wndrlst

...aka my version of a car show.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/moxiephotos/560459682/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1090/560459682_6cd74d2560.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Twilight Polo" /></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/moxiephotos/560524190/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1069/560524190_5649688f67.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Twilight Polo" /></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/moxiephotos/560723864/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1148/560723864_5b809c0ecd.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Twilight Polo6.jpg" /></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/moxiephotos/561110253/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1077/561110253_6760bbec92.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Twilight Polo" /></a>

Great Meadow has Twilight Polo every Saturday night during the summer. It's pretty cool...like hockey, but with horses and no icing calls.

synth19

nice pics!

jupitersolo

Looks good, no exif in your pictures. What were you using??

wndrlst

Hmm, I'll have to check my saving technique...still getting the hang of this photoshop thing.

I was using the 70-200 f/2.8L

Thanks!

Mizouse

it might just be flickr, cause you can click on more properties right below where it says "Taken with a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT." and it'll tell you all the exif info.

leftride

iTrader: (1)

nice shots wndrlst, especially for the low light and the not so still subjects

i really like the last one.

saiko_cl_duck

Nice pics polo girl.

S14 n Tsx

great pictures.

waTSX

Cool shots of a sport we don't see much of.

wndrlst

It took me a little while to figure out just how fast the shutter speed would need to be to freeze all but the legs. I had to bump the ISO up to 800 as it got darker, then at full dark I just gave up! Time to download the full version of NeatImage.

Thanks!

waTSX

^^Have you played polo?

wndrlst

No - that's one of the few equestrian sports I've never tried. It looks like it requires too much hand-eye coordination.

rt4563

Nice looking men ... er, horses.


Great job, wndrlst!

sonnyg80

would you like some help with your coordination





lol but for real - nice pics!

moeronn

Looks like a cool way to spend an evening - even better when you get to photograph it.

Cool shots.

wndrlst

Definitely a nice way to pass the evening. It's set up where you can tailgate all around the arena, so we got a good group together to picnic & have some drinks. I'm sure we'll do it again.

jupitersolo

Shoot me a PM, if you don't mind.

wndrlst

Will do.

evilone

cool pics. i used to play for a few years at the great meadow arena. I used to groom at a polo school there in the plains in the summer.

wndrlst

Cool! Did you play for the school or someone else? Small world...

evilone

I used to practice before, during, and after classes. I played quite a bit. My ex step dad used to play all the time. He was a 3 or 4 goaler. I think that first pic has some I know in it. A guy named JB. it looks like him atleast. When I got done grooming and mucking stalls I would go out and Practice on grass. But I always loved the speed of arena. Plus there nothing like riding off someone into the boards full speed!

wndrlst

I think I threw away the program already, or I'd look PM you the players' names. That's really cool that you used to play. Not too many people can say that!

wndrlst

Went back to polo tonight...aside from the horrific noise, this is my favorite so far:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/moxiephotos/751422585/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1369/751422585_062425c150.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="" /></a>

Things to do:
d/l complete version of NeatImage tomorrow!


<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/moxiephotos/752266228/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1030/752266228_8edb2c90c9.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="" /></a>

wndrlst

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/moxiephotos/751590841/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1296/751590841_f63026957e.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="" /></a>

sonnyg80

nice

wndrlst

^Thanks

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/moxiephotos/752266828/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1317/752266828_3e031739e0.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="" /></a>

This one is really rough, as it was shot at ISO 800, and still had to be underexposed by a full stop to get a decently fast shutter speed...I like the lighting, though, with the scoreboard behind her.

waTSX

Really nice captures. It looks like a pretty intense sport with a pretty high risk factor. Whipping mallets, falling off horses...

wndrlst

Yeah, last time I got a guy falling off his horse, but it was blurry, so I didn't post it. The horses do take a beating! They take it in stride though...their training is amazing. One of them took a ball right under the tail at point blank, and barely gave a little hop.




Jup, did you get a chance to look through your shots at all yet?

jupitersolo

wndrlst, well we went back last night, took my son, who loved it. The pictures from the night with you and your husband weren't worth posting. I actually deleted 90% of them. I was able to beat the light or lack of a little better this week than last week, they didn't start the second match until almost 9pm, they did some jumping for about 30 minutes between matches, they were promoting the event at Great Meadow, 28 July 2007. For $20 per car, this is great night out. I have to get better with my cropping, to try and keep more even.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reverseimage/820590401/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1204/820590401_dc9f998776.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="30D-22" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reverseimage/820590537/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1384/820590537_457ad6cd3a.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="30D-24" /></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reverseimage/820591189/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1096/820591189_ffe00f7f6b.jpg" width="500" height="340" alt="30D-31" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reverseimage/820591259/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1114/820591259_95b766d925.jpg" width="500" height="310" alt="30D-33" /></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reverseimage/821487112/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1288/821487112_b388f59efa.jpg" width="500" height="345" alt="30D-45" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reverseimage/820590997/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1121/820590997_e273095dea.jpg" width="500" height="397" alt="30D-30" /></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reverseimage/821487152/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1421/821487152_3b9898a8a4.jpg" width="500" height="480" alt="30D-46" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reverseimage/821487328/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1170/821487328_fb5901ebb7.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="30D-63" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reverseimage/821487460/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1356/821487460_313b6a3272.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="30D-64" /></a>


Here's my ISO 800 picture, adjusted with lightroom. I had some with ISO 1000, but there is so much noise.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reverseimage/821487280/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1229/821487280_bc59c76bcf.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="30D-61" /></a>

wndrlst

Yay! Glad to see you've got some posted! I had the same learning curve with how high the shutter speed really needed to be the first night I went. Had a much higher percentage of usable shots the second night.

Thanks for posting the ISO 800 shot - it's good to see a comparison. That's really very clean, even when viewed larger. Is LR's noise reduction that good, or is w/o NR?

I particularly like the shot where the rider is standing in his stirrups, and the action shot right below. Nice work! Glad you got to see some jumping, too...that's always fun to watch.

jupitersolo

Thank You, that was LR's n/r, I also brought up the exposure one or two stops using LR.

fsttyms1

very coool pics!

wndrlst

Well, I went back to Great Meadow w/ Jupity & his family last night. I was eager to test out the 40D's high ISO performance compared to my XT in the same circumstances. The XT was virtually unusable at ISO800, but the 40D really impressed me. I know there's much better out there now *cough*Nikon*cough*, but still, it wasn't too shabby.

To get the necessary shutter speeds, almost all of the dusk/dark shots were underexposed 1 to 1.5 stops, and pushed in PS. Also, I did some NR in Camera RAW, but anyone who has used it knows its abilities in that dept are fairly limited...


ISO 500
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/moxiephotos/2793041994/" title="Polo by wndrlst, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3140/2793041994_e9390412a9_b.jpg" width="1024" height="683" alt="Polo" /></a>

ISO 1250
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/moxiephotos/2793039902/" title="Polo by wndrlst, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3036/2793039902_947b3f75ab_b.jpg" width="1024" height="683" alt="Polo" /></a>

ISO 1600
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/moxiephotos/2793035658/" title="Battling by wndrlst, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3288/2793035658_e73c6c21da_b.jpg" width="1024" height="683" alt="Battling" /></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/moxiephotos/2793034364/" title="4 by wndrlst, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3106/2793034364_3becaf3f8b_b.jpg" width="683" height="1024" alt="4" /></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/moxiephotos/2792180971/" title="4 Again by wndrlst, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3062/2792180971_61b578aa6b_b.jpg" width="1024" height="682" alt="4 Again" /></a>

stogie1020

Wow! the 1600 shots look really good!

I like the last shot, as it seems that the light is on the face of the real athlete...

wndