Photography Tips for Capturing the Salt River Wild Horses In Arizona
Sunrise and late fall is my favorite time and season to capture the horses crossing the Salt River…..
Salt River Horses Photography Tips
As someone who spends a lot of time photographing and filming (video captures) the Salt River Wild Horses in the Tonto National Forest near Mesa, Arizona, I’ve come to appreciate just how much fun — and challenging — it can be to find and capture them. Each visit is invariably different. Sometimes bands of horses can be found on or near the river. Other days, particularly in the Spring time, bands can be found up in the open desert hills foraging. Some days they might be found hanging out in a shaded and dense Mesquite tree forest. Its always a dynamic situation with these beautiful and free roaming Mustangs- which makes following them kind of addictive with the bonus of a lot of cool and inspiring surprises along the way.
No matter the season, photographing these wild horses can be an unforgettable experience — but it also requires patience, respect, and a few practical techniques to get some good results. Here are some of my basic photography and filming tips I’ve learned along the way.
Keep a Respectful Distance
One of the most important things to keep in mind is that although these horses are used to humans, they are still wild. It always a good idea to maintain a safe and respectful distance- at least 50 feet is recommended. I have never personally experienced any aggressive behavior from these Mustangs out in the field, but the Stallions can get a bit rambunctious at times at its best to stay out of their way. The biggest danger in my opinion is to get accidentally run over by a Stallion when they are chasing each other around to spar or fight. Although its not absolutely necessary by any means, having a telephoto long lens (200mm or more) can allow you to capture close, detailed shots without interfering with the horses natural behavior.
Chasing the Best Light:
Light is everything in photography and video. The early morning and late afternoon hours are perfect for shooting the Salt River horses. The soft golden light adds warmth to the horses coats and gives the desert landscape that magical warm glow. Not surprisingly, I personably prefer either sunrise or sunset time to head out into the field to find and hopefully get some good images and video footage of the horses. If I had to choose, at or before sunrise would be my favorite time to be in position. I try to be at a location at least 15 minutes before the actual sunrise appears on the horizon to get set up and be ready for the best and most dramatic lighting and horse activity or action as it unfolds.
Midday light tends to be a little harsh in the desert, especially on sunny days. If you do film during midday, look for shaded areas near the river or use the brightness to create dramatic silhouettes against the blue sky. Having and putting on a polarizing ND filter can also be very helpful at this time of day.
Watch the Weather:
This is personal preference of mine, but I strongly prefer having some clouds or cloud cover when shooting the horses at sunrise or sunset. Its just a fact that clouds and cloud structures (along with dust particles and moisture) will reflect and refract sunlight which in turn will help generate colorful and dramatic skies at these times of the days. In general, I check the hourly weather on my phone to see if the cloud cover at sunrise or sunset is gong to be somewhere between 30% and 60% which in my unscientific experience provides the best chance of experiencing and capturing colorful scenes. I also love shooting in stormy or unstable weather, but I know that’s not for everyone…
Cameras & Lenses:
As far as capturing still photos, in my opinion having a pro or semi-pro mirrorless camera will undoubtably give you the sharpest images. I just find that mirrorless platforms, I shoot with a Canon, produce the best results with the least amount of noise when shooting in low light at sunrise or sunset. That being said I still use a Canon 9Od DSLR as a back up and it still produces great results too especially coupled with a prime lens or maybe Sigma 18-35 mm art lens.
As far as lenses, coming from a landscape photography background, and a guy who shoots a lot of video, I still dont even own a long lens like a 200- 400 mm. That being said most of the full-time and serious equine photographers I know personally and run into are shooting on average with a 300 to 600 mm lens. I like using prime lens like the 50 mm nifty fifty as I am more focused on the scene than individual horses. The photo at the top of this blog post with a band of the Salt River horses crossing the river at sunrise was shot using a 50 mm prime lens as an example.
The one big tip I can give photographers coming from a landscape background like me is to make sure you are shooting at a high enough frame rate to capture and freeze the action and movement of the horses. I would say a bare minimum of 400 FPS , (frames per second) but a lot of wildlife photographers would probably think that is still way, way, too low unless you are shooting on tripod maybe. Probably the easiest solution to mitigate getting blurry and not tack sharp images is to put you camera in shutter priority mode up to 1000 -1500 fps or more- thats what I do most of the time when the horses are moving or action like Stallions fighting is happening.
