Polo - The Sport of Kings (my first sports action shots)

[zackiedawg]

I have never photographed action sport before - but always wanted to. I finally got the opportunity this past Sunday, at our regional Polo tournament's final day. I had to play around with the settings - trying to keep my shutter speeds fast most of the time, using alot of 430-720mm zoom, and adjusting the EV for the bright light. Considering it was my first such attempt, I was pleased with alot of the shots I ended up getting. Especially considering I don't have a camera with a fast enough burst mode, I had to rely on good timing with the shutter button!

Here are some of the shots from the event:

I've got around 70 shots in the gallery - feel free to visit and check out the action:

http://www.pbase.com/zackiedawg/polo__sport_of_kings

Comments, critiques, or questions welcome. I'm looking forward to shooting more action in the future - and attending some more polo games during the summer season!

 

[Roger]

Very good, esp with the panning.

 

[gary]

west palm beach???, my neice worked for about 4 years for a large equine vet practice out of sherill ny, and part of her job each winter was to go with the doc and his wife, with their show horses down to wpb polo club where he had a condo, she would be there for 3 months tending the horses for the winter meet, then end of march return to sherill

nice shots, i've found horse events at speed to be almost as hard to shoot as motor sports, over on miranda.com, sports forum every once in a while there will be some pro who must got a gig doing a show or a rodeo, seeking advice, and they almost always come back to state how hard it can be, plus many of the competitors are very picky, they only want the shots that make them or their horse look good, even if they are not that good a rider, hard crowd to please

suggestion, fwiw, first pic crop tight to head on horse, you have a real good capture of the riders intensity, the chopped off rider on the right i feel detracts from this. i also would crop out right and left side hedges on many, bring it into just horses and riders, esp polo, grand prix, different story, many of the jumps are beautifully landscaped, steeplechase needs wide angle, the course helps tell the story

just my .02 cents worth, all the c&c is just my personal preference for equestrian,

gary

 

[zackiedawg]

Thanks Rlongenbach! I definately was pleased overall. I know that they're far from professional league, but hopefully for a first timer it was a good enough start that with some practice I may get there! I rattled off over 400 shots, and expected to get 5-10 keepers...Instead I ended up with 70-80 solid shots, a few hundred average ones, and only about 50 that were no good.

Gary,

Close to WPB - I live in Boca Raton, just south. Palm Beach and Boca Raton are the two centers for polo in South Florida - at our Royal Palm Polo Club here in Boca, we've got 6 polo fields, practice grounds, stables, and two stadiums. These were taken on the final day of the Seiber Memorial Tournament. The riders are from all over - Argentina, Mexico, Israel, Canada, Britian, and U.S. among others.

Horse events are definately tricky - I think moreso than cars! While you have to have good timing to get the right angle and composition of a fast moving target - the difference with the horse and player is that even a perfect technical capture of a moment could yield an awkward face on the horse or rider that can spoil the shot! So you have to track the motion AND try to get good expressions!

It was alot of fun though - I really enjoyed the first opportunity to shoot some action. I appreciate the tips - I will definately try a few! For now, I had focused on cleaning up the shots and getting the better ones posted. When I have more time I can go back and play around with some creative crops like you mentioned.

Thanks again!

 

[HW]

very nice. especially considering what camera you used. a good example of it's the person behind the camera that makes it happen

 

[zackiedawg]

Thank you HW. It was fun to line up next to 12 people with massive white lenses on tripods with a handheld fixed-lens compact...and have the same or more telephoto range as them (with my 1.7x tele, I have 720mm optical zoom). Even more fun when they all kept wanting a look at what shots I had gotten on my nice, big 3" LCD. Alot of the pros were shocked to see how much telephoto I had - the little cam held its own! Of course, the pros have 1/4000 shutters, shallow depth of field with nice bokeh, 3-4FPS burst modes for following the action, and RAW processing capability to keep down blown highlights and burned shadows - can't compete with that!

A few of the pros were considering picking up a camera like mine as a backup or convenient carry-around cam when they don't want to haul their big rig - as they were impressed by the sharpness and color!

 

[HW]

I loved my F828 except for lack of tele and saaaaaaaalllllllooooooooooooooow raw buffer. If I didnt need tele and faster raw buffer I would have most likely stuck with the 828 instead of going to the D80 as the 828 is a nice cam within it's limitations but I want to get into bird shots and need atleast 600mm

 

[Craig]

nice shots, I like the center horse and rider in the first, and the panning, nicely done.