Horses / Horseriding etc

Sporgon said:
mackguyver said:
One more - a fun one - and my first "sequence shot" at that. This obstacle was called "Stairway to Heaven":
Red_Hills_%20International_Horse_Trials_Day_3_3-8-2014_Stairway_to_Heaven_Sequence_ID-L.jpg


Some great shots there - had a look at the ones on you're link.

So that's the same rider/horse... and I want to guess a wide angle lens, a tripod, I want to say a wired shutter release, and a likely Photoshop magic playing with layers.
 
Upvote 0
jdramirez said:
Sporgon said:
mackguyver said:
One more - a fun one - and my first "sequence shot" at that. This obstacle was called "Stairway to Heaven":
Red_Hills_%20International_Horse_Trials_Day_3_3-8-2014_Stairway_to_Heaven_Sequence_ID-L.jpg


Some great shots there - had a look at the ones on you're link.

So that's the same rider/horse... and I want to guess a wide angle lens, a tripod, I want to say a wired shutter release, and a likely Photoshop magic playing with layers.
Yes, same rider/same horse, and yes, wide angle lens - but the rest was a mess! I did it hand held, and with tracking AF so not only did I have to align the layers in PS, but I had to crop and then mask the rider in each frame because the surrounding background showed different points of focus! It wasn't too bad, all-in-all, I probably spent about 30 minutes on it. Ideally, I would have gone manual on everything including focus, used a tripod, and had a 1DX to choose from more frames to get the peak action. With the 5DIII, I used every 4th frame. I'd seen this before, mainly with snowboard jumps and such, but was inspired by this Sandisk Extreme Team link the other day and thought I'd give it a quick try when the opportunity presented itself. I'd definitely like to play with it more in the future.
 
Upvote 0
mackguyver said:
Thanks, Northstar, and as an update, the event organizers asked for my sequence photo to use as their Facebook "cover" photo and I decided to give it to them (here it is at the top of their page: Red Hills Horse Trials). I'm pretty happy with the results given that it was my first time shooting horses :)

I told you it would run, I have seen that done so many times for extreme sports but not until now for eventing.
 
Upvote 0
privatebydesign said:
mackguyver said:
Thanks, Northstar, and as an update, the event organizers asked for my sequence photo to use as their Facebook "cover" photo and I decided to give it to them (here it is at the top of their page: Red Hills Horse Trials). I'm pretty happy with the results given that it was my first time shooting horses :)

I told you it would run, I have seen that done so many times for extreme sports but not until now for eventing.

Yes, it's worked well. I looked at the Red Hills site and saw that the rider is Buck Davidson, son of the eventing legend Bruce Davidson who was always at the British four star events. I've also seen Buck over here at Burghley Horse Trials, he's certainly heading up towards where his Dad was, so I'm sure that's helped get on the front cover.

They tend not to put up images of riders who have crashed and burned on the course ;)
 
Upvote 0
I haven't shot three day eventing since the early '90's, Badminton was always the meet of that time. Used to shoot a good bit of polo a Cowdray Park too, but since I left the UK in '97 I've hardly seen a horse, funny because I am now back in horse country.
 
Upvote 0
rpt said:
Sporgon said:
Shot with 135L. Some day the CR trolls are going to have to teach me how to get noise and banding in the shadows at low ISOs ;)
Nice shot! See, that is your problem. You exposed it right! ;D

Thanks rpt ! Yes I have this damnable problem of exposing correctly, a problem I picked up years ago and can't shake off ! ;D
 
Upvote 0
privatebydesign said:
I haven't shot three day eventing since the early '90's, Badminton was always the meet of that time. Used to shoot a good bit of polo a Cowdray Park too, but since I left the UK in '97 I've hardly seen a horse, funny because I am now back in horse country.

Badminton is still the one, originally one of the only two four * competitions in the world, the other being Burghley. Then Lexington ( Kentucky ) became a four *. If you were there in the mid 90s you may have seen Bruce Davidson ( father of the rider in Mac's picture) winning in 1995 on his wonderful horse Eagle Lion. The 90s were a good decade for the Americans at Badminton; David O'Connor won in '97.
 
Upvote 0
privatebydesign said:
mackguyver said:
Thanks, Northstar, and as an update, the event organizers asked for my sequence photo to use as their Facebook "cover" photo and I decided to give it to them (here it is at the top of their page: Red Hills Horse Trials). I'm pretty happy with the results given that it was my first time shooting horses :)

I told you it would run, I have seen that done so many times for extreme sports but not until now for eventing.
privatebydesign, I apologize, but I missed your earlier post and thank you for your comments. Yes, the shot worked out quite well, particularly when I found out it was a famous rider. That was very lucky for me as it was the only sequence shot I took! The idea came to me when I realized I couldn't "tell the story" of this obstacle in one photo.
 
