Businessman On A Horse Backwards

Businessman On A Horse Backwards

This photo of a businessman sitting on a horse backwards is a humorous photo designed to illustrate a surpisingly large number of concepts. This executive obviously needs training on how to ride a horse which quickly becomes a metaphor for the need of training for virtually any business and a lot of personal scenarios. In addition to his lack of equestrian expertise, the man is riding bareback, which shows a lack of proper equipment as well. We see right off the bat that and advertiser can use the image to promote training and equipment for business and personal needs.

Horsemanship As Metaphor

The horsemanship in this photo, or lack of it, becomes a metaphor for lack of business acumen and the need for expertise. A horse can represent travel, speed, motion and connections. With that in mind it is easy to see how this image can be used for editorials on everything from getting started (the horse is standing still) to misplaced trust to new technologies just hitting the market.

Creating Horse Images For Business

To create this horse and rider image for business concepts I first photographed the horse. The photography was pretty casual. I had the owner stand her horse under the shade of a large tree while I shot it with my Nikon D800. Next I photographed the model in my studio. Finally, I looked through my files until i could find a background that was both interesting and had the same quality of life of the horse image. However, the foreground wasn't quite right, but I found an image (shot in Socotra) that had a perfect foreground. Then it was a simple matter to composite the imagery together to create this funny picture of a clueless businessman astride a trusty steed. The image was crafted to facilitate easy cropping to square, horizontal and vertical with amply copy space available in any crop. 

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