WHO IS THE PERSON BEHIND RAYON PHOTOGRAPHY?
I am glad that you have found the way to this page and would like to introduce myself.
My Name is Alica Mák and I was born 1986 in Stuttgart / Germany. I live in Keltern, a small village near Pforzheim in southern Germany on the edge of the beautiful Black Forest. In my main job I work as a nurse in intensive care. I love traveling and spend several times a year my free time in Italy in the wild and rough Maremma region.
In my childhood I was enthusiastic about horses and that hasn't changed until today. In addition, I have always searched for a form of expression in which I find myself. In photography I found it and in combination with horses it became my passion. My biggest goal in horse photography is capturing the unique soul of every horse I shoot.
"A horse is a thing of beauty... none will tire of looking at him as long as he displays himself in his splendor." *Xenophon
PHILOSOPHY
The most important thing for me is to give the horses the opportunity to be photographed in a relaxed environment in which they feel good and not stressed. For me, this is the key to show them as beautiful as they really are. Horses know very well when they are the centre of attention and the most of them love to present themselves, especially when they are given a stage for their own ideas.
Why I learned to work with horses in such a way that they feel comfortable during a shooting even before I started taking photography, I will tell you below.
how everything began
- When all that which has always given you joy has come together and gives you a passion, then you have found your spirit -
Even as a child I was hopelessly infected by the horse virus and I spent most of my free time with these wonderful animals, painting pictures of them for hours and reading one horse novel after another in record time. In 2011, when I made my dream come true with my first own horse, I started to study the behaviour of horses intensively, because the small wild Icelandic pony was a big challenge for me and everything I already knew did not help me. She wanted to trust someone who was consistent, respectful, self-confident and gave very clear instructions and this was not easy for me as an introverted and very insecure and shy person. Hrina taught me to stand up for myself, to give animals instructions that they can understand and that they feel comfortable with because they are respected and know exactly what you want from them.
So today I have my little crazy horse to thank for the fact that during shootings the owners always give me the feedback that they had the feeling that their horse felt very comfortable. Especially insecure or nervous horses relax a little bit sometimes and we often have super nice moments that the horses give us in return.
My passion for photography started in my youth with an old analogue Minolta camera that I took with me on every trip and photographed everything that seemed interesting to me. When the camera finally broke down in the middle of 2016, I bought my first digital APSC camera which I used to take countless pictures of Hrina and my dog Kimmy. Half a year later I started taking pictures of the horses of friends. And already in May 2017 I registered my business, because more and more inquiries came from strangers who saw my pictures.
Because I always want to know EVERYTHING about what I am interested in, I booked my first workshop on horse photography in 2017, after I had read everything that was available in the literature about horse photography at that time, and I wanted to understand everything even better. Since then I have tried to educate myself and learn from people who are great role models in photography (not only horse photographers).