Today we’d like to introduce you to Stephanie Spur.
Hi Stephanie, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I remember when I was a little kid, I loved playing with my dad’s camera. It was the old negative film one and I am sure he truly appreciated me wasting many films with pictures of literally everything! But if I ever had one biggest supporter/fan, it was my dad. He never told me that I couldn’t take the camera and take pictures and I truly enjoyed taking them. These days it’s a little different as we don’t send the films to develop and we don’t have to wait anymore, wondering how the pictures turned out.
Now we have them immediately. But it’s still fun and I still enjoy running around with now my own camera, much bigger than the one my dad had haha! I like to say I specialize in equine photography. I haven’t mastered it by any means, there is still so much I have yet to learn, but equine photography is something that I found myself in. I have been around horses my whole life (again thanks to my daddy). I started riding horses when I was 3 years old and this “hobby” kinda just stuck with me. It became a lifestyle and I wouldn’t change it for the world. Here if you just put two and two together, you can see how I got into photographing horses.
I was around them a lot, with a camera in my hand and before I knew it, I was playing with the pictures on my laptop, trying my first black backgrounds and first portraits. I do photoshoots of people here and there and a couple of horse shows or any kind of horse-related events. But if I had to choose just one direction, it would definitely be detailed portrait equine photography. I find horses so beautiful and elegant, everything about them is simply perfect and if one day I could capture this perfection in a picture, I’ll feel like I have reached my goal. I got a few of my pictures printed in different magazines, some back in Europe, some here in Tennessee.
I have been a photographer for the annual Christmas play “The Nutcracker” last two years that is being played at Country Tonite Theater in Pigeon Forge, couple of those pictures were in The Mountain Press. There are still so many areas in which I want to get better, but looking back at where I started, I am proud of what I am able to do with my photos now. God gave me the talent to see those little moments and has put me in places to be able to capture those special moments.
I just hope that I will never waste it and that I will never lose the will to learn – because there is SO MUCH out there that I haven’t even discovered yet!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Oh, I wish it was, haha! One of my biggest struggles has always been the money. I don’t come from a rich family. My grandfather used to have a lot of money and here and there he would buy me some nice stuff, but other than that, we were more the kind of family that was simply getting by. Both of my parents worked hard for the money we had and wouldn’t let me spend it on something stupid.
The first better camera that I had, I bought with my own money when I was 17 years old. It was Pentax and I still have it to this day! I never really clicked with Pentax and when I moved to the United States three years later, I bought my first Nikon. It was Nikon D5200 and I got myself a 55-200mm lens. This duo had been with me most of my photo journey and I took many great shots with it. About two years ago, I upgraded to Nikon D750 and finally this year, I got one of my dream lenses! Now I am saving for another lens, but as I said, I never had money just lying around to spend it so it’s probably gonna be a while before I’ll be able to get it. But it will be worth the wait.
Another really big obstacle on this road was my mental health that has suffered a lot in the last two years. So much has happened and there were moments that truly challenged me in the hardest ways possible. I still deal with depression which takes a big toll on my work. Some days it is really hard to get motivated to take pictures. And when I finally do, I am never really happy with them and feel like my work is not good enough and I should just give it up. Thankfully, I have a few very good and supportive friends and my dad and I have an amazing man by my side that is doing everything he can to help me keep my head up when I feel low.
I am sure if it wasn’t for these people around me, I would have sold the camera some time ago. I also know if I did that, I would be regretting it now. I am very blessed and grateful for “my people” that are always here to cheer me up.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I kind of already answered this earlier. My thing is Equine Photography – mostly portraits and details of horses. I also enjoy taking pictures of rodeos and horse shows, but I like to go about it a little differently than others. I do take the shots people want to see and want to buy, but I always try to squeeze in a little bit of myself. Little different angle, maybe different light.
Make it a little more interesting. I love to play with lights. I am obsessed with photographing horses’ eyes. There is just so much in them, I could look in those big eyes all day and never get enough. They are so kind, so honest. Horses don’t lie. They tell you exactly how they feel and what they think. All you have to do is listen. I love capturing the horse language.
Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of portrait sessions and I have to say, I do enjoy that a lot too! If there is something I am really proud of, it’s how far I have gotten with that. When I look back at the portraits I tried taking a couple of years ago and at the pictures from now, I see big growth, a big difference and that makes me proud.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
Working with horses is pretty much a risk in general. I don’t just take pictures of them, I work with horses almost every day, my boyfriend is a horse farrier and I help him daily with that. Here and there we run into some wild and rude horses so there’s this risk. One of my bigger risks was definitely spending so much money on the new camera and later on the new lens. It was a lot of money and even though I had it and didn’t need it at the time, I probably could’ve saved it.
There was a risk of something going wrong and I would need the money. I was definitely questioning if I should or should not buy the camera and lens, but I knew if I will, I will be able to move forward a little bit and hopefully make the money back with my photography. Thankfully, it all worked out and I stayed financially stable-ish! But you asking about the risks reminds me very recent event haha… My friend’s horse started doing really bad and we all were worried she will have to put him down. So, I wanted to go and take some pictures of him in case she would have to call the vet who said the horse has three days to get better. That itself doesn’t sound so bad, right? If she didn’t live in North Carolina, about six hours drive from us! But I said I don’t care about it, I know the horse personally and wanted to do it not only for her but also for myself and other people that I worked with down in Florida where the horse actually came from.
So, I decided I am going and told Logan (my boyfriend) about it. It was pretty much an overnight decision and he was not really feeling it. He kept on going about how risky it is to go, my car was right before going to the shop to get some work done and I just caught a nail a few days before that and of course, I haven’t gotten the tire fixed yet so I didn’t have a spare so if I got flat tire I would get stranded in the middle of nowhere with nobody being able to come quickly, and this whole idea was just against his better judgment. And yes, I have to agree that he had a good point. But I live by what you focus on is what you get. I simply did not allow those thoughts to even enter my mind. I told myself that none of that is going to happen and everything is going to be alright. And guess what, it was!
I got home the next day, safe and happy I got to see this gentle giant Zeus (Belgian-Clydesdale cross, about 20 hands tall!!!) and my friend Chelsea. But there was definitely some risk in taking the spontaneous trip. But like Sirius Black said (and I had this one tattooed), “What’s life without a little risk?” I believe, if we want to achieve something, we have to be willing to risk something in exchange. The best things happen out of our comfort zone!
Contact Info:
- Email: stephaniespur.photo@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stephaniespur/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stephspur
Image Credits
Zack Hawkins
Stephanie Spur
