Flying...

No surprise that I love photographing horses in motion.  And what better motion that flying through the air over a hurdle?  The event I photographed today is called a "Schooling Day" which apparently precedes the start of the hunt/jump season and allows multiple horses to work in the rings with their trainers.  Fairly informal in the sense that the riders/trainers adjusted their courses as needed.  During each ride, instructions were being belted out by the trainers while the riders hurtled around the arena.  Because there were multiple horses in the arena at any given time, it was sometimes tricky to line up the jump shots - more than once, I had another rider stroll between me and the jump at the critical moment.  I still managed about 2000 images, so I can't complain.

Some lessons learned today...dark and light horses under full sun are just as hard as dark or light dogs.  I was wheeling around my Exposure Comp like mad as the sun popped in and out of clouds.  For a short time, there was a lovely even cloud cover but it didn't last long.  I think 10-15 fps is the sweet spot for jumpers - it gives me enough frames to work catch the movement.  Shutter speeds equivalent to what I'd use for birds in flight seems to work just about perfectly.  I have to be mindful of not chopping off the tips of long flowing tails - it's quite a distance from the tip of the nose to the tip of the flying tail.  My two shorter zooms are really ideal for this type of event.  There were a few times when I might have benefitted from more lens, but 85% of the time, I was well within the 24-185 mm that my two lenses cover.

I think horses are just stunningly beautiful animals.  These horses were, of course, all in peak physical condition which added to their beauty.  I love being able to see their huge muscles ripple under their skin - it's just gorgeous.  Anyway, safe to say that I really enjoyed myself today.  And next Saturday will be the first actual hunter/jumper competition event of the season, so I'll be there!

I cut the day a little short as Hubs has a Man Cold and was feeling really awful.  Knowing him as I do, I knew he would be huddled in a little mass of misery and subsisting on toast.  So, I rolled out around 2, which was fine.I took over animal duty and worked on editing my photos while Hubs napped.  

Our run of sunny,  warm weather is coming to an end - tomorrow is expected to be only in the 60's with rain throughout the day.  Can't complain as we really desperately need the rain.  

xoxo
Debbi