Whos the horse expert?

TelePaul

Which one of you chaps is big into horse photography? Have been talked into shooting some polocrosse in probably less than ideal conditions so would love some advice via PM.

Paulw

Borderfox is your main man. I've shot some polo with him before, if I can help.

TelePaul

Paulw wrote: »

Borderfox is your main man. I've shot some polo with him before, if I can help.

Coolio, guess I'll keep the discussion to the thread so. I've been asked to shoot some on Tuesday evening, round 6ish. Now, naturally the weather will play a huge part in the success of the proceedings but I'm looking for some general advice.

I've a 50mm 1.8, 15-55 kit lens, 70-300 IS and a 17-40mm 4.0 L. With the exception of the nifty fifty, none of these are low-light performers. Also assume that a cantering horse will need a shutter speed of about, what, 1/400 to stop motion blur?

Am I snookered?

Jemmy

Yea Borderfox is your man, I dont a bit of the equestrian stuff but never polo.
Check out his sig for his site, some of his polo work is up.


EDIT: heres the site link http://www.keithjackphotography.com/index.html

Paulw

Totally snookered. LOL.

Nah, you should be fine with the 70-300mm lens. You'll have decent reach and DOF, assuming you have enough light. Bumping up the ISO might be the only way. Here's a selection of mine - http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulwa/sets/72157601804282218/

The Ireland-Spain polo was on a very wet and dark day (worse than outside today). I did ok, but did have an f/2.8 lens, using 1/640 and ISO 800.

That of any use?

TelePaul

Paulw wrote: »

Totally snookered. LOL.

Nah, you should be fine with the 70-300mm lens. You'll have decent reach and DOF, assuming you have enough light. Bumping up the ISO might be the only way. Here's a selection of mine - http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulwa/sets/72157601804282218/

The Ireland-Spain polo was on a very wet and dark day (worse than outside today). I did ok, but did have an f/2.8 lens, using 1/640 and ISO 800.

That of any use?

Thanks for the advice. The light is going to be the deal-breaker here, I'm hoping if I stay at the 70mm end of things I should be able to poach a few shots. What about min. shutter speed for Polocrosse?

Borderfox

I would reckon 1/500th at a min when they are coming towards you, going across you can pan if its really dull and go lower. Best spot is half-way between the goal and corner flag looking towards the opposite goal, dont worry if they are down to other end just concentrate when they are down your end.

I havent done polocrosse but about the same as Polo so same looking shots will go well. I have shots on my flickr from a lot of games www.flickr.com/photos/keithjack just check in the sets.

70-300 IS should be grand, I use to shoot in Wicklow with the Sigma 50-500 and that was f5.6 at the wide end so no problems for you.

TelePaul

Paulw wrote: »

Totally snookered. LOL.

Nah, you should be fine with the 70-300mm lens. You'll have decent reach and DOF, assuming you have enough light. Bumping up the ISO might be the only way. Here's a selection of mine - http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulwa/sets/72157601804282218/

The Ireland-Spain polo was on a very wet and dark day (worse than outside today). I did ok, but did have an f/2.8 lens, using 1/640 and ISO 800.

That of any use?

Paul any chance of the EXIF data on this fella? http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulwa/1296735245/in/set-72157601804282218/

PCPhoto

If I'm around tues can turn up and let you use some of my gear ...300mm f2.8 or 70-200mm f2.8........ or maybe be there and get an extra set of pics for you. (assuming I dont have anything else on - tues football is due to restart on tues night - unsure of what time).

Paulw

TelePaul wrote: »

Paul any chance of the EXIF data on this fella? http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulwa/1296735245/in/set-72157601804282218/

Camera: Canon EOS 20D
Exposure: 0.002 sec (1/640)
Aperture: f/6.3
Focal Length: 300 mm
ISO Speed: 800

Taken with Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L lens.