Perfect control - 1
The winner from England, John Whitaker on Argento, being watched closely while winning the jump-off of the Munich Indoors Grand Prix, which is the final event o...
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The winner from England, John Whitaker on Argento, being watched closely while winning the jump-off of the Munich Indoors Grand Prix, which is the final event on the Riders Tour in Europe. So always very hotly contested by the top pros.
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Feb, 2016Views
581
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Awards
People's Choice in Show me your best Horses Jumping Picture Photo Challenge
Peer Award
Top Choice
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All Star
Superb Composition
Magnificent Capture
Absolute Masterpiece
Superior Skill
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Top 30 rank
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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
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Behind The Lens
Location
Taken in the Olympic indoor arena in Munich, Germany. This is where the Munich Indoors showjumping competition happens every year at the end of the season, shortly before Christmas.Time
Late afternoon - the Munich Indoors Grand Prix is the last event of the 4-day show.Lighting
The restrictions of indoor lighting always make action shots difficult at fast speed. But as it was a big international event with a lot of professional photographers, the lighting was quite good and so I only had to use an ISO of 4000 to be able to take the shot at 1/500, which is what is really the minimum speed necessary for good showjumping shots.Equipment
Canon 70D with 75-300mm lens. Taken hand-held as the riders flash round the course very quickly, particularly with indoor competitions, and the shot at each jump has to be lined up and taken at the absolutely precise moment. So it is difficult to keep up and get it precise even with a monopod, let alone a tripod. So hand-held prevails, also for the professionals.Inspiration
I have enjoyed taking horse competition shots for many years, but I had never managed to get really good shots of indoor competitions until getting the 70D camera, which was my first camera that had high ISO capability at good quality. My wife and I know John Whitaker and I particularly wanted to get some good shots of him in the Grand Prix, the main competition at the Munich Indoors, hopefully winning it of course, which is what he managed to do with his great stallion Argento. John has a printed copy of the photo!Editing
Only very minor cropping and light adjustment.In my camera bag
I still have this Canon 70D with 18-55mm and 75-300mm lenses + a screw-on macro lens.Feedback
There are two important things with taking showjumping photos - firstly using a fast-enough speed (preferably min. 1/500 sec) and secondly really practising with your camera to be able to consistently get the images at exactly the right moment over the jump. Ideally, the front legs should still be fully tucked up with the horse fairly horizontal over the top of the jump, and most certainly without the hind legs still being on the ground, which is then not even a jumping shot. In fact this actually makes it easier in big competitions because in small local competitions, the jumps are usually much lower and so it is more difficult to get the horse with its back legs already properly off the ground, but with the front legs still tucked up over the jump.
