of the horse and rider in the frame, off to the left of center with lots of room for the subject to move into. The lighting appears to be low to the horizon which gives us softer shadows and more even illumination. The fact that the photographer cropped off the hoofs of the animal works just fine. I also like your soft background created by dust and a shallow focus.
There are a couple of items the photographer may wish to consider. The first cannot be controlled. I believe the lighting on the horse is uneven and causing the allusion that the horse changes color or sheen from the rear to the head. I think this may be the angle of light on the nap of the hair. The second is a small thing. In the back ground there is a phone pole that could be removed.
Click on Image 
Modified 
Second Image 
February 19th, 2008 at 9:21 am
Thanks to Jim Morris’s good eyes, I completely overlooked the phone pole in this image. I was caught up by the
rider, and horse. Photo taken in vicinity of
Hidden Valley (Ventura County), over a fence
line with Nikon D300 Camera, D-lighting Active.