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well yesterday was my day off, and i was dragged out of a nice air conditioned house with a swimming pool, to go sit in the parklands of adelaide and watch the first day of the 3 day equestrian event. (payback for her going to watch car racing when the clipsal was on)

oh and the temperature was a cool 39 :yelrotflm

i brought my camera with me to stop me falling to sleep with bordem





thought id try something different and add a bit of motion blur at 1/25th it is hard trying to keep something in focus with it is moving left and right and up and down at the same time. but the pattern in the horse hair on its rear is fairly focused



and a picture from the mornings session of masterclass where they explain to you all the different elements of dressage.


i cant beleive these people did it, with coats, glove, long sleeve shirts and a hat on. the horses's were playing up a bit most probably due to the heat. this event is a 4 star event which apparently is the highest level of eventing.

im having today off was suppose to be going out and watching the cross country, but ill be back out there sunday to watch the show jumping competition when it will be a cool 40. :weirdo:

** forgot to add these have just had the colours boosted abit on them, and are cropped to remove stuff from the background i didnt want there.

#3 is brilliant.
Perhaps you should give up cars & concentrate on horses. It seems you have found your forte

I also like the way you have caught all 4 feet off the ground (well almost!)in #2

#1 doesn't do it for me. background too distracting.
#4 ditto. The horse gets lost. Or is that the point?

EDIT: Bloody old keyboards

motion blur shot is fantastic - it has worked in isolating the horse from the background, which at these events, as you've found is bloody hard !! There is never a clear background, and it can really detract from the beauty of the horse and rider. I'm guessing that was an extended trot along the diagonal ????
Love them - can't wait to see your jump shots

One thing about post processing is knowing when to stop.

In the first two, you've pushed the colour way too far, with the result that the rider in each image looks like a pommy backpacker after a day on Bondi Beach. That is never a pretty sight.

Were these shot with AWB? The first shot certainly looks as if it may have been: the horse is blue!

Looking at these images, you appear to have had constant bright sunlight all through the day. The need for AWB in that of a situation is zero: switch to the appropriate wb setting and forgetaboutit.

Likewise, exposure. Work out what the correct EV for the conditions is, and shoot within the constraints of that EV. Slow down the shutter speed for the panning shot and pump the aperture to compensate.

But in constant conditions, remember that everything is ... constant ... and that can give you a couple less things to focus on.

Which brings me to focus. I think that in the second image, the focus point is the fence behind the horse and rider. No, not that fence, the other one, with the signage on it. With these sorts of events - and with motorsports too - you can often predict where the animals or cars will be tracking. Switch to manual focus, pre-focus on a point that you know they'll be going through, and when they hit that point, shoot.

The panning shot is very good. Again, consider using pre-focus, and follow the action before and after, moving your body smoothly, and gently and smoothly squeezing - not pressing - the shutter release.

cheers for the feedback guys,

i had the camera set to TV settings to control the shutter speed, and i let the camera do the rest.
one thing that i realised later on in the day was i had the iso set to 400 which i dont know why.

and yeah i for the earlier photos i had the WB set to daylight, then my photos were looking very flat colourwise to i went to AWB and on the LCD screen they looked better, when i got home i seen they looked better from earlier on in the day.

i brought a manfrotto monopod today so i will definately be doing more panning photos tomorrow.

ill have a go at using pre focus gary aswell, im only using the 55-250mm lens that came with my camera, this should sort out some foucsing issues i was having as it focus's so slow.

I am one of those strange people that LOVE watching Dressage... it's just so beautiful, and though it can look effortless, it is really hard work to get horses doing some of those moves. Having said that, photo 3 and 4 are my favourite as, to me, they represent the grace of the sport. Looking forward to your showjumping shots!

here are two of my photos from showjumping, both of megan jones who came 2nd and 3rd in the 4 star event.

ive got a lot more photos to go through, but for me these two were standout pictures. PP wasnt all that much bumped up contrast, quick sharpen, and slight boost in saturation. (and a slight vignette to the first image)

5)

6)

i found showjumping much better to watch than dressage, still a very long day which wasnt very well organised.

I really like #3, although not as sharp as I would have liked, it is simply stunning in capturing the motion of the horse.

These people would have lost kg's in the form of sweat!