St. Jude Charity Horse Ride

[Kerbouchard]

The Western Star Cowboy Church put on a Charity Horse Ride to benefit St. Judes and I was invited to help out with the photography.

It was in about the worst lighting conditions imaginable...actually, I just soked my head in aloe vera from the sunburn. Direct, overhead sun, not a cloud in the sky, no shade to speak of, and everybody wearing cowboy hats putting their eyes in the shade. Didn't use flash with the horse's because I didn't want to spook any of them and some were acting up. Did use fill flash for the shots without the horses. Didn't help much. When you are at a shutter speed of 1/4000th of a second using highspeed sync, even full power bursts(which is what I was mostly at on an SB800) just couldn't tame the lighting ratio. I brought studio gear but didn't take it out of the car. The event was more about the charity and less about the photography. I just did the best I could.

In any case, figured I would share some of my favorites. Complete set here: St. Jude Charity Ride - a set on Flickr


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7

It was a fun shoot, and we all had a good time. BBQ was pretty good, too. Important part, though, was we raised quite a bit of money for St. Jude's.

C&C always welcome.

 

[D-B-J]

Looks like the lighting was horrible. Glad you had a great time though!

 

[Kerbouchard]

Looks like the lighting was horrible. Glad you had a great time though!

Well, it's one of those differences between being able to shoot the shots that you want to shoot vs trying to do the best job possible with what's in front of you. Sometimes, the conditions just suck and there isn't anything you can do to change them.

This was also one of those cases where shooting in manual just would not have worked. Going from people back lit to front lit to people in direct sun to people under a canopy was just too much to constantly adjust manually. I could stand in the same spot and take shots that ranged from 1/200th of a second to 1/4000th of a second.

On the plus side, they said next year they would bring me a horse. Heck, I haven't been on a horse since the last time I fell off when I was about 12. Might be interesting.

Oh, another side note, the pastor cut part of his finger off when he was saddling up his horse so his wife(the one who invited me and the only one I knew), didn't participate. They spent the day at the Hospital.

Just another day in Texas.

 

[Kerbouchard]

Dang, not much love for St. Judes...

 

[K8-90]

What's St. Judes?

 

[Kerbouchard]

What's St. Judes?

It's a Childrens Cancer Research and Treatment Center. A lot of breakthrough treatments have came out of there. They are also one of the few hospitals in the U.S. that does not charge for their services. Funded by donations.

 

[tirediron]

Looks like you did your best to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Tough conditions, but some pretty decent shots. As an aside, I've never found horses to be spooked by flash as long as your a bit of a distance (15 - 20') away.

 

[TCD photography]

They look pretty good for the less than ideal conditions, but then again I'm slightly biased towards liking horse related photos.

#3. Holy leverage, Batman! Way to choke your horse. #6 is my favorite of the set.

 

[Kerbouchard]

They look pretty good for the less than ideal conditions, but then again I'm slightly biased towards liking horse related photos.

#3. Holy leverage, Batman! Way to choke your horse. #6 is my favorite of the set.

Well, to be fair, the horse was acting up a bit. I'm thinking a lot of these horses aren't used to being on a trail ride around 30 other horses. There is a black one on my flikr post that was going sideways and backwards a lot of the time. We've had some pretty hot weather here in Texas lately, and I'm thinking a lot of the horses probably haven't been ridden a whole lot this summer. Some of them were definitely feeling their oats.

I like #6, too. That guy was a hoot.