[kristoffon]

Also, try shooting raw and underexposing by about a stop (ie setting the camera to Av and then set the ev compensation to -1.0) and then pushing the exposure in ACR. Unorthodox? You bet, but I tend to prefer slightly skewed colour to blurs; it's a little easier to fix in post. :P

There's no point to that. Maybe with film.

With digital, ISO 1600 and +1 EV = ISO 800 and 0 EV.

[Emotive45]

Oren, I am surprised when you said that you use flash to shoot horses. Do you use an on-camera flash? And if so, it doesn't bother the horses? I ask because my son rides and I have shot pictures of him while he is at his weekly lesson but never considered using a flash because I was afraid of spooking the horse.

On camera flash does not throw the light far enough. You could use it for close up's but it's only the more powerful flash units that can throw flash any distance. One of my lecturers has the Canon 580EX. In some cases they throw the light enough to light up a football pitch apparently. That'd be used for long distance shots.

I fired off a BAZ flash a few times two weeks ago when doing equine portraiture at close range. Horse about two metres away. However it was broad daylight and his back was to the sun (had to be lit by flash as I was metering for the background) and he seemed ok with it and handled it. In a place where it is already lit or during the day, it's not as noticeable as to say if you were to creep up on a horse in a dark stable and fire one off I suppose - like anything else because even the majority of human beings would be spooked by someone firing a powerful flash in the dark unexpectedly and they're intelligent enough to figure out the source of the light and what it is causing it. An animal is not. In fact the horse that I dealt with was so fascinated by my camera and the noise he actually came closer to investigate touching it with his nose at one point. That's how close I was. He's not a show horse so not use to anyone waving a camera around. He's more of a hunter and supposedly...not friendly.

[Mechan1k]

Hee hee ... some horses are like that ... they are inquisitive ... then they investigate a little closer ... then nuzzle/huff ... and then they usually want a nibble/bite.

I have been lucky with my horses ... they usually a little inquisitive and want to investigate ... but they don't really nibble ... but they come up for a photo or 2 though

[dfxx]

It makes a real difference if you can get a feel for the rhythm of the horse as they come up to the jump, so you can count them in (one and two and click). This is why the second part of a double or treble can be ideal, as it is generally designed to have two or three strides between the jumps (although you'll quite often see a rider take three short strides on a two to set up or control the horse correctly). It is also best to concentrate on the middle section of the course, giving you time to get a feel for the pace of the horse and to avoid a last gasp dash near the end of a timed course throwing you off your own stride. There will also, generally, be part of the course where the competitor returns to (from a different angle), giving you two goes at a good composition. Another nice shot is often at the finish, where you will get the elation of a successful rider.

It is also worth asking if you can position yourself in the ring to take close up photos at a particular fence (you might offer, in return to help rebuild jumps when they get knocked - I've done this in the past, but then I used to do quite a bit of jumping as well.) There are often also fairly safe places that you could pre-position a camera on a tripod on the course and trigger using a remote.