Meet 2023 USDF Arts Contest grand-prize winner Jessica Morin—and learn a few tricks to improve your own equine photos
By Colleen Scott
Jessica Morin has never owned a horse. Instead, she interacts with equines vicariously through her photography and paintings.
Morin, 36, of Derry, New Hampshire, has been bringing horses to life through her art for more than two decades. Her painting Kentucky graces the cover of the 2024 USDF Member Guide, an honor bestowed on the grand-prize winner of the previous year’s USDF Arts Contest. Let’s meet this talented artist.
Morin comes from a family of creators. Her father was a photographer; her mother was a seamstress; and her grandmother was a potter and fiber artist. Collectively, they nurtured Morin’s own creativity and encouraged her to pursue a career in the arts.
“I really never wanted to do anything else,” Morin says. “From the time I was a little girl, I knew I wanted to do something creative.”
Morin honed her talents at the New Hampshire Institute of Art, later graduating from Southern New Hampshire University with a degree in business administration. It turned out to be a good combination for the future entrepreneur, who now owns and operates Jessica Morin Studio.
“Something always captivated me about horses,” says Morin, who grew up taking lessons at a hunter/jumper stable. “They’re so beautiful and majestic. Trying to capture that with a camera is a great challenge but also very rewarding.” She fondly remembers her favorite mount, a Morgan mare named Amelia, and says that today she gets saddle time when friends let her catch-ride their horses. In an average of 40 photo shoots per year, she says, she gets the opportunity to spend time with a wide range of breeds and types of equines.
Photos may serve as the basis of Morin’s paintings, as was the case with Kentucky, which she painted from a photograph she took during a dressage show at the Green Mountain Horse Association in Woodstock, Vermont. The artist estimates that it took her 100 hours to translate the photograph to the oil painting.
“The most challenging part about this particular piece,” she says, “was capturing the details that really bring him to life—from the tiny stray hairs that have escaped his braids, to the way the light hits the rhinestones in his browband, and the focus in his eye.”
Although Morin enjoys shooting at horse shows and doing portrait sessions and commissioned work, her favorite creative exercise is capturing horses at liberty.
“There’s something really special about a horse that’s free to do whatever it wants in that moment,” she explains. “They can be really sassy and make great subject matter when they are left to their own devices.”
The USDF Arts Contest grand prize was not Morin’s first recognition. Her photos and paintings have also been featured in Colored Pencil magazine, The Friesian Horse magazine, and Dover Saddlery catalogs; and displayed at The American Saddlebred Museum and at the American Academy of Equine Art.
Tricks of the Trade
Morin keeps her eye sharp by attending fellow equine photographers’ workshops. She’s especially a fan of US-based photo pro April Visel, who is known for her stunning work with some of the most beautiful horses in the world. Morin has attended Visel’s workshops in California and says that the Visel workshop in France is on her bucket list.
Although Morin also does wedding and human portrait photography, dogs and horses are her favorite subjects. She actually finds horses easier to work with than dogs, explaining that horses “are accustomed to standing still, for grooming or getting tacked up, and they just seem to cooperate more than most dogs.”
For those at home attempting their own equine photo shoots, Morin has some recommendations.
Have a “bucket of tricks.” “I don’t want to scare the horses, but I do want their attention and want them to be engaged,” Morin says. “I start small with wrapped candy, and crinkle the paper. If that doesn’t work, I can move on to other things in my stash, like the harmonica or the space blanket.”
Besides having access to things that will get a horse’s attention, Morin recommends recruiting a helper whose job is “getting ears,” as it’s called.
Know your equipment. Understand your camera’s settings—shutter speed, aperture, and sensitivity to light, among others, to get the desired results. “Play around with the settings to see how the image changes as you make adjustments,” Morin suggests. “Images will look completely different based on the lens you use and the settings you select.”
Learn the desired breed and discipline “angles.” Everyone wants the ears up, but different breeds and disciplines are typically photographed in distinctive ways to emphasize their attributes. If you’re shooting a Quarter Horse, for example, spotlight its powerful hindquarters by positioning yourself closer to its hip, Morin suggests. If the subject is a delicate Arabian, stand closer to its shoulder and focus on capturing the elongated lines created by the head and neck. When Morin shoots dressage, she steps back far enough to be able to capture the horse’s movement, suppleness, and relationship with its rider.
Experiment with lighting. Even non-photographers usually understand that the “golden hour” just prior to sunset typically produces flattering light for beautiful images. But don’t be afraid to try other angles and times of day. “I was always taught to shoot with the sun at my back,” Morin says, “but especially when I’m going for more of an artistic style, I’ve found that playing with light is essential. Some of my best images have been captured while shooting into the sun and breaking some of those traditional rules.”
Invest time in grooming. Whether you’re shooting a horse in competition or in a portrait session, the animal should look its best and be turned out appropriately for what the client wishes to portray. Morin likes to have waterless whitening shampoo, fly spray, a hairbrush, and clean rags on hand. Any tack should be clean, neat, and properly fitted.
Help the horse be at its best. If a high-energy horse is going to be asked to stand still for photos, a lunge or work session prior to the shoot might help it to relax and tolerate the inactivity, Morin says. But if you’re after liberty-type shots, you may want to have the horse stalled beforehand to ensure that it comes out fresh.
Pay attention to surroundings. Little things can make a big difference in images, Morin says. For starters, “make sure the ground is even.” Before you depress the shutter, check for such unwanted background distractions as brown patches, vehicles, port-a-potties, and ratty fencing. Yes, you can Photoshop out the uglies, but it’s much easier to start with an image that’s as uncluttered and attractive as possible.
To learn more about Morin and her creative offerings, visit JessicaMorinStudio.com.
Stunning artwork.