More Horses - lots of images

Phyxius

The weather's been pretty ucky here the last couple weeks so I haven't been doing much shooting. I decided to go through some old shots though and decided to post some. Feel free to comment.

This was from the first time I took the new camera out and tried to get some shots. March '06-
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1/1600, 5.6 @ 300mm.

I was volunteering as a ring steward at a PVDA show at Morven Park, but arrived early and snapped a few shots like these two.
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3.


I had friends competing at Devon and went up for a day...
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I was lucky enough to get a photographer's pass at Rolex this year too...
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8. And, it rained of course!

coldclimb

Cool stuff! Never been to a horse race, or even around horses very much, but they're definitely a very cool animal. I like the shots.

JWilbur26

Great pics. I bet horses make a great subject.

Just out of curiousity...#7 looks like he is about to faceplant...was he okay? The expression on the her face and the horses face is almost that of impending doom.

CookieS

Very nice shots , Can i ask what camera and lens, im thinking of getting either canon 300mm f4 IS or 100-400 IS, I keep vascilating. I need to take a poll I guess.

Phyxius

coldclimb wrote:

Cool stuff! Never been to a horse race, or even around horses very much, but they're definitely a very cool animal. I like the shots.

Thanks Coldclimb! Horses are lots of fun to be around. I don't get out to the track much even though I have a track license, but steeplechases equal good times and I get out to two big ones every year.



Oops lost a jockey!


Thanks again!

Phyxius

JWilbur26 wrote:

Great pics. I bet horses make a great subject.

Just out of curiousity...#7 looks like he is about to faceplant...was he okay? The expression on the her face and the horses face is almost that of impending doom.

Thank you!

That rider is Polly Stockton and she did make into the Head of the Lake perfectly. Kim Severson however wasn't as lucky...




My 70-300mm wasn't quite wide enough to get everything. William Fox Pitt had a hard go of it as well and his crash was quite scary. I was at another part of the course but my friend Silvio caught it ... Click here

This photo was taken from the top of grandstand that faces the arena used for the Dressage and Stadium jumping portions of the event, but I thought the view was cool and took a couple pictures. This rider is jumping the harder of the two options, the one William Fox Pitt fell at. You'll see another jump to the right, that's the easier one, where Kim fell. I shot most of my pictures off to the right of that in a little roped off area. (See the guy in the photogs vest in the upper left corner? That's Marc Manning. Nice guy!)


So, after jumping OVER the jump and DOWN the bank into the water the horse and rider have a couple strides before they have to jump these two GIANT ducks.

(see the hats in the bottom of the frame? That's where I was, I got splashed all day...it was GREAT! )

After the ducks you have a few strides on dry ground and it's up and over a "corner".


Then around that tree and over a HUGE trakehner (a jump over a ditch).

Phyxius

CookieS wrote:

Very nice shots , Can i ask what camera and lens, im thinking of getting either canon 300mm f4 IS or 100-400 IS, I keep vascilating. I need to take a poll I guess.

Cookie, thank you.

These were all shot by a D50 with the 70-300mm f4-5.6 lens. I've since bought the 70-200 2.8 VR and it's WONDERFUL. Canon makes the "same" lens in IS and I hear it's wonderful too. Sometimes I miss the 100mm difference, but the image quality is SO much better with the 70-200, that crops are very nice. If you can get close to the action 70mm isn't quite wide enough for all situations. We were very limited in where we could stand here, there was a thin strip of land with water on both sides.



If you're going to be indoors the f4 probably won't be fast enough. I recently helped out an indoor show and snapped a few shots while I was there. The arena is a coverall and is pretty light, but I still shot at f2.8 and ISO 400 or 800 (it started to snow and it got a bit darker in the arena). (With pretty slow shutter speeds.) Those pictures are here and exif is on. The arena is 60m and I was standing down in the corner between C and H.

CookieS

tHANKS, yOU MUST HAVE GOTTEN A SHARP COPY OF THE 70-300 . i HAD ONE AND DIDNT LIKE IT. Im thinking of the prime 300 F4. mostly for outdorr stuff, I have th e70-200 2.8 i use for indoor stuff.
Those eventer are wild, I shoot some small stuff here in fl. our water jump isnt aything as scary as that.

Phyxius

Yeah, I've wimped out on x-country. I used to be one of those crazy fearless kids, especially on my trainer's crazy foxhunter. Now...I'm a chicken. I have a 17.2h stallion and he's great in a ring and on trailrides/hacks, but gets VERY forward on a x-country course. I did a demo on him last year for a farm tour and he hauled booty, but he stops and turns and doesn't refuse so if you can stick with him you're good. When my trainer and his wife get back from Aiken I'm going to ask her to school him around their x-country course so I can get some pictures of him.

Do you ride too?

Also, I don't know if there is a difference between the Nikon and Canon 70-300 4-5.6, but I have a Nikon. It isn't the sharpest, most accurate, or highest quality and while it didn't take wonderful pictures all the time I was pretty happy with it.....until I got the 70-200 vr. Which is just a super lens.

I'm scared of prime lenses because I'm so used to zooms, but they'd be great on a x-country course since jumps don't move as long as you could be sure people wouldn't be blocking the view.