There are not many places in the world where you can photograph horses cantering towards you at full tilt through the waves, the sun backlit on muscled flanks, the Gardians with their tridents shouting encouragement to their herd.
A recent photo workshop with Create-Away, led by Serge Krouglikoff, offered the opportunity for an equine photographers heaven. My photography business focuses on bespoke portraits of horses, dogs and their people, so it was an undiminished delight to be able to capture horses flying through the waves and marshes of the Camargue, taking photographs for myself.
The four-day trip was based out of the walled town of Aigues-Mortes, where one can walk the town via the wall, above the rooftops, and with views of the salt mine over the water. I travelled in November so the weather was not blisteringly hot, although the marsh Mosquitos were enormous on shoots and out of the wind we had double sprays of mozzie guard. (When I purchased this in the pharmacy in northern France over the summer, the pharmacist inquired as to my destination. He handed me two options, and when I said the Camargue, insisted on the bottle with a huge testosterone-infused image of a monster mozzie. It did the trick. Do wear kit with thick weave though, as in vulnerable areas I had a few mozzy bites on my mozzy bites).
My kit bag included my trusty Nikon D600, my D3, and I had my short zoom on the D600 (24-70mm) and long zoom (80-210mm) on the D3. My mantra is no lens changing on the beach (had my fingers burnt on that one with a puppy that landed in my open camera), and I definitely used both lenses on every shoot. It did make kneeling in waders in a two foot of water interesting though. I had one camera slung over my back and had to kneel gingerly. Not very elegant but I found it a good combination of lenses.
The horses were beautiful. The herds are found throughout the Camargue, a vast wetland in Southern France that meets the Mediterranean in a set of marshes and water-bodies filled with flamingos, salt mines and horses. Serge is from this neck of the woods, and after his successful career as a fashion photographer in London and Paris, he’s come back to his roots. After four or five years finetuning his workshops, he’s made some valuable and excellent friends in the horse community who are immersed in their equine culture. The experiences being around the Gardians feel authentic because they are authentic. These families and leaders adore their horses, their lifestyle, the landscape. As they wheel the ponies around to head off a naughty young horse, you can see in their body language they are riding for the thrill and companionship of the horses and the people. We went on one shoot to a private estate where Serge had permission to ride through a wet marsh, shooting across the watery landscape as the horses were driven towards us until they splashed around our six-strong group at the last minute. When we arrived there were no horses, as the Gardians were riding through the marshes looking for the herd. Amazingly to us, they found them, and fifteen minutes later the herd was driven towards us from the wide-skyed distance.
The Gardians are so cool. They have a uniform of sorts: floral printed shirts, a neckscarf, a small trilby, riding boots over twill trousers and a trident. It’s often a family event with daughters and cousins involved, and everybody has a day job. But it’s clear to see that the horses are the glue in their community. I wanted to have dinner with them, to share a bottle of the local rose vin du sable and talk horse over crusty baguette and cheese. Next time.
Serge gets the workshop up and running early, to make the most of the early light, and he has arranged various locations with different groups of horses to provide a range of shooting options. Twice a day we had the opportunity to take photographs that allowed us to get close to the animals. One morning we set up in the sand dunes and photographed Didier* and his fantastic stallion with the early morning light in his mane, Didier creating fantastic shapes and movement with his horse through gestures and voice commands. It was an honour to see their relationship and the trust they had in each other. As the stallion reared onto his back feet and stood in the dunes, sand falling away from his hooves, I took photographs I could only dream of.
I’m an equine photographer, so for me, the workshop was a plan I had held close for a long time. My fellow photographers were a four-strong group of American ladies who had done many photographic trips, including Mongolia, and they enjoyed their earlier photoshoots with Serge of the pink flamingos and the famous Camargue bulls as much as the horses. Serge has no more than six in his Camargue workshops, and we all loved his shiny new Volvo! (No sand inside the car, we promise, Serge).
The food was excellent, and recommendations of places to eat had been well researched by Serge and his gorgeous English wife Ros (who spoke grammatically perfect French. Envy). Serge has small groups of people in the workshop to whom he explains what the shoot is about, how it might unfold, what sorts of framing and composition might work, and then in the moment, is more than happy to share his settings. It works best if you know your way around the ISO/aperture/shutter speed relationships, and if you have a camera where one can change the ISO without diving into deeper camera menus. Having said that, Serge and I talked about how much fun a client had had with his compact camera, and the wonderful Bonnie took some amazing footage on her iPhone video, so horses for courses, as they say…I think one could be taking images on any camera and they would be wonderful, as Serge sets the locations up so carefully with the light and positioning of the animals and the Gardians. The Gardians are very aware of their role around the camera groups and offer up strong poses with dignity. They know they are doing something historically and culturally important.
I came away in love with the Gardians, the horses, Serge, the Camargue. It is a captivating place. Go.
Here’s the link to Create-Away. https://www.create-away.com/
And here’s the link to blog about my workshops in Jaipur, India.
The Jaipur Photography Workshops 2018
Serge, I can offer you Marwari horses with ears that meet in the middle, painted elephants and delicious food.
Hope you and Ros can join me!
All photographs are copyrighted to Ali Warner Photography 2016. *Not his real name.
Please email me via my website for any further use of photographs or info on the Jaipur Workshops 2018
aliwarnerphotography 