Photographing Riding With Rhi's Luxury Equestrian Planners
One of my favourite highlights of 2023 so far has been being lucky enough to be entrusted with the job of photographing Rhiannon's wonderful equestrian diaries. It was a big job and one that was multi-faceted due to the nature of these style of diaries. There is nothing else on the market quite like them, and I firmly believe every single horse rider or owner should have one of the two variations! Let me tell you more about them...
Rhiannon, better known on Instagram and Youtube as Riding with Rhi, came up with the idea of producing a high quality luxury planner when she realised she couldn't find the style of diary she wanted. Having used one myself, I can safely say everything about the design and appearance of these clever little books have been created with luxury, practicality and ease of organisation in mind. They are for sale on Rhi's Etsy and you can get your hands on one of them here: Shop for a planner!
Photographing the planners
The brief
The brief whilst multi-faceted, was relatively straight forward. I was lucky enough that Rhi trusted me and gave me all the creative licensing I needed to showcase these products in the best way I could! So we did it in stages.
Stage one - I actually did whilst having COVID and was poorly at home! This stage included having the planners photographed in a home setting and creating detail shots.
Stage two - I enlisted the help of a model and we did some lifestyle photography in a cosy home environment. We also did a small selection of shots to capture the corporate girlie vibe! Many people who need these diaries use them because they work super hard to afford their horses and the lifestyle they want - the cost of this is being totally organised and intentional with your time and planning to make it all a success.
Stage three - photographing the horse owners diary had a particular direction of its own. We sourced a model who we felt was ethical, cared about the impact of their actions and how they choose to train their horse. We found Charlie Parker and her beautiful young mare Didi. Charlie has been slowly producing Didi for the last few years, and sets a fantastic example to all riders of how we can work with our horses and acknowledge them as individuals. We produced a collection of images that were to be used on social media and to sell the planners online and in print.
Stage four - last but not least, we had to repeat the process but this time for the horse riding diaries! Again, it was important to us to source a real life rider, somebody who really truly understood the importance and impact a great riding school has on it's clients, equines and of course the local community. We found Sienna, a young rider who rides at Mottingham Riding School - a lovely little riding school in the heart of South East London! Again, we needed to select the right person to represent these diaries. They are designed especially for riding school users - people who ride multiple horses and take lessons. You can record all of your progress in them, and help you to track your riding goals. I found when I was on a riding school it can be easy just to go with the flow and have the instructor tell you what this weeks lesson will consist of - by keeping a diary, we can make sure that whilst we are gaining a broad range of experience on a range of horses, we can also keep in mind what it is that we'd like to improve in ourselves too! Sienna agreed that the riding diaries are a super useful tool and we had a lovely afternoon working out how to best showcase these beautiful diaries!
Thank you to our models Evie, Charlie, Sienna and Mottingham Riding School for taking part and being such great sports about it all! I had a lovely time with all of you across all of the shoot days I carried out and I hope one day to be lucky enough to work with you all again soon!
Here is just a small selection of the images I produced for Rhiannon, I hope you love them as much as I loved creating them!
All the details and where to head next:
Riding diaries - for riders dedicated to their progression and taking lessons: here
Equestrian planner - for dedicated and organised horse owners: here
Riding with Rhi - YouTube channel and her Instagram
Mottingham Riding School - South East London riding school
If you require some imagery for your business, service or an equine portrait session, please see below for links to more details and prices:
Hello, my name is Holly...
Welcome to my blog
I am an equine photographer based in Essex, England. I've owned and ridden horses always, and I've never known a life without them. You'll find me writing regularly about all things photography, the outdoors, countryside, horses and dogs - so if you like any of those things, you're in the right place! Thanks for joining x
