Horse Photo Competition 2 2016 : Entry Number 51

What a truly stunning and instantly memorable image. One can almost feel the wind in the horse's tail and playing on the water's choppy surface, and can almost feel the chill in the air of this stark landscape. Beautiful tones and white balance, strong framing. An absolutely stellar image. Bravo! ~ illona

Wow, thank you so much, Illona! This photo was taken on a windy October morning at the North Sea in Cuxhaven, Germany, and it shows my horse - and all time favourite model - Bella. At the beginning, she didn't like the rough sea and waves coming at her, but I gave her some time and then everything played together: The sea, the wind, the clouds and the soft light. The photo was taken with a Canon 1D Mark III and Sigma 50mm 1.4, processed in Lightroom and Photoshop. Thank you so much for this honour and also congratulations to all the other participants who achieved a mark of excellence for their great photos!