PALOMINO PORTRAIT soft pastel

This beautiful Palomino lives on the property next door to me. The neighbours tell me he is 27 years old and was sent to their place to retire. He caught my eye when he first moved there last year and  I took loads of photos of him for painting reference. I love horses and am especially partial to Palominos. Despite his obvious beauty, getting good portrait worthy shots was not an easy task.....Due to his age, he is very docile which makes it difficult to catch him looking interested in anything. I had to sneak up without letting him see me, have my camera already turned on and zoomed, and then jump out from behind the tree or fence post and take the shot before he recognized who I was. I had about 5 seconds of good pose before he would completely lose interest in me and go back to grazing or sleeping. And if that was not challenge enough, his paddock mate was an inquizative youngster who wanted to be the star of the photos and would continually get between me and the palomino.Still perseverance paid off, I just kept going back morning and evening (in the middle of the day the sunlight is too strong for good photos) day after day and after a few weeks I had collected enough shots to give me a reasonlable portfolio.  I just completed this pastel portrait this morning.