California State Park Ranger “Jeff” Jeffrey Sears and his 21-year old quarter horse named Peter in Montana de Oro State Park, Los Osos, CA 03 Nov. 2010. Photo taken as a candidate for “baseball card” handouts to park visitors, and included in a set of 13 photos.

Note that I’ve left most photos in this set largely uncropped so that the end-user can decide between portrait or landscape orientation. Photo assistant was Dawn Beattie. Jeff’s wife Gina assisted with Peter’s setup and behavior. Ref. Jeff Sears 805-975-5894 jsears [at} hearstcastle d o t com.

Photo by "Mike" Michael L. Baird, mike [at} mikebaird d o t com, flickr.bairdphotos.com; Shooting a Canon EOS 5D 12.8 MP Digital SLR Camera (RAW) with Canon 50mm f/1.4 Lens, no circular polarizer, handheld.

Tech note: Shot around 4-5 PM, still a bit early to take advantage of late light. I wish I’d paid more attention to trees coming out of the heads of the subjects or at least blurred the backgrounds more. We had trouble finding homogeneous backgrounds at this location while also positioning the subjects in shade or diffused light to avoid the harsh light encountered when using the mountains as a cleaner backdrop.