10 observations from my first time shooting equestrian sports

1 Scheduling challenges

• The schedule of events doesn’t align well with optimal photography times.

• Events typically happen during midday, resulting in harsh lighting conditions.

• Events start around 8 and wrap up by 5 PM, leaving little room for sunrise and sunset or night. Sometimes events start at 7am.

2 Large and Expansive venue

• The venues are vast, requiring careful planning on which events to cover and where to position yourself. Stadiums are as well but this was more of a campus with many venues within the grounds.

• Moving around the facility with a lot of equipment is challenging due to the size of the area.

3 Flexibility in shooting angles

• The large field space offers flexibility in choosing shooting angles.

• The stands provide opportunities for elevated shots.

• The flexibility might be due to the relatively smaller scale of some events, allowing for more freedom in positioning.

I was able to shoot this from a multilevel tent next to the venue with plenty of space for me to work. 

I was able to shoot this from the other side of the VIP multi level sitting area. The structure allowed me to go back and forth between jumper and hunter runs. 

4 Repetitive routes

• During competitions, particularly speed events, each jump is numbered and predictable.

• While riders may vary their approach, the overall route remains consistent, offering some predictability in shooting.

While most of the routes were repetitive you would still get some wide turns or thing that set some riders apart from others and made them look more dynamic. 

5 Horse Coloration & beauty

• All of the horses were stunning. Their muscle and the contrast between various horse colorations was interesting to me.

• Darker horses stood out more, giving me more highlights and details.

• B&W highlighted this contrast even more.

6 Difference between Jumper and hunter

• Hunter competitions require more caution as horses can be easily spooked, limiting how close photographers can get.

• Technique and symmetry are more crucial in hunter events, so I look more closely for the proper form.

Hunter course is much cleaner and more proper. 

Horses move slower but more methodical on the hunter course. 

7 Complex or distracting backgrounds

• The field often has various colors, logos, and multiple jumps in the background, making it difficult to find a clean, simple shot.

• The hunter series offers slightly cleaner shots, but distractions in the background are still present.

I used quite a bit of blur techniques to try to show the color without it being distracting. 

Using blur, I noticed riders react differently on jumps. Some move with the horse and some move a little bit against the horse. This one moved with her horse so both were in focus. 

8 Lack of Rider Variability

• Riders generally wear similar outfits and helmets, leading to less visual variety.

• This uniformity made it challenging to capture distinct and interesting shots of the riders.

9 Limited emotion

One of the earlier runs I was able to capture some emotion after the finish line but it was still fairly muted.

• It was challenging to capture emotions due to the size of the field and the distance from the competitors.

• While there was prize money involved, the emotion in competitors wasn’t super obvious or easy to find.

10 Limitations on low angle shots

• A wall around the field, about three or four feet high, limits the ability to get low-angle shots.

• Unlike other sports like soccer, where you can sit in front of the wall, equestrian events require shooting from the other side, restricting the low-angle perspective.

This was about as low as I could get with a wide angle lens.