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- #16
A few thoughts:
1) With horses you've a lot of depth to them at most angles to their body, this means that if you are shooting closer to them then a wider angle only works down to around 100mm. Once you start doing portraits and filling most of the frame with horse and rider at shorter focal lengths you can encounter greater and greater perspective distortion (where parts of the subject closer to the camera are enlarged over those further away).
Of course if you are shooting further back from the subject where the horse might only be a corner or much less of the frame, then because the distance to subject is greater, you are fine to compose with a wider angle lens.
Remember perspective distortion is a property of distance to subject not focal length, even if standard advice is based on focal length (100mm or longer)
2) Position is everything at events and can be hard to juggle your desires with the events requirements. One bonus is that many horse events run almost non stop from start to finish. So you've no worries about a subject being there, they will be, all day (and if you ever cover an event you'll find it hard to even find time for lunch). So use this to your advantage and instead of camping out, move around. Move to different positions and angles and see what you can get, sometimes you might take a few shots and discount a spot, but its not time wasted to go have a look and try anyway.
Other times you might find you can move between two spots on the same horse. Eg showjumping sometimes there might be only one or two jumps with a good angle anyway and if they are at opposite ends of the run you've more than enough time to move along the rail between them.
3) Never be afraid to ask. This can vary on event size and organisation. big national events are often more closed down to easy access because they've often already got professionals covering the event; and because safety considerations are often a bit more of a hot topic (esp since they tend to also be managing a much larger crowd of spectators). Smaller events are sometimes easier to ask for different spots you can move into to shoot from.
Be confident but also honest and accept if they say no (just be sure to talk to the right person and ideally talk to them well in advance of the day - on the day they'll not really have time to chatter - so cover your groundwork in chatting before you attend).
In general you can sometimes get access to arena areas or sides not normally covered. Of course some of this might depend on your own confidence around horses; if you're inexperienced it might not do to accept a ring side position if offered.
Also if you're shooting free or paid it never hurts to chip in a bit and help out if needed ,again esp at smaller events in the setup or takedown there might be odd times when another hand can help out (though don't get pushy and avoid getting in the way).
4) 70-200mm is a bread and butter workhorse (yes there's a pun there) for many equine photographers. 600mm can certainly have its uses too, though depends on the setup and the kind of shot you're after. If you can 2 bodies can be ideal to have access too, even if one isn't as good a camera. It lets you swap over fast (I have swapped lenses on the same camera during showjumping but you've got to be fast with it and half the time you end up too rushed to focus on taking the shot), which can be great both when shooting normally and when testing out the place to see what might and might not work.
5) If you build up a rapport with the event location you might even ask about practice nights/days. It's another time you might be able to attend to get a bit of extra practice in the environment.
1) With horses you've a lot of depth to them at most angles to their body, this means that if you are shooting closer to them then a wider angle only works down to around 100mm. Once you start doing portraits and filling most of the frame with horse and rider at shorter focal lengths you can encounter greater and greater perspective distortion (where parts of the subject closer to the camera are enlarged over those further away).
Of course if you are shooting further back from the subject where the horse might only be a corner or much less of the frame, then because the distance to subject is greater, you are fine to compose with a wider angle lens.
Remember perspective distortion is a property of distance to subject not focal length, even if standard advice is based on focal length (100mm or longer)
2) Position is everything at events and can be hard to juggle your desires with the events requirements. One bonus is that many horse events run almost non stop from start to finish. So you've no worries about a subject being there, they will be, all day (and if you ever cover an event you'll find it hard to even find time for lunch). So use this to your advantage and instead of camping out, move around. Move to different positions and angles and see what you can get, sometimes you might take a few shots and discount a spot, but its not time wasted to go have a look and try anyway.
Other times you might find you can move between two spots on the same horse. Eg showjumping sometimes there might be only one or two jumps with a good angle anyway and if they are at opposite ends of the run you've more than enough time to move along the rail between them.
3) Never be afraid to ask. This can vary on event size and organisation. big national events are often more closed down to easy access because they've often already got professionals covering the event; and because safety considerations are often a bit more of a hot topic (esp since they tend to also be managing a much larger crowd of spectators). Smaller events are sometimes easier to ask for different spots you can move into to shoot from.
Be confident but also honest and accept if they say no (just be sure to talk to the right person and ideally talk to them well in advance of the day - on the day they'll not really have time to chatter - so cover your groundwork in chatting before you attend).
In general you can sometimes get access to arena areas or sides not normally covered. Of course some of this might depend on your own confidence around horses; if you're inexperienced it might not do to accept a ring side position if offered.
Also if you're shooting free or paid it never hurts to chip in a bit and help out if needed ,again esp at smaller events in the setup or takedown there might be odd times when another hand can help out (though don't get pushy and avoid getting in the way).
4) 70-200mm is a bread and butter workhorse (yes there's a pun there) for many equine photographers. 600mm can certainly have its uses too, though depends on the setup and the kind of shot you're after. If you can 2 bodies can be ideal to have access too, even if one isn't as good a camera. It lets you swap over fast (I have swapped lenses on the same camera during showjumping but you've got to be fast with it and half the time you end up too rushed to focus on taking the shot), which can be great both when shooting normally and when testing out the place to see what might and might not work.
5) If you build up a rapport with the event location you might even ask about practice nights/days. It's another time you might be able to attend to get a bit of extra practice in the environment.
and to be fair she has a keen interest and loves to come shooting with me so I am always happy to encourage.
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