Houston Rodeo - a beginners attempt at sports shooting

nosmo

So there I was, visiting family in the Houston Metro area and just in time for the Rodeo.
I was hoping to get some of those cool sporting/action photo's the rest of you'se are taking...

Since it was my first time shooting a moving target with not always the best lighting (for my skills anyway)
they came out OK - vacation snaps. Not the sharpness that I was hoping for, but a big learning experience anyhow.

The area was smokey from the fireworks at the start of the Rodeo - some of the shots are a little hazy...
All the shots were done with a Canon 20D and 24-70 lens, Av mode f3.2, AI Servo, JPEG and uhh what else..
ISO 1600 (IIRC) shutter speed varied between 200 & 320


Some cowboys appear to have a laid back attitude...


Still it did look like hard work at times










Barrel Racing









Heading and Heeling











Quarter Horse Showing - seemed to involve control of the horse and rider form/posture





And Posture

[IMG]http:///nosmo.smugmug.com/photos/64636027-L.jpg[/IMG]

Riding High in the Saddle is about to commence...



A few reassuring words







Some assistance in the dismount



And there was Bull Riding and gettin' tossed too -





Remember the part about reassuring words...?



They didn't go over too well -





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In addition to more practice following the action, PS skills... what are some additional guidelines, practices
and setups to follow :dunno I read the stickies and links and yet... still wanting more

Thanks for looking,
the rest are at http://nosmo.smugmug.com/

wxwax

Oh baby! A slobberknocker.

Steve Cavigliano

Great action Steve!
YeeeeHaaawwww

Man-o-man did you capture some nice action here As Sid points out, ya even captured a slobberknocker in mid-slobber..... Talk about your frozen snot....er...action

I like almost all of these you posted. Some are very good IMO. The 2nd set (the ones with the red seats in the BG) look much richer and have better contrast. The first and last ones look a bit flatter.


Steve

Jeffro

Not bad for your first attempt. A little more shutter speed would have been nice. I bet you wish you had more zoom, bigger aperature, image stabilization, a good flash now? We all do! Toys, toys, toys!!

illuminati919

The 4th to last shot is awesome, try adding a tad bit more contrast, i think it would look good. I've shot a rodeo once and it was very fun. Nice photos, keep it up !

nosmo

Steve Cavigliano wrote:

YeeeeHaaawwww

Man-o-man did you capture some nice action here As Sid points out, ya even captured a slobberknocker in mid-slobber..... Talk about your frozen snot....er...action

I like almost all of these you posted. Some are very good IMO. The 2nd set (the ones with the red seats in the BG) look much richer and have better contrast. The first and last ones look a bit flatter.


Steve

Thanks Steve - the shots with the red seats was in another arena with different lighting and they do look better. I'm still futzing with them to see if I can improve them.
Thanks again.

nosmo

Jeffro wrote:

Not bad for your first attempt. A little more shutter speed would have been nice. I bet you wish you had more zoom, bigger aperature, image stabilization, a good flash now? We all do! Toys, toys, toys!!

Next time I'm going to shoot on manual!
As for the bigger zoom, Mrs Nosmo got me a 70-200 f2.8L IS/USM for my birthday
She's great

nosmo

illuminati919 wrote:

The 4th to last shot is awesome, try adding a tad bit more contrast, i think it would look good. I've shot a rodeo once and it was very fun. Nice photos, keep it up !

Thanks illuminati919, I'm still working my way through PS Elements and learning.

Jeffro

nosmo wrote:

Next time I'm going to shoot on manual!
As for the bigger zoom, Mrs Nosmo got me a 70-200 f2.8L IS/USM for my birthday
She's great

You got a good woman! I love my 70-200L F2.8 IS, and so will you
I'm not sure I'd go manual on your second attempt at a rode...aperature priority may be better. Or, try it both ways...it's not like it's wasting film!

SportsShots

Im going to agree with Jeffro, Im not sure I would try manual yet. I would also agreed with Aperature priority. You might as well take advantage of the 2.8 IS. Make sure you bump you ISO higher too. IF you shoot in RAW you can get a little more light back in post processing as well.

In my experience with sports and action shots, your priorities are peak action and faces. In most of the action shots, you are behind the subject, obviously because of your seats. The other problem with rodeo's you never know which way they are going to turn out of the shoot. I usually get some of the best shots when they are coming right out of the shoots.

It's a great begining though. Stick with it. Make sure you post more as you get them.

Keep up the good work!!!!

nosmo

SportsShots wrote:

Im going to agree with Jeffro, Im not sure I would try manual yet. I would also agreed with Aperature priority. You might as well take advantage of the 2.8 IS. Make sure you bump you ISO higher too. IF you shoot in RAW you can get a little more light back in post processing as well.

In my experience with sports and action shots, your priorities are peak action and faces. In most of the action shots, you are behind the subject, obviously because of your seats. The other problem with rodeo's you never know which way they are going to turn out of the shoot. I usually get some of the best shots when they are coming right out of the shoots.

It's a great begining though. Stick with it. Make sure you post more as you get them.

Keep up the good work!!!!

Thanks for the encouraging words. I shot JPEG because I only had 1 CF card with me! ( ) fixed that brain fade issue...
Rather than manual I was thinking about using Tv to get a faster shutter speed and less motion blur, as for higher ISO I was concerned about it getting noisy.
So next time it's RAW, Av and/or Tv, and bring enough CF cards.
- Thanks again.