When Absorbine reached out about creating photo and video content for their Silver Honey wound and skin care line, I was genuinely excited. Silver Honey is a product I know and trust and personally use on my animals (and to be honest, even myself!) It combines Manuka honey and MicroSilver BG to support wound healing and skin health in horses, and it’s the kind of thing any horse owner with a medicine cabinet has reached for. Getting to tell that story visually was a great assignment.
The shoot was fully remote, which meant I handled everything from sourcing the location and models to executing the shot list on the day. Before any of that happened, we did a discovery call with the client to walk through their vision and desired outcomes. I love that part of the process. It’s where you learn what matters most to the brand and where you can start thinking about how to bring those priorities to life creatively.
For the location, I reached out to Steepleview, the Minnesota home of Eye Candy Jumpers. They had recently completed a beautiful barn rebuild, and the facility was perfect. The wash rack in particular had gorgeous tiled walls and rubber pavers that gave everything a clean, polished look. There was also a bonus I hadn’t planned for: the geometric pattern in the pavers had a hexagonal quality that echoed the beehive design on the Silver Honey packaging. Those unexpected visual connections are some of my favorite things to find on a shoot.
Kate Mikulay modeled with her handsome horse, Fred, and they were wonderful to work with. So much of lifestyle product photography in the equine space depends on the relationship between horse and handler. Fred was patient and cooperative, and Kate knows how to work in front of a camera while still being natural and focused on her horse. That ease comes through in the final images.
Seeing the work end up in print ads alongside the website and social rollout is always satisfying. There’s something meaningful about creating images that live in multiple places and reach horse owners wherever they are. That’s what commercial photography in this industry is really about.
