Recently, a couple of friends of mine and I survived almost three days of Polish photography ala Wojciech Kwiatkowski. Wojciech made a working trip to California and at the last minute, offered to fit in our farm a few hundred miles north! Check out his beautiful gallery on photo.net, he is one of the top photographers on the site and his study is often horses. Photo.net

For the few days, Maplewood fields were graced with my friend's Negatraz daughters; we all wanted to take advantage of the world class photography. Stephanie Silva hauled Esconjca and Jered Johnson brought his Negatraz daughter Werwa and of course her '08 colt Waverly! It was heavenly to be surrounded by these beautiful horses. Unfortunately, Oregon offered up its October rains...

We have yet to see the final results of our labor from Wojciech's proofs, he was off to Santa Ynez (and predictable sun) but Stephanie Meza-Silva shot a bit of her own magic! She has the exact same camera as Wojciech and was shooting her own versions in the background. She has quite the eye for a beautiful picture and is very talented.

She's given me permission to post these two photos, I hope she'll post more and when we receive the shots from the Wojciech we'll put up more selections. He is planning a trip to the west coast in Sept. '09 so anyone wanting him to come to their farm should make plans now. You don't have to be a big farm, do it economically by consolidating a small collection of horses like we did. It was great fun!

Photos by: Stephanie Meza-Sliva

Heidi,

Wojciech is a tremendous individual and I count myself lucky to have him in my circle of Polish friends. I would like to point out, besides his photography prowess, his Polish publications should be the backbone of any serious student of Polish horses. What I have found extremely useful is how he now includes the private breeders in Poland as well. EVERY horse born in Poland is included along with race and production records. These are, in large part, my source of information I post on this forum.

Really fun pics, look forward to more!

Jeff

We weren't the only ones tired from the shoot! Maddy took to sleeping on top of her head... and the other one was just pouting from the invasion.

Photo by Stephanie Meza-Silva:

Jeff,

Good catch! Wojciech is the master of pedigree study (including long lost photos), he publishes his unique research in books. They are incredible and represent thousands of hours of deep investigation, he has obtained information and photos from Studs through out Europe including the rare Hungarian Studs. His study has disproved certain previous beliefs concerning certain lines - his knowledge is outstanding. And as Jeff points out, he understands the value and worth of the private breeder.

www.kawalkada.zin.pl

Any serious Polish Breeder should own these important reference materials.

Heidi

Congratulations on having Wojciech photograph your horses. He is VERY VERY talented, and publishes wonderful books too.
Can't wait to see the pics!

Thank you Heidi for inviting Jered and I to join you with our Negatraz daughters for the shoot.

What a treat of a weekend it was.

First, Jered and I loaded up Esconcja, Werwa and Waverly in my trailer and headed off to the lovely Maplewood Farm. To have those three horses in the same trailer all at one time, kept me praying for a safe haul!! How fun it was to stop on the way and open their windows and see all three big eyed beautiful Polish horses looking out at once.

A few hours later we arrived at Heidi's beautiful Mapelwood Farm. It is like entering into a fairytale wonderland. First you enter through the private gates and a long winding paved driveway leads you through the trees and down a hill across a meadow of lovely wood fence pastures and back up a little knoll to the perfectly manicured setting of her barn. The architecture and design of her wood and stone barn just naturally blends in with the coastal/woodsy landscaping.

Upon unloading our horses we escorted our mares to their deeply bedded stalls with fresh water and hay awaiting for them. After getting our horses settled in she took us down the aisle to meet each of her Kuhailan beauties. I must say Heidi knows what she is doing when it comes to an eye for horses. They all had big eyes, tight ears, straight legs, and athletic bodies. You could easily see every horse in her barn was so well cared for and loved. All of her horses greeted us with friendly anticipation.

