Show Jumping

bluesman graham

Hi all,
I took a visit to a country show today & took along my camera to try my hand at Show Jumping photography I didn't really know what to do as I've only tried it once a few years ago . Here's a selection of images. C&C ecouraged. Horsey shooters etc feel free to rip to bits!! . Kind regards Graham.

#1


#2


#3


#4


#5


#6


#7

Sam

Over all great photography job. I would trash #1 and #2 for sure. Riders and horse people are only interested when the jump is executed in a technically correct manner.

Note, I am not a horse person so will get lost on some of the technical aspects of the jump.

I love #5!!!!!!!

Sam

bluesman graham

Thanks for the comments Sam.
I have no interest in selling the images to the competitors etc,(there was a instant print co there), I'm a newspaper sports photographer so just captured the action . Kind regards Graham.

Glort

Sam wrote: »

Over all great photography job. I would trash #1 and #2 for sure. Riders and horse people are only interested when the jump is executed in a technically correct manner.
Sam

In the 3 years I did equine covering everything from small local pony club events to the most prestigious events in the country with OS competitors, I found the exact opposite to be true.

First event I covered I had people running up to the trailer asking if I got any shots of when ( she) fell off and could they see them? We thought it best not to put them on the Vstations... Till then anyway.

My biggest ever single sale was of the National champion in her division of Jumping Equitation coming a big gutsa. I shot a series of 8 shots of her coming over the horses head, being completely upside down, Sitting on the top rail facing straight on to the horse as neat as could be and then the horse and her both crashing to the ground.
The sponsors bought multiple sets for the rider, display at shows, and some other uses and did a deal with me for $500.

Falls were ALWAYS a top seller for us. Usually the riders were't hurt, on a few occasions they were taken to and kept in hospital but they always came back asking if we got the incident. One night I had a Doctor in a Hospital ring me at 11Pm at home wanting to know if I had shots of a girl coming off. I did and I emailed them to him. The shots were important in showing how different injuries were sustained and made the difference between the girl being released or kept in for a couple of days observation. Guess who was waiting at my trailer the next morning even before I got there and was first and best sale of the day??

Shots like the first 2 with the horse knocking the rail would be no impediment to a potential sale. They will look at the shot and say they like the position of the horses ears or tail or hoves or whatever. Even if the rider had a scared look on their face. They will knock back shots for technical imperfections in any class, especialy Dressage but by the same token they will also buy technical disasters if there is something in the shot they like.

One thing is for sure, if you ARE selling Jumping or equitation pics, falls are a gauranteed money spinner. I did one SJ Interschools championship Where the kids were coming off on this once fence at a rate I still have never seen. I'm the kind of sick puppy that can watch Vids of people getting hurt on YT for hours and think it's funny but hearing these kids hit the muddy ground and still go crunch from 25 ft away every 3rd or 4th rider was seriously making my stomach churn. When one of the officials came near to where I was standing I told her I thought it was time to stop before some kid ended up in a wheel chair. They continued on.

That event was one of our very busiest and we sold so many sequences of these kids coming off we were there with people waiting for almost 2 hours after it finished to get there prints and disks.
Talking to the riders over the years they all seemed to think that falling off, even when they got hurt, was a part of the "Fun".

I know us photographers are strange but these horse people are something else again!

As far as the pics go, hard to comment on when I don't fully understand the purpose for which they are taken. If you aren't trying to sell them then pretty much anything your artistic interpretation runs to is fine. Generally a good pic of SJ will be when the horses back feet are JUST visable off the ground which is about the peak action. The one with the horses feet tucked up front and back was a shot I liked myself but would not be that popular with the horse crowd. Generally they have very specific paramaters of what they want to see and then the rest falls into technicalaties ( Ears, riders foot turn, knees, neck position etc) that the shooter has no control of.

The front on 3/4 view is by far the most popular in SJ and EQ but the one from behind would also be popular with a percentage of the horse crowd because they are into the horses back side.
Don't ask me, I'm a shooter not a horse lover.
Low angles are also good because they make the jump look taller and the horse going over the top higher.
Other thing horse people pick up on is cropping. Don't go too tight, they like to see the fence and a bit of the surrounds. No.2 where you lost the back hoof would not be popular for that reason rather than the knocked rail. I also wouldn't go vertical. The " Popular" shot with SJ is with the uprights of the fence on the horozontal edges of the pics. No. 4 would be about the closest to desirable in this regard.

I'll pre empt the enivatable and mention the backgrounds. Whenever you show pics of this type, you will always get someone that has never shot or really even seen much of this work carry on about finding better angles for the backgrounds. They are a dogs breakfast, they are ALWAYS a dogs brekfast because thats the way these shows are. I have done international events and the backgrounds of hospitality tents and large trucks and advertising crap are still dogs breakfasts in the pics and they move the courses round and they are always dogs breakfasts from any angle out of the 360 available! Wide open is your friend.


Now I have mentioned backgrounds, no one will mention it here... or maybe they will!

bluesman graham

Glort,

thank you very much for your insight!, Glad you like the total action shots .
As stated I was there on a "bus mans" holiday & just wanted to try my hand at a different subject .
There was a commercial capture company in attendance which restricted any area's I could cover, (wish I'd taken the 300/400 that would have been ok!). Low angles where out of the question due to the awful orange netting . I admit to cropping a few high because TBH the hight of some of the fences was embaressing!.
I, as a Kid, (10+), used to horse ride/jump with John & Michael Whiticker (& beat em!), but I used their horses?, so I followed their success through the years toward Olympic glory .
This Show Jumping photography is harder than I thought but I'm gonna give it a bigger go I think . Kind regards Graham.