Shiralee first came to my attention in The Societies’ Facebook group. Firstly, because I thought what an interesting name! And secondly, because I found her equine photography beautiful and that she was not wholly aware of her talent. This was reinforced by her response when approached to feature in this column – Shiralee’s gut reaction was, there must be much better people than me!

Do take a look at Shiralee’s work; this lady knows horses and it shows in her equine portraiture.

What motivated you to start in the industry?

My interest in photography started from taking snaps of my children and their ponies at Pony Club. That swiftly grew to me photographing friends’ children and ponies; I’d been bitten by the photography bug and photographed everything and anything. Later that year I photographed a few weddings for friends but for many years photography remained a hobby as horses were our life.

Fast forward several years …my husband saw a job advertisement for a staff photographer at our local newspaper and suggested I apply. After a lot of excuses why I couldn’t or shouldn’t apply, I put a varied portfolio together and was shocked when I got the job. I remained working for the paper for 13 years until it ceased trading in August 2019. In 2020, just before lockdown, I became self-employed.

What’s your mindset when you get up in the mornings?

What am I going to shoot today?  Having worked for the newspaper for more than a decade – with every day being so varied (as the reporters ran my diary) – I haven’t gotten out of the habit of taking pictures every single day. I still take a camera, with a 24–70mm lens attached out with me each day. I don’t always set myself a photography goal, I simply see what presents.

Did it take you long to establish your name and brand?

I don’t think I am established; I feel I’m like a best-kept secret.

Do you work alone or employ staff?

I don’t employ staff but when I’m photographing horses I work with the owner handling the horse or the groom or the owner’s friend, someone who knows the horse.

How do you attract clients and what market do you target?

This is all very new to me. When I was first made redundant from the paper, I tripped and stumbled for a few months, trying to decide what genre I was going to pursue. Then COVID hit and I decided to look at the bigger picture, marketing and direction. I started by editing photographs of friends’ and clients’ horses and entered competitions; my love of horse portraiture as a business was born.

Do you enter competitions – if so, is it with your day-to-day work or do you shoot specifically to create a competition image?
I only started to enter The Societies’ monthly image competition this year, with photographs of my client’s horses and was lucky enough to be awarded gold in the monochrome section in February. I‘ve been thinking of putting out a model call for a specific type of horse to photograph, so I can enter a resulting picture in the competition as during lockdown I couldn’t work – stable yards wouldn’t allow non-essential people access.

Why horses?

They are beautiful. Horses are also a subject that I love and fully understand.

What’s your why?

I love to make portraits – when you see your horse every day you don’t necessarily see the beauty in that horse. I hope the way I capture and edit the horse in my pictures can show the owners the true beauty of their horses.

Just for fun!

City or country? Country

Spender or saver? Saver

Sunrise or sunset? Both but I only get to see the sunrise in the autumn and winter, I can’t get up at ‘silly o’clock’

Chocolate or cheese? Strong cheese

Coffee or tea? Coffee

Movies or books? Books

More about Shiralee:

Website: https://www.shiraleeswan.co.uk

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shiraleeswan

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/ ShiraleeSwanPhotos

Thank you To Angela Adams and Professional Imagemaker Magazine.