Then of course there was Wojciech. What a fellow he is. So full of knowledge and information. I was trying to be polite but wanted to pick his brain on so many of the horses he had photographed and what he thought of each one. Wojciech is not only kind and willing to share his knowledge on the horses but on cameras!! As Heidi said above Wojciech and I have the same camera. However he has a much better lens than I have. But that didn't stop Wojciech from giving me camera lessons throughout the day on Saturday while he was shooting the horses. He even went as far as showing me some of the different lenses he uses and had me try one out! What a guy!!

We fortunately had enough sun on Saturday to photograph all of the horses and then Jered/Heidi had a great idea of lining all of the horses up and doing a group photo! All of those Kuhailan bays in a row and then there was the one Saklawi grey--Esconcja.

Once the line up photograph was finished, we turned all of the horses loose in the pasture for Wojciech to photograph the herd running. What a sight that was.

After a day of photography Heidi took us out to a great pizza place where the owner is half crazy!!! It made for a wonderful evening. The owner's T-shirt read---Rehab is for quitters!!! Now if that doesn't tell it all!!!

Sunday we woke to very tired bodies from all of the previous days activiites of hands on clipping, grooming and "hazing" the horses for the photographs. What I like about Heidi is she is a hands on horse owner. While she does have two wonderful ladies who help in the barn, Heidi personally sees to all of the care of her horses and gets right in there to do the dirty work too, including cleaning the stalls. I must also say--she is a pro at clip jobs!!

We tried to get more photos on Sunday but the sun wasn't cooperating real well for us. I think our bodies were happy for the rest on Sunday. Wojciech was kind enough to give us a sneak peak on his computer of some of the photos he took for us and all I can say is --- He's the man--he got some great ones even in spite of our lack of sun and intermittent rain!!!

What a wonderful trip. With Heidi's setting it made for a magical Polish horse weekend!!!

One we will long remember!




Here's one I snapped when Jered and Heidi weren't looking -- Sorry guys--I couldn't resist!!! (VBG)

For the record, I am the 'crazy horse' Wojciech is taking a photo of in the photo Stephanie posted. I was not trotting as high as I normally do (I am an every-day Park horse).

What fun our weekend was! Heidi invited us to join in the adventure just a few days before Wojciech was set to arrive. Stephanie and I have always wanted to get the two Negatraz daughters together for photographs, and this proved to be an excellent opportunity to not only meet Wojciech, but also to see Heidi's 'boutique' collection of wonderful Kuhailan horses again.

Werwa is very Kuhailan and very Negatraz-like, where Esconcja is the classic Saklawi beauty. They share the Negatraz eyes and ears, which he was so famous for passing along to his foals. Esconcja is from the famous Milordka "E" line, and is very similar in type to the best Michalow representatives of this line. Wojciech was particularly fond of Esconcja - the only grey horse on the farm. He had the opportunity to see 13 lines to Negatraz represented in the small collection of horses he photographed at Maplewood - So I imagine the 'look' was somewhat familiar as Negatraz's influence is in abundance in Poland.

Wojciech has been cataloguing the horses in Poland for years, and keeps diligent records of their pedigrees. He mentioned that through his research, he had discovered that there were two branches of the Milordka family, which was previously unknown. His knowledge of the Polish horses is remarkable, his character is exceptional, and the pleasure he gets from taking photographs is ever present.

Wojciech has an extremely artistic eye and creates very unconventional photographs that present horses as the beauties they are, without gimmicks - without all of the bells and whistles. A horse is a horse, and his love for the natural beauty of the horses is reflected in his work.

We were so fortunate to have this opportunity, and I am really anxious too see the photos!

And Heidi - Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

Oh my goodness, I am so jealous! I would give anything for a photo shoot! Can't wait to see photo's. Hurry!
Patty

Hey Janek,

Time for a Polish lesson... I see his name spelled Wojciech and Wojtek, both on his webpage. Are both appropriate? What gives?

Jeff

Good gosh, how much fun can any one person have in a single weekend whilst remaining clothed and sober? FANTASTIC and I, too, along with toddy am a vivid Celtic green with envy. I cannot wait to see some of these two artists' handiwork.

Cyclone