Hello everyone. I am new to taking pictures of equestrian events. I just recently was at Red Hills and thought I did a prety good job. My question to all you riders out there, is what do you prefer when a photographer takes pictures of you all? XC, Show jumping, take off, mid-air, landing…? Any ideas will help me improve my skills at future events. I’ll be at Rocking Horse this weekend and Ocala in April.
Thanks.
Randy
Mid-air is best, we as riders want to see good form for the horse and that is when their knees are most likely to be squared up.
I prefer XC shots and will tend to buy photos to support a photographer if they are reasonably priced (e.g. will spend $10-20 and find at least one photo to buy just to support, but won’t spend $40-50 on a single photo unless there is some outstanding reason to do so).
I don’t have technical advice, but you could look at what other pros do (e.g. look at the photos posted on COTH’s website) to see what is generally wanted.
Midair, landing if it’s down a drop. As a general rule I am more likely to buy an only decent xc photo that is over an exciting fence… a showjumping photo needs to be good of me and the horse and a dressage photo needs to be very good, and have a pretty background etc. (unless I really need it for a sales ad or something in which case it just needs to be flattering of the horse.) A lot of the pics you’ve posted you caught the horses a little early, when they weren’t quite off the ground. But your prices are excellent-- I’d buy from you.
Yeah, you want to get the horse at the pinnacle of the jump… Some of the ones you posted are too early. If you are taking 5+ photos in rapid fire of each jump as the pros do, you likely have a better shot of those jumps on file.
Also, I want to see the ground and surroundings a bit. If you have a high powered camera one can always crop. I hate to have a gorgeous photo over a large exciting jump and all you see is the top three inches of the jump and the horse/rider… no surroundings, no ground line… no perspective of what the horse and rider are actually doing.
Something else to consider is a special rate for all photos on a DVD. At least in the dog world I’m more likely to take a chance that there’s a few good shots when there’s a DVD option.
LetItBe
Thanks VCT (and everyone so far). I do have more shots of all the riders, some of them in mid air and landing as I can rapid shoot 8+ at a time. I guess that’s me being new at this as I thought the shots posted were very cool (the horse weelies) and the spray of the water all around the riders as they left the ground. I guess next round of photos at future events I’ll be posting the midair jumps more as I didn’t realize how important it was to you all. 
RHHT was my first ever event and actually went there to take pictures for a local publication - but left a new found fan of the sport!! Like I posted earlier, I have plans to travel to a lot of future equine events to continue to master this side of photography. Maybe I’ll take pictures of one of you guys in the future
My .02 - don’t take a ton of pictures of horses cantering/trotting through the water! The only exciting thing about water is a drop in. Same goes for ditch pictures, many horses just step over. Find an ascending oxer or step/table jump with a decent background. Best of luck!
Do you have permission from the official photographer and event management to be doing this at these events? If not, unless there is not an official photographer there, this is a big no-no.
http://chronicleforums.com/article/horse-show-photographers-are-facing-crisis
If you do a search on the forums there are a lot of threads that address this issue. Professional photographers spend a lot of money on equipment, insurance, and staff to make sure they cover the event, as well as training to make sure they know how to get the timing and exposure correctly (that’s why generally a real pro’s prices will be higher). Then many hours editing, culling, and posting photos.
When you come to an event that has an Official Photographer, you are generally not allowed to shoot images to sell (unless you’ve talked to show management about it - but usually they do not allow it if they have an OP).
This is the main photographer that shoots 90% of the events locally: http://www.photostockplus.com/home.php?tmpl=127&user_id=41021 As you can see, they post everything and only edit the ones people actually buy, which saves a lot of time. The other thing is that (and I hate that it needs to be said) you probably need to watermark your photos over the actual image to deter people from stealing them 
Thanks for pointing that out two sticks. I actually am a full time professional photographer. I’ve been making a living off landscapes for the past few years (local and regional galleries). I have been hired by local sport teams to take pictures as well as most photographers, weddings and graduation photos. I would like to start taking more equine portraits like you have on your web site so that’s another option for me. Quite honestly, I didn’t even think about stepping on the competition (although I should have as I protect my work very closely) so yes, I will check with future events. My main gaol is to hopefully have some riders to contact me about contracting me for portraits, under saddle and sale shots. I plan on posting my pictures so they can see my work and hopefully want more from me on the private side. I guess I could post the event pictures on line and not for sale and like you, offer on my web site the personal services. I contacted RHHT about my pictures and they said nothing to me about an official photographer at the event and had no problem with me posting pictures on the FB page. An over site? Who knows. Guess I’ll contact some of the future events and see if me being there would be a conflict of interest…
Did you tell RHHT that you would be offering your images for sale to the competitors? If they had no problem with it then your are technically in the clear, but, yes, you are stepping on the competition of an OP who invests a lot of money and time, usually sun up to sun down to be there and provide a service to competitors. It is a free market and if management lets you, sure, you are allowed to come in and shoot a few people, undercut OP pricing and see if you sell images, but there’s an ethical line there. This is one of the reasons many horse show photographers have stopped shooting events.
