My wife and I took the kids to the National Western Stock Show & Rodeo on MLK Day where they got to see their first rodeo. I brought the full compliment of lenses because I wasn't sure of where we were going to be sitting, and I was glad I did, as we ended up sitting three rows from the very top of the arena. I had to shoot most of the time at ISO 1600, lenses wide open, and deliberately under exposed just to get a measure of sharpness in the action.

Most of my favorite shots were taken with an old Vivitar 200 f3.5 M42 lens. This lens had been sitting unused for years because two of the aperture blades had come lose and were flopping around. About a year ago, I got inquisitive and repared the lens without much difficulty at all. This was the first time I'd really tested it since, and boy am I glad I fixed it.

I think the pony ride was still the highlight of the day.

[roentarre]

The last three shots are very nicely captured

I like the lighting and perspective in the bull fight shots.

The little girl has a nice energy about her. The motion blurr makes it work

[code4code5]

Thank you. It was tough to get some sharper images, but I was glad I tried panning with the pony ride.

[gawan]

Great action series, that ends up peacefully! Thanks for sharing!

[Andi Lo]

Heh, you got the moment of truth in #2 Great series, especially because it's ISO 1600