Phone Cameras:
Yes, today’s phone cameras can capture some remarkably good photos quickly with out making any on the fly adjustments. Is the quality and detailed info captured as good as using a professional or semi-pro camera mirrorless or DSLR? The answer is no, and anyone who says differently does not know what they are talking about. I don’t want to get into the many reasons why in this post, but I can assure you that its true. But that being said, a phone camera will in general work very well for capturing good and crisp photos of the horses for personal use or social media posts.
Capturing Video:
I shoot a lot of video of the Salt River wild horses and use several different cameras including a drone if the conditions are right. I am not going to get into all the different cameras I use in this post particular post to capture video as its a little dense and probably better suited for a separate post.
2 very important tips as far as my own video recording process:
I try to capture all video footage in at least 4k quality and I tend to shoot in a higher frame rate like 60 FPS vs the standard 24 or 30 FPS. Shooting in 4k just provides better quality/resolution and gives me more options in my post editing process. Even if most of my video clips end up being displayed at 1080 HD on social media platforms for example, I would still rather start out with 4k footage and then scale down from there. This method or process just works the best for me.
As far as frame rates, shooting at 60 FPS also just gives me more options when editing in post. This is particularly true if I want to slow the action down and make the footage smoother. I will also shoot at 120 FPS for some scenes to slow the action down even further if necessary.
Even if you are using your phone camera to shoot video, you can easily go into the camera settings and switch to recording video at 4k and 60 FPS. Will this setting create much bigger files and eat up a lot of storage space, yes, of course. But the quality will be better giving you more options if you do capture some dramatic video clips..
Salt River Horse Videos: You can watch a number of short videos I have created over the last 2 years of the horses on this youtube channel here. Please consider subscribing to my channel. I appreciate the support!
Best Locations To Find The Horses:
There are a number of locations in the Salt River lower recreation area that are a good starting point to go look and hopefully find the horses. I write about this in another blog post here and you are also welcome to contact me if you have questions about finding the horses. The bottom line is the horses move around a lot and a location where they have been showing up consistently for weeks may change overnight.
The ability or willingness to hike a bit if necessary during early morning before sunrise or late afternoon until sunset will increase your chances significantly of finding the horses in my opinion. On average I end up hiking at least about 25 to 30 minutes one way to some of my favorite locations along the river or up in the hills to spot the horses.
The truth is that I still do strike out occasionally when looking for the horses, but not nearly as often as when I started out 4 years ago. The main reasons being that I have just developed a better feel for where they might be throughout the year. In addition, I now have a network of fellow Salt River horse photographers who I have met out in the field over the years who are generous and willing to share tips where the horses are currently showing up.
Final Thoughts:
Photographing or filming the Salt River Wild Horses isn’t just about getting a great picture — it’s about connecting with nature and experiencing a piece of Arizona’s wild spirit and western heritage.
Whether you’re using a DSLR, mirrorless camera, or your phone, the same principles apply: good light, perseverance, and respect. Every time I film along the river, I’m reminded how lucky we are to have these horses living and roaming freely in our desert near a major metro area of over 4 million people.
Take your time, stay observant, and let the wild moments unfold — they’ll reward you with images and memories you’ll never forget.
Guided Wild Horse Photography Tours & Consulting :
Please contact me if you have any questions or want to inquire about setting up a private consultation and or a small group guided field tour to find and photograph the Salt River wild horses. Fall, Winter, and Spring are generally the best seasons (and comfortable temperature wise) to head out into the field to see and hopefully capture images and video of these majestic animals. I am on the lower Salt River often doing wildlife photography quite a bit so I generally have a very good idea where the horses can be currently found. I can assure you its a unique and memorable outdoor experience seeing these beautiful and majestic animals roaming in their desert home or crossing the river!
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If the conditions are right, sunset can be a spectacular time to photograph the wild horses on the Salt River.
Its not for everyone, but one of my favorite locations to shoot or film the horses is in the rolling desert hills of the Tonto National forest . This particular location required a nearly a 3 mile round trip hike with inclines from where I was parked along Bush Highway in the lower Salt River Recreation area. The bonus is the elevated views are excellent and expansive and you can often see the horses on the move way off in the distance.
The fall colors along the Salt River can be very good and stick around some years well into January. Not surprising, Fall is also one of my favorite times of the year to capture images and video footage of the horses on the river.
If there is abundant rainfall in the winter and early Spring, the hills in the Tonto National forest have the potential to be covered in Wildflowers like these gold Mexican Poppies. Its a stunning scene to capture the horses roaming the hills when Wildflowers are blooming.
Its always a good idea to make sure you have your camera ready and set with a high shutter speed to capture the show the horses put on when fighting or sparing- Feel free to contact me if you have any questions! Thanks!