Even at 5:30 a.m. last Thursday, I had a quick rush of adrenaline when I heard that a mother horse had given birth just minutes ago – these are the kind of pictures I live for. Not knowing exactly what to expect, I biked to the horse barn on campus trying not to crash in the thick early-morning fog. When I arrived, students were gathered in their pajamas, half awake and in awe. They were peeking through the stable bars at the adoring mother and her new wet foal. Only Joel Viloria, the animal resource supervisor at the horse barn, was allowed in the stable so I was limited to resting my camera in between the bars of the stable. I tried to capture what I could without disturbing the mother and her new baby. With so much going on, it was difficult to capture every little moment – so it was best to use a fast shutter speed. To properly expose, I had to keep my camera at an ISO of 1600 and have a large aperture of f5.6 to capture the movements going on and to get the horses and Viloria in focus. In this image, Viloria is holding the placenta of the mother, which had held the baby just hours before, while she is assisting the foal in his first steps of life.
– Sarena Grossjan
Real life photography at its best! Nice work. Interesting back story to the photo. Keep up the good work.