In which we want to shoot Santa Claus, and yoga poses are needed

We wanted to do a photo shoot with Santa Claus to promote the Endurance 101 book.

Every time, every ride...including reindeer rides!

Santa Jim was willing, and we rounded up a plain-colored endurance horse and some festive gear for the session....

...but the weather forecast for the weekend was dismal:  

"Darkness, followed by dimness and intermittent lack of light," said the weather-guessers at NOAA.

"Gloomy, rainy, wet and horrible," said the television forecasters.

"We're all gonna die!" moaned the farmer's almanac.

Santa Jim was undaunted.  

"How about Saturday?" he suggested.

So, we all met up on Saturday.  And guess what?
Santa Jim and "Jingles" (aka Ariana) and NO RAIN!
 Endurance Santa clearly has a little magic 
when it comes to the weather!

I stood behind Monica to take this shot
Santa Jim is new to the whole "photo shoot" gig.  

Fortunately, Monica is a pro.  

Under her deft direction, Santa Jim and Jingles 
Monica directs Santa Jim in the art of holding a book for the camera

and Sirie (aka "horse handler girl") and I (aka "book girl") worked together to create some neat images.


Monica is clearly a yoga master.
This is a pose called "standing tripod"
 To create a neat photo like this:

"Read the part about beet pulp again, Santa!"

requires some very strenuous gymnastics like this:
"Knee-level Tripod" pose
 To minimize excitement while shooting the photos of Santa reading-while-riding, we opted to use an "invisible sidewalker":  
Yes, you can see Sirie in this picture...

Although producing blue sky and natural light is beyond our powers (and way beyond our budget), making Sirie and a rope invisible is just a matter of technology.  

Sirie and the leadrope will magically disappear.
Ain't technology wonderful?

Here's a sample of Monica's artistry, shamelessly stolen from the Triangle Ranch Communications Facebook page.  




You might enjoy the rest of the album titled "I shot Santa", located HERE.

Yo ho ho Ho Ho Ho, y'all!

Comments

  1. Haa haa- see Santa IS magic! Blue skies in W. Wa on Thanksgiving weekend proves it :)

    Great pictures. Where on earth did Santa get his red half chaps? They are quite stunning with the green tights!

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  2. Most of Santa's outfit is actually real clothing--the tights are Carousels from many moons ago, and he's actually ridden endurance in them! The shirt is a shirt, and the helmet is an old Troxel spray-painted red.

    The "half-chaps" are part of a kid's elf costume that I picked up cheaply at a thrift store, they are hideous IRL, but with the rest of the costume, they totally work! >g<

    And yes: blue skies in winter = magic. I wonder if Santa can bring me some sn*w repellent this year?

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  3. I got such a kick out of these on Facebook. I was roaring with laughter.

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  4. Loved this on FB too! Best of luck with the book.

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