Jump

Members of my camera club went to a local equestrian centre recently, for a photo shoot.  I've never really tried to photograph horses before - and, like so many things in life, it's not as easy as you might think. (Kudos to Fiona - Cattle, Kids & Chaos, another of the blogs I enjoy - who hails from a cattle station in Queensland, Australia and takes some superb animal shots).  I was fiddling a bit with my new camera too, not entirely sure which settings to choose.  I'm determined not to resort to the scene modes all the time but to learn to use aperture and shutter settings properly.  It was a joy, however, to have that fast response shutter without the time-lag that affects my smaller cameras. Although I enjoyed myself, most of my photos turned out nowhere near the standard I want.  I shall have to have another visit and learn from my mistakes.

I think I caught a good pose in this one but I've had to lighten it up a lot as the horse and rider were nearly silhouetted against the sky.  (It was actually quite a dull day, but even so the sky was relatively bright compared to everything else.)   This was a beautiful horse, glossy black.  The accomplished young woman riding is the daughter of one of our club members.