Warming Up The Acrobats – PART 2

These were taken in theatres at the tail end of the tour, on the east coast of Australia from Cairns to Brisbane. Everyone’s pre-show rituals are different; body and mind requirements differ from show to show, and person to person. Some days you feel great. You spring into action and blast right through to the show. Other days you feel like a bruised slug, unable to get the motivation to do a single thing except stare blankly at the ceiling with wobbly eyes. Either way, you’ve got a show in 2 hours and it’s gotta be good. I attempted to capture different moods of my colleagues as they prepared for shows.

This set was taken with the Canon 6D & EF85mm f1.8.

Christian Schooneveldt-Reid and James Brown. This Side Up. 2014.

Christian Schooneveldt-Reid. This Side Up. 2014.

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Travel Photo Of The Day #51: Horses Of Prague.

Horses wait for tourist customers in Prague.

These beautiful old mares waited patiently on the hard cobblestones for customers. When I think about it, it’s a strange way to treat animals. Blinkers on, movement restricted, bit in the mouth, shoed up and standing on stone all day. It’s the same way people have used horses and other animals for thousands of years but, looking at like this, it doesn’t look particularly pleasant for the animal. I took this photo last year and never thought about this aspect of it until right now, as I look at it.

Without going too far into animal cruelty and exploitation, it’s interesting that I consider myself fairly conscious of these sorts of things but I didn’t even see it because I guess I was too busy being a tourist. On the positive side of things, I’m sure they get treated well regardless of their relatively curtailed freedom. They’re healthy, well fed and well groomed. They go to work in the morning just like the rest of us and probably sleep in a warm stable. But are they aware of their situation? That’s both the obvious and age old question, the question that either justifies their incarceration or successfully argues against such treatment of them. It could be worse, but just because it’s normal doesn’t mean it’s right either.