30 Captivating Wildlife Pictures From FAPA 2023 Winner And Nominee List

Bored Panda reached out to Andrea Zachrau, who won 3rd place with a beautiful shot of a horse named "Out Of The Dust".

We asked Andrea to share what inspired her to enter the Fine Art Photography Awards contest and how she selected the submitted photo.

“My signature series is 'Holi Horses', for which I photograph horses with holi powder and that work has been internationally awarded before. The capture of the Spanish stallion Lio is different than my other work which is usually more colorful, in this case, I loved the fact that it is more of a black-and-white image and that it looks as if the horse is fading away,” wrote Andrea.

We also asked Andrea to walk us through the process of capturing this image. She wrote: “This photo was taken in my mobile photo studio for horses, I'm working with a 6x4m black background and 4 Elinchrom strobes. At first, we got the horse used to the studio with lots of praise and treats and walked him through the studio before we let him run through it. When he was comfortable with the situation, we put flour in his mane and let him jump/run through the studio, which created this special effect.”

No creative photoshoot comes without its challenges. Therefore, we asked Andrea to share what difficulties she encountered while taking this picture.

“The biggest challenge is to catch the best movement of the horse while it is galloping between the strobes to get the perfect light and the black background. When working with artificial light, I cannot use serial shots with my camera, so I have to catch the perfect moment with one shot,” explained Andrea.

Andrea also shared her opinion about what elements contribute to creating a truly stunning wildlife/animal photograph and how she incorporated these elements into her work.

“My approach to photographing animals is more of an artistic nature. I love to use special effects to create unique images, and I work mainly with artificial light to be able to control the outcome of the photo 100%. Most horse photographers work in nature and with natural light and I love these images, but my aim is to create photos that are different and to portray animals in a new way,” wrote Andrea.

In regards to post-processing when editing her images, Andrea shared how she maintains authenticity while still enhancing the visual impact.

“My main aim is to capture the image the way I imagined it to be during the shoot already, e.g. I always use real powder, fog, etc. when creating the photo and never add special effects in Photoshop. So editing the image is mostly to enhance colors and details, add contrast, and remove something like the halter or the owner standing next to the horse.”

And lastly, Andrea added: “Reaching 3rd place in the FAPA competition was a big honor for me, especially since the winning images were both amazing captures of wild animals while my photo had a totally different approach with a domesticated horse in a photo studio. Of course, this photo will also be part of my next big exhibition 'Horses - Same, but different' which will take place in the German Horse Museum in Verden from March 19th til May 12th.”