Upvote 0
Sporgon said:
privatebydesign said:
mackguyver said:
Thanks, Northstar, and as an update, the event organizers asked for my sequence photo to use as their Facebook "cover" photo and I decided to give it to them (here it is at the top of their page: Red Hills Horse Trials). I'm pretty happy with the results given that it was my first time shooting horses :)

I told you it would run, I have seen that done so many times for extreme sports but not until now for eventing.

Yes, it's worked well. I looked at the Red Hills site and saw that the rider is Buck Davidson, son of the eventing legend Bruce Davidson who was always at the British four star events. I've also seen Buck over here at Burghley Horse Trials, he's certainly heading up towards where his Dad was, so I'm sure that's helped get on the front cover.

They tend not to put up images of riders who have crashed and burned on the course ;)
Yes, it's funny how luck can be sometimes. He is a famous rider and that's funny that you've actually seen him and heard of his Dad. The light was awful, the shooting position cramped and on a steep hill, and I decided to try this sequence shot one single time. I had no idea who the rider was, but got quite lucky with this photo. To balance out my luck, however, for CIC3* I missed the winning rider entirely (not a single photo) and got the #2 rider in this hero shot ;) on her CIC2* horse she rode that blew the course (note that she nearly went over the front of the horse moments after this was taken):
Red_Hills_%20International_Horse_Trials_Day_3_3-8-2014_4041_ID-L.jpg
 
Upvote 0
mackguyver said:
Sporgon said:
privatebydesign said:
mackguyver said:
Thanks, Northstar, and as an update, the event organizers asked for my sequence photo to use as their Facebook "cover" photo and I decided to give it to them (here it is at the top of their page: Red Hills Horse Trials). I'm pretty happy with the results given that it was my first time shooting horses :)

I told you it would run, I have seen that done so many times for extreme sports but not until now for eventing.

Yes, it's worked well. I looked at the Red Hills site and saw that the rider is Buck Davidson, son of the eventing legend Bruce Davidson who was always at the British four star events. I've also seen Buck over here at Burghley Horse Trials, he's certainly heading up towards where his Dad was, so I'm sure that's helped get on the front cover.

They tend not to put up images of riders who have crashed and burned on the course ;)
Yes, it's funny how luck can be sometimes. He is a famous rider and that's funny that you've actually seen him and heard of his Dad. The light was awful, the shooting position cramped and on a steep hill, and I decided to try this sequence shot one single time. I had no idea who the rider was, but got quite lucky with this photo. To balance out my luck, however, for CIC3* I missed the winning rider entirely (not a single photo) and got the #2 rider in this hero shot ;) on her CIC2* horse she rode that blew the course (note that she nearly went over the front of the horse moments after this was taken):
Red_Hills_%20International_Horse_Trials_Day_3_3-8-2014_4041_ID-L.jpg

Don't admit to that ! I thought you were being really astute as a newbie equestrian photographer ! Seriously though, I have found over the years that you need a little luck to get on.
 
Upvote 0
Sporgon said:
Don't admit to that ! I thought you were being really astute as a newbie equestrian photographer ! Seriously though, I have found over the years that you need a little luck to get on.
Oops! Actually in my case, it wasn't important. My client wasn't too interested in who was in the shots, so I wasn't worried about getting the winners. For my own benefit, it would have been nice, and next time, I'll check the ride order sheets to make sure I'm in the right place at the right time. It's actually pretty easy to do and when I was asked to get shots of two of the riders, I just set up at an obstacle and waited for them.

Also, I really had a great time and considering I'm near one of the prime US equestrian locations (Ocala, Florida), I think I might get into shooting more Eventing. The people were really friendly and the photographers that were covering the event mostly shoot to sell souvenir photos to the riders, so there's definitely a place for other niches.
 
Upvote 0
wickidwombat said:
Sporgon said:
Shot with 135L. Some day the CR trolls are going to have to teach me how to get noise and banding in the shadows at low ISOs ;)

you left the lens cap off silly, thats where you went wrong... :P

Ah well do you know !! That year I spent assisting a great photographer - never once did he mention shooting with the lens cap on >:(

My youth was wasted :'(

;D
 
Upvote 0
Shot at a local hunting meet.

The pretty lady's horse clearly said "If you wanna jump the fence so bad get on and do it by yourself"

The second shot is the same rider, but the right way up.
 

Attachments

  • Ooops !.JPG
    Ooops !.JPG
    95.7 KB · Views: 613
  • Survivor.jpg
    Survivor.jpg
    47.2 KB · Views: 565
Upvote 0