ABOUT ME


My name is Alaina Hower, a Bay Area native and lifelong equestrian. I have an affinity for the furry and four-legged, traveling the world, Genovian pears, trail running among the redwoods, stories involving dragons, and consuming inadvisable quantities of sushi and holiday delicacies (not together, that would be weird).


Horses have been in my life for as long as I can remember. When I was a little girl, we'd spend holidays in the Santa Cruz mountains at my aunt's home where her three beautiful horses tolerated my obsession with them. Aris, the gentlest and kindest of the three, allowed me to groom him for hours and hop on bareback with a halter and a lead rope as crudely fashioned reins. You know the horse-girl stereotype? That was me, unashamed and blissful. I spent my young life riding and competing as an eventer before college and the beginnings of a career in Hollywood VFX beckoned. 


I've spent the last decade honing my skills as an artist, first as a matte painter down in Hollywood and later as a UI/UX designer for a med tech company in Silicon Valley. I picked up photography back in 2011 as a personal creative outlet and quickly fell in love with the medium. I marveled at the fact that this form of art would take me far and wide, introduce me to amazing people, and allow me to capture my own life with such incredible clarity; it was like having my own little time machine. When I realized that I could pair this love of capturing light with horses, well... it was a no brainer.


My lifelong appreciation for these amazing creatures, years of technical and creative training, love of capturing human moments, and the empowerment to bring the things I hold dear in life together has culminated into who I am today; still a horse girl, just with an arsenal of equipment and a knack for chasing light.

Aris, the wonderful horse that started it all. My poor parents had no idea that, by letting me sit on him, they were in for a lifetime of horse-craziness.

Loki, my stoic curmudgeon of a dog. Enjoys long walks on the beach, salmon, cuddling, and rolling in dead things (makes the cuddles even BETTER).

Stormy, the fiery OTTB who gave me confidence in the eventing world (our dressage left much to be desired, but he was a blast to jump).