Nose to Nose

After dropping my daughter and her friend off at school this morning, I took off on one of my photo field trips. Often without a destination in mind, I drive until I see a turnoff that looks appealing and keep making turns until I decide that it's time to head towards home again. Thank goodness I have a great sense of direction! A few years back I went on one of my field trips and ended up almost six hours away from home - but these days I stay much closer when I do get out with my camera.

The light was soft and gorgeous, wrapping around whatever subjects I stopped to photograph. After shooting for several hours I started to drive towards home when I passed a farm with numerous horses in the paddock. I've passed this farm dozens of times, but this time the light was right and I had to stop.

Often when I approach horses with my camera they glance towards me indifferently, but this group seemed to be very interested what I was up to. All trotted up to the fence, sniffed at my outstretched a hand and decided I was worthy of giving them a rub on their snouts (do horses have snouts, noses? Not sure of the correct name!)

They may have enjoyed having a bit of a "snout massage" but I think I got more out of it than they did. Interacting with these beautiful creatures relaxed me like nothing else has for awhile. It became a bit of a game as I tried to capture some images, as soon as I'd get focused on one horse, another would run into the field of vision - ruining the shot - but I found myself laughing away and moving to a new spot. Only to have the same thing happen again. They seemed to enjoy my presence - and it made me feel like I was wanted there.

I did manage to get a few decent shots, but what I took with me back to the car was such a fantastic sense of well-being that continues to warm my heart hours later.