Impressive Tack Sales Photo

I was browsing MH$P when I stumbled on this gem of a sales photo in the tack category.

The photo and tack are by JS Custom Tack. What really caught my eye is that not only does it show the saddle in excellent detail, it also shows the tack in situ in a miniature tack room. This is a fantastic presentation of a saddle for a sales photo. If I were not financially challenged, and were in the market for a model horse saddle, a composed shot like this might very well clinch the deal for me.

A large, good, clear photo, with the saddle either on a model, or on a saddle stand, will always be better than a pile of tack, it shows that the person is proud of their work, and happy to allow you to scrutinize it. The willingness to provide high detail pictures shows that there is nothing the tack maker wants to hide.

Setting up a tack room diorama to take that sales photo says so much more. Not only are they proud to show off their tack, they're also saying "look at my attention to detail!" Think about it, if they've gone to the trouble of constructing a flawless, in-scale tack room, how much trouble did they go to in capturing the tiny details while making that tack item? You know you're going to be getting a superior product.

This is fantastic Ms. Skybova! You've given me a lot to think about, and a new pet project: making a miniature tack room, and someday filling it with amazing pieces of miniature functional art!

Workbench Update

On New Year's Eve, Antar Al-Ahmar was finally in his first coat of primer, but before he'd even dried, I noticed some problems, so as soon as he was dry, out came the Bondo Glazing Putty (I am not paid by, nor affiliated with Bondo, I just really like their products!).

So, here's some progress pictures to show off what I have so far. This again, is part of trying to break my problem with posting work in progress pictures, so you've actually got two WIPs here, the horse, and the diorama I photographed him on.

The red spots are Bondo, the white spots are sanded high points. I'm still not done with the Bondo, I want to smooth his tail so it matches his mane a bit better, but this is how he looks at the moment. I think he's looking pretty spiffy.

And just to get me even further over the hump as far as posting progress pictures goes, here's another item on my workbench:

This is the G2 Prancing Morgan body with the G2 Appaloosa tail, a G3 Mustang head, and G2 Thoroughbred ears. I think he looks kind of Andalusian-ish. This guy still needs a ton of work, including taking a Dremel to his neck/chest, and filling in a big hole in his neck. He actually doesn't stand on his own, he's leaning against the jump behind him, so I'm going to have to figure out a base for him as well.