Things I learned from photographing at a horse show (casually, I am no pro….yet lol)

1) You cannot catch everything. They are moving too fast for you to zoom in and be there at every step. (Thus, if you do want everything you’ll need multiple people to catch everything)

2) Use the sequence shooting/continuous shooting mode. That way you’ll have several photos fractions of a second part and can chose which ones you like.

3) Prefocus so you don’t have to worry about the autofocus thinking. If you exposure controls are a bit clunky (like mine), use a auto or semi-automatic mode. You will not be able to fix the exposure when the time counts anyway!

4) With continuous shooting, hold down that shutter button as the horse goes over the jump, keeping your framing in mind. Don’t be shy. Ride through it with the shutter!

5) Plan ahead…wait for the horse to come to you because attempting to “chase” the horse doesn’t work as well…for me. Plant your camera at a jump…you should be able to hear the horse approach. Hold down the shutter once you see the horse in your frame.

HOWEVER, there is a disadvantage to this technique. If something else happens while not at THAT jump, you’re out of luck. If they bail out on the horse before then, you’re out of luck.

Some photos here on my Facebook (post is set to public) and my Flickr account is inundated with them)

Things I did not learn while photographing at a horse show: Publishing blog posts on time #waywaybehind!