Polo Ponies in a match.

usayit

No longer a newbie, moving up!
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My cousin invited me to my first polo match with a perfect view. Right at center field, tailgate!!! The sun was shining. The tents were out. Everyone all dressed up. Food was great. Spent the day with my cousin who is also a photographer at heart. Most of all, I was excited to see something new, capture it, and learn from the experience. Boy did I get a lot of practice with my new lens. I had not realized just how large a polo field until I stepped up to the boundary line. Most if not all my shots were done zoomed way in from across the field.

As the day came to a close and I examine the first few frames at home, I came to a new found respect for sports photographers. They sure manage to get some great shots in some of the most difficult situations. Takes some great timing, quick reactions, a good eye, and a little bit of luck.

The following picture was one of the better ones taken that day.
Canon D30 set to ISO 100
Canon 100-400mm USM IS L zoom
370mm, 1/250 @ f5.6

I'll a few more in "The Photo Gallery" forum in a little while. Thanks for lookin.




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Overall it's a pretty good shot. To make it perfect though, there are a couple of tiny (and I mean tiny) nitpicks...

I think it's about 1/2 stop or so overexposed. There are some blown out areas on the white sections. I know, tough to get exposure spot on in bright sunlight though! This looks like some of the green is even washed out a bit due to exposure though. Also, all the faces are in shadow. While that pushes the eye to the horses, to me in polo it's a partnership between man and horse, so I want to see the people too. That'd probably be pretty easy to fix in PS with a masked lightening layer.
 
Thanks for the great feedback! Yeh.. it was a little tricky that day and all was in good practice. Any practical tips on improving this type of photography will be greatly appreciated. So far, the biggest lesson learned was how important a monopod is when shooting a moving subject at long distances.
 

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