The polo leg of the Aiken Triple Crown did happen on Sunday. The rain left and skies cleared but the wind was fierce! Sadly our plan for a big sideline party was whittled down to Polly, Em, Susan Cipolla and me. The rest of our group had departed for home very early Sunday morning.
Polly purchased the sideline parking pass which we shared, and we set up our goodies alongside the "pros" who come every year, much like tailgating at a football game. When I discovered that Emily is a budding
photographer, I loaned her my "smaller" telephoto lens so she could shoot the festivities and get closer to the action.
Polo is fun to photograph because it is so challenging. Its one thing to aim & focus on the galloping horses, but quite another to include a fast-moving, small white ball and flailing mallets in the frame too. I learned to keep my eye on the path of the ball, trusting that horses would immediately fill the frame. Unlike eventing or dressage where I take pride in capturing the "moment" with one or two exposures (one of my pet peeves is when someone stands next to me and holds their finger on the shutter button), I lowered myself to rapid fire while shooting the polo action. As long as the histogram was telling me the exposures were on ... I figured I'd get a few cool shots, and I did.
Of course, I also had to shoot my favorite motion blurs.....
Upon reviewing the images, I noticed that ponies galloping side-by-side would often have the same stride, all 4 or 8 legs in sync...
A "pax de deux" of sorts. Care to dance?
1 comment:
Wonderful photos Pam. Wish we had been there to enjoy it. As always, thanks for sharing the experience.
Post a Comment