If you want to learn to shoot the equine stuff and get better at improving your timing and exposure, I think you will find that you’ll have a much warmer reception from the few remaining horse show photographers if you don’t try and sell your event images - posting them to galleries or FB for viewing, but not offering them for sale or free, unless you want to be the show OP - purchase insurance, get the booth set up, get the staff, and do the whole gig, so you’re not undercutting someone else’s livelihood. We’re struggling enough with online proof theft and everyone’s barn mate’s and Mom and Dad’s with DSLR’s that make it hard enough to make a living doing this.
I no longer shoot horse shows - only portrait sessions and weddings.
Here’s a couple threads that make for interesting reading if you have a lot of time on your hands regarding issues related to the horse show photography industry:
http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/showthread.php?301055-Where-are-all-the-photographers
http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/showthread.php?390583-Private-Horse-Show-Photographer
If you’re going to take photos of horses XC, there’s one absolute big secret to getting them sold to amateurs/juniors: Make the Fence Look Big. Shooting slightly up at the jump, picking a table rather than a coop or log (or g-d forbid, a ditch), or a brush jump will automatically make the fence look more impressive. And for most of us, that fence looked plenty impressive as we were cantering toward it - so it’s a little disheartening when you get back a photo shot down at it and it looks itty bitty inconsequential.
Thanks for the links two sticks. First off, maybe I should change my mind about just coming out and shooting events. Sounds like there is so much going on (by amateurs) that us professionals would not be making any money after all.
As I stated before, I am really trying to just get my equine photo side out there - which means taking pictures of a rider, horse, under saddle, for sale, portrait on their farm. To be hired as THEIR official photographer for an event is another idea but again is there a boundary being stepped on the OP if I only was taking pictures of my client? Sad part is there must have been hundreds of people with cameras at Red Hills. Who was the official OP, who was press, who was Aunt Jenny? I walked the entire XC course and no one ever questioned me or said anything to me about taking pictures. How many of those people went on to sell their photos like I was (just took off my price list on my web page).
As a professional photographer, I know people take pictures at my weddings or sporting events with their I phones, or cameras - but I was hired by the bride or team so I got my money and have much better shots than mom/pop. I personally wouldn’t see a problem if a rider(s) hired me to take photos of them at an event. I also read that in some of those posts that a lot of events didn’t even have a OP so I guess I could ask event management if they have an OP, and if they don’t then I’d be fine to sell my shots? If they do, I’d just post my pics on my site for viewing only so future equine customers would see my work. I enjoyed taking the pictures at RHHT and if I get even better at it, then hopefully future riders out there will get in touch with me for personal sessions.
Gorgeous pictures! You have a lot of talent!
Only real photographers use single shot and not the rapid mode. You must learn to shoot the horse with one snap to get the perfect picture. If you rapid fire, you miss that perfect shot.
…OK, so on the advice of earlier posts, I went back and loaded more photos to the gallery. This time showing more of the actual jumps and showing more midair and some landings. I would have posted these the first time but did not realize these pictures are what you riders really like Live and learn. If you have already checked out the original batch, please look again and see the new 20+ pictures I added. Love to get some new feedback. I’m looking forward to using all of your advice this weekend at Rocking Horse and in two weeks at Ocala. If anyone reading this will be at either of these events, let me know so I can be on the look out for you and your horse(s).
Only two of the landing jumps are spot on. The rest are too early or too late. Your angle is better but still needs work. Think of this: you are telling a story with your picture. It’s easier with jumpers and eventers then hunters but you must infuse the story, then you’ll have the shot.
Check to see of there is a pro hired to work the show and ask them if they can hire you for the day. You can learn from them and not step on their toes.
[QUOTE=GotSpots;7497002]
If you’re going to take photos of horses XC, there’s one absolute big secret to getting them sold to amateurs/juniors: Make the Fence Look Big. Shooting slightly up at the jump, picking a table rather than a coop or log (or g-d forbid, a ditch), or a brush jump will automatically make the fence look more impressive. And for most of us, that fence looked plenty impressive as we were cantering toward it - so it’s a little disheartening when you get back a photo shot down at it and it looks itty bitty inconsequential.[/QUOTE]
^^THIS!!^^ Pick jumps that look big and cool. Cannot tell you how many times the gallery of photos from my XC was something like this:
6 shots of cantering through the water
6 shots of us galloping, maybe one cool looking with nice background or horse and rider obviously locked on to oncoming fence
1 shot of the tiniest coop on course
1 shot of the second tiniest jump on course LOL
Cannot tell you how many times the gallery of photos from my XC was something like this:
6 shots of cantering through the water
6 shots of us galloping, maybe one cool looking with nice background or horse and rider obviously locked on to oncoming fence
1 shot of the tiniest coop on course
1 shot of the second tiniest jump on course LOL
I like the photo from my first event where there is literally a tree blocking my entire body. I was mid air over the fence and the tree is directly in between me and the photographer. OP- don’t do that!
I wouldn’t let a few negative posts stop you. As long as you have the okay from the show management, you’re good to go.
I wanted to buy some photos last year, but the photographer that was at the majority of the shows I went to SUCKS. Not only do they not get shots of everyone, but most of the shots suck. I found a couple passable ones of one of my horses, but NONE of the other. Not one dang photo of XC on our move-up show at all. Not one.
I looked at your gallery for the new pics. Most are still kinda off on the timing and are too close. No perspective. Sections of the horse cut out of the frame, etc. I could not see any item numbers or whatnot to easily identify them for discussion, but there were a few that were OK.
Head on shots are not ideal…
Good Luck!
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