Favorite Fall Photo’s of Onaqui Herd

Posted on November 22, 2024November 22, 2024 by ghuggins

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We have photographed the Onaqui wild horses several times this fall, but I haven’t posted images to my website. Too many other projects to finish up before winter.

Unfortunately, another wild horse was needlessly shot and killed last week. This is the third wild horse shot and killed this year. Rewards for information leading to the arrest of those responsible are now up over $30,000. It is hard to imagine why a human being would decide to shoot a beautiful, defenseless animal that trusts humans enough to be within 50 feet! I’ve spent the last two days driving throughout the range the South herd uses looking for additional dead horses. There were a few horses still missing from the South herd. Thankfully I didn’t find any evidence of additional deaths, and it looks like all horses might now be accounted for.

Enjoy my favorite fall photographs!

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Photographing Wild Horses in Utah’s West Desert – Late May

Posted on June 2, 2020June 2, 2020 by ghuggins

I’m often asked if I ever get tired of photographing this herd of Wild Horses. The simple answer is N E V E R! Every trip is different. Different lighting, different foregrounds, different backgrounds, the horses have different attitudes. This trip was all about dark skies and rich lighting.

A few posts ago (the one with a lot of dust and wind) I felt that many of the photographs looked better in that very warm sepia tone. Another post a few weeks ago it didn’t feel like many of the photographs looked better in any form of black and white. On this trip to the Onaqui, even as I was taking some photographs, I said to myself, “this scene is meant to be in black and white”. I tried several of these scenes in the warm sepia tone but it just wasn’t what I saw in my mind’s eye. I saw dark, dramatic skies in a deep selenium tone. I hope you agree…

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More Wild Horse Photographs for April – Lots of 2020 Foals

Posted on May 28, 2020May 28, 2020 by ghuggins

Here is the final batch of photo’s from my April trip to photograph the Onaqui Herd of Wild Horses. Several spectacular new foals. I think I have a new favorite foal! Hope you enjoy! I can’t wait to see what the foals that belong to the South herd look like!

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Photographs of Onaqui Herd April

Posted on April 21, 2020April 21, 2020 by ghuggins

Had a short trip to the herd a few weeks ago. Found the North herd near the trough watering hole. What a sight! Horses everywhere. Lots of new foals (too many), but it was great to see them having such a great time. Went to find the South herd. Only a few horses on the flat, went up to the upper watering hole, nothing there. Then I noticed some movement a couple of miles south and East. There they were. Unfortunately not time to get there before sunset so I will have to plan on seeing them in a few weeks. This is only a small portion of my photographs. These wild horses are such a pleasure to photograph. More coming soon.

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Onaqui Wild Horse Herd – February

Posted on February 28, 2020February 28, 2020 by ghuggins

As usual, the Onaqui herd never disappoints. We located several family bands just below Davis Mountain. The antelope (pronghorns) must be migrating back from their winter range because we saw a couple of herds that had nearly 50 antelope in them. Then we set out to find the rest of the “North” herd. We found them herd several miles North of Davis Mountain at the top of the foothills. We have seen the herd in this area once before. We named the valley “Dead Eagle Valley” for a dead eagle that we found there last spring. As some of the bands came into the valley we were able to position ourselves above them, and Simpson Buttes and the valley East of there is in the background. What a view! Several photographs in this post are panorama’s where I shoot 12-15 separate overlapping photographs in portrait mode and then stitch them together to form a panorama in Lightroom. Then we were able to hike to the opposite side of the valley and had the snow-covered Onaqui Mountains in the background! Wish we had lawn chairs with us, we could have spent the entire day there! We photographed them for several hours in that valley and then proceeded South and West to find the former Cremello band. We found them again near the main watering hole South and West of Simpson Springs. It looks like the black mustang has taken over the band once Ghost and the Cremello were captured, neutered and sold at auction by the BLM. No sign of the colt with one blue and one brown eye, but his mother and her two younger foals were there. I fear he was rounded up with Ghost and the Cremello. A sad thought to have as we left the herd and headed home…

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Fine Art Prints of Wild Horses

Posted on November 20, 2019November 20, 2019 by ghuggins

Here are some additional photographs of the Onaqui Wild Horses that are more contemporary or as some might say, “fine art”. Some are just toned, some are modified in Photoshop. Comments appreciated.

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Photography of Sand Wash Basin Wild Horses

Posted on November 12, 2019November 12, 2019 by ghuggins

Since hearing the devastating news that the BLM “ACCIDENTALLY” captured my absolutely favorite stallion (Ghost) and the stallion that he was trying to steal some of his mares (the Cremello whose mare has born colts with blue and blue/brown eyes), I have not been able to bring myself to photograph the Onaqui’s. The BLM refuses to return these two stallions to their herd! They had promised the public that they would not be rounding up any of the Onaqui herd that was not on Dugway land. So much for trusting the BLM…

After a business trip to Grand Junction, Colorado I drove the 2 1/2 hours to see the Sand Wash Basin herd of wild horses. The herd is located about 20 minutes northwest of Maybell, Colorado. I got to the the HMA just before sunset and miraculously found a small band to photograph just at sunset. They seemed very calm and allowed me to get quite close to photograph them. I wish I had taken them time to grab more than just my 500mm lens but the light was fading quickly and I really didn’t think they were going to be as friendly as the Onaqui herd.

I slept in my vehicle and got up before sunrise to hopefully find another band to photograph at the “magic hour”. Again, I was very fortunate to find another small band just before sunrise. The way the images downloaded was that the gallery shows the early morning photographs at the beginning and the evening photographs from the prior night at the end of the gallery. I drove most of the HMA and found at least 10 bands of between 5 and 8 horses in each band. Most of them were not close enough to easily walk to and I needed to return home as soon as possible. This is completely unlike the Onaqui herd where you almost always find over one hundred horses together, and family bands within that larger herd. The Sand Wash Basin wild horses were all beautiful and very healthy. I hope to be able to return and spend more time with them. I also hope to get up enough courage to photograph the Onaqui’s soon…

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Photographs of Onaqui Wild Horses 8 Aug

Posted on August 11, 2019August 11, 2019 by ghuggins

It was another great trip to the Onaqui with good friends and great company. Not as hot as a few weeks ago when it was 108 degrees. It was in the low 90’s today.

The North herd has moved near Simpson Springs and the South Herd is just a few miles South of them. FANTASTIC clouds and lighting, not much fighting. Great day for panorama’s. More to come from this shoot and one in late July.

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Photography of Onaqui Herd – June 20

Posted on July 3, 2019July 3, 2019 by ghuggins

Finally getting caught up on our latest trip to photograph the Onaqui herd. It is getting hot enough and dry enough that the herd(s) are now using the watering holes making them easier to find. A few rain showers, and a spectacular sunset to cap off another perfect day with the Onaqui mustangs, mares and foals.

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Photographing Onaqui Herd – June 14 – Onaqui Wild Horses

Posted on June 28, 2019June 28, 2019 by ghuggins

I had another great trip to photograph the Onaqui Herd of wild horses in Utah’s West Desert. The “North herd” was near the “trough watering hole” and the South herd was South of Simpson Springs. It’s hard to have a bad day with this herd. The rainbow that was out for a short time was a welcome addition to another perfect afternoon.