Mustang Racing around the Arena

[larryj]

Here is the same mustang turned loose and galloping around the arena. I did not have tome to reset my camera and had to pan and shoot at about 1/30 second. I kind. of like the effect and feeling of speed!

 

[JimFox]

Very cool Larry! That's great you got a chance to capture it running around.

Actually in my experience, 1/30th of a sec is a good speed to use with a running horse. The trick is in the panning and being able to hold the camera still. Trying to match the speed of the horse is the key, and that's way easier said then done. I haven't done it much, but when I have it's a lot of misses as it is really hard to match the horses speed. But if you shoot continuously, there usually is a few keepers in the middle of the all of the blurry ones.\

That said, this still works as it really gives the sense of motion. So that's a fun outing you had.

 

[AlanLichty]

Panning for motion like this at 1/30s is not an easy task. Not bad under the circumstances.

I have set up customized camera setups so one is for still photography with mostly manual settings and the other is set up for birding with continuous shooting, Auto ISO, servo autofocus, and 1/2000s shutter speed. That way I just switch between C1 and C2 as a single setting.

 

[larryj]

Very cool Larry! That's great you got a chance to capture it running around.

Actually in my experience, 1/30th of a sec is a good speed to use with a running horse. The trick is in the panning and being able to hold the camera still. Trying to match the speed of the horse is the key, and that's way easier said then done. I haven't done it much, but when I have it's a lot of misses as it is really hard to match the horses speed. But if you shoot continuously, there usually is a few keepers in the middle of the all of the blurry ones.\

That said, this still works as it really gives the sense of motion. So that's a fun outing you had.

Thanks Jim for your comments and description of your experience with pan shooting. I did a lotto pan shooting years ago with racing cars. 1/30-1/60 second works fine in that case since there are not a lot moving parts, but with the horse the legs are moving and the head moving up and down making it hard to get clean shots. Had I known he was going sprint around the arena as soon as they took the bridle off him I would have used a different setting in the camera. Live and learn!
I guess I can say that the image does project a feeling of motion!

 

[larryj]

Panning for motion like this at 1/30s is not an easy task. Not bad under the circumstances.

I have set up customized camera setups so one is for still photography with mostly manual settings and the other is set up for birding with continuous shooting, Auto ISO, servo autofocus, and 1/2000s shutter speed. That way I just switch between C1 and C2 as a single setting.

Thanks Alan your comments are appreciated!
I have never set up C1 and C2 setting on my cameras and I generally shot one type of subject on any photo outing. I guess I will have to setup a couple of Cx setting on my cameras for future unexpected situations. Thanks for the info!

 

[AlanLichty]

Thanks Alan your comments are appreciated!
I have never set up C1 and C2 setting on my cameras and I generally shot one type of subject on any photo outing. I guess I will have to setup a couple of Cx setting on my cameras for future unexpected situations. Thanks for the info!

I never even looked cross-eyed at the C1/C2 type settings until I got my most recent camera. I have never been much of a bird photographer but after perusing the 1200 page manual(!) for it decided it might be interesting to try that out. The settings for all of the features that make it an amazing tool for catching birds in flight, etc are so wildly different from what I normally use for landscape photography I decided preprogrammed shooting modes was mandatory. Most of the features that make the camera so useful for action oriented subjects are utterly useless to me when I am out wandering a trail shooting waterfalls but if I suddenly get a chance to shoot some interesting bird in the forest I do like being able to switch modes quickly to take advantage of the opportunity.

 

[larryj]

I never even looked cross-eyed at the C1/C2 type settings until I got my most recent camera. I have never been much of a bird photographer but after perusing the 1200 page manual(!) for it decided it might be interesting to try that out. The settings for all of the features that make it an amazing tool for catching birds in flight, etc are so wildly different from what I normally use for landscape photography I decided preprogrammed shooting modes was mandatory. Most of the features that make the camera so useful for action oriented subjects are utterly useless to me when I am out wandering a trail shooting waterfalls but if I suddenly get a chance to shoot some interesting bird in the forest I do like being able to switch modes quickly to take advantage of the opportunity.

Thanks Alan your commentary and description of Cx use is helpful and very useful!