The Camargue, France – 2013

The wild horses of the Camargue have been well photographed and I am always conscious of taking hackneyed images. Once I had immersed myself in the character of the location, my instincts were to try and capture something that leant on the abstract and emphasised the herd, rather than working more conventionally with individual horses. In particular, I wanted to use the marsh water as an ethereal partner to the white horses and this required working against the light with a slow shutter speed (1/50 of a second). This is a low-percentage shot as the position of their heads can spoil or make an image and these horses are most unpredictable. On the second evening, after much trial and error, I think that we got there!