This is a mare and foal on the beach in the northern Outer Banks of North Carolina. The horses had waded into the water just a bit and then stood there seemingly to contemplate the view. I wanted to emphasize that mood and so moved into the water myself to frame them with an incoming wave and the sand dunes behind.

This was natural light but difficult to pull off: background brightness, even on a cloudy day, required me to expose for the horses and bring the overly-bright background (waaaay to the right on the original histogram) down in post.

I shot with an OM System OM-1m2 and their 100-400mm lens (ISO 2000, 1/2500 sec to catch the water drops on the tail of the mare, and f/6.3, the maximum aperture at 385mm focal length). That aperture made getting proper bokeh more difficult, and to get what I wanted I framed the background, dunes and waves, so that they were a good ways away. In post I took the color temperature of the horses slightly to yellow and the background slightly to blue; this helped to enhance the bokeh.

The end result: one sees the horses at the edge of the ocean with the out-of-focus wave to the left and the dunes way behind, also out-of-focus.

Thanks for the consideration and any comments!