Great Witchingham Horse Trials

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Steve
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Never done horse photography before. Was racing around in the Land Rover on Saturday collecting score sheets, so went back Sunday with the camera. Comments welcome as always.

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And took a few out of the ordinary shots. To be honest, I was more interested in the sky than the horses :LOL:

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A suspect taking pictures of horses may be harder than you might first think. I like 2 with rider looking to see what's next and the horse looking at the drop.
3 is an interesting shot, I would have preferred more space for the horse to move into.
Mark
 
A suspect taking pictures of horses may be harder than you might first think. I like 2 with rider looking to see what's next and the horse looking at the drop.
3 is an interesting shot, I would have preferred more space for the horse to move into.
Mark

Indeed it is! I took getting on for 300 pictures and most got junked or set aside!

I fully appreciate what you say about #3. As I said, I was concentrating more on the sky than the horse and rider!

My biggest worry was focus. After a while I got it not bad I think.

Really appreciate your comments.
 
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Out of the ones on Flickr, you've picked the right ones to show.

One major point is that I'd usually suggest shooting in Av and not TV. Your aperture is all over the place and far too narrow, but you've been saved in this case by two very important factors:
a) You've picked good clean backgrounds
b) Being a lovely day, the tight aperture has really bought out the best in the sky.

If you've got that much light, you really don't need to be up at ISO 400.

That aside, on to the positives...

Those are 3 cracking shots considering the short focal lengths you've used.

1. I'd crop in tighter to lose the random bod in the background. The way that you've shot it, the sky and open field are dead space anyway.

2. Needs a square crop to lose the top third of the photo (which is dead space). That also makes up for the fact that you've lost the ground line.
It might have been slightly improved if you'd managed to get on the inside of the fence, but that's a moot point and the light looks as though it would have been against you.

3. Love it. Definitely the best of the wide shots that you've shown on that fence. The reason is that the horse coming off the fence closes the picture down, whereas on the rise to the obstacle they'd need more space on the left. However it is slightly underexposed, but a 1/3rd of a stop adjustment in PP plus quite a lot of fill light does wonders for it (I've just tried). It also shows that you are looking for something slightly different, rather than obsessing about getting close in to the fence.

Timing is pretty much spot on (possibly fractionally late on 2) and for your first go at equestrian photos these are really very good. NOw go out, take some more and improve!!
 
Thank you Mark. Very constructive... and instructive!

I started with a 90mm prime, but found the shorter zoom more useful given how close I could get to the action. Still about 30' away though.

I can see exactly what you are saying about the cropping on the first two. And now appreciate why I preferred that wide angle one to the others. I knew I liked it, but didn't know why!
 
Nice shots there chap - looking at going to the Badminton Horse Trials later in the year so I have taken some tips on board.
 
Nice shots there chap - looking at going to the Badminton Horse Trials later in the year so I have taken some tips on board.

Thank you. You'll have fun, I'm sure. The subject makes for some great possibilities. I liked taking the wide angle ones given the sky at the time. But I'd recommend asking the fence judges about how close is acceptable. Of course, having half a ton of horse landing rather close to you is a good guide! And make sure you're in a position where the horse can see you long before the jump.

My wife was away.... my text to her was that I'd spent the weekend with lots of horses and some nice young fillies! The reply is not repeatable in public!
 
Good stuff,love the last,think that works very well as a composition,and the sky works.

Like two as well ,though looks a tad warm on WB ,perhaps.

Pons
 
Good stuff,love the last,think that works very well as a composition,and the sky works.

Like two as well ,though looks a tad warm on WB ,perhaps.

Pons

Thanks. Appreciate the comments.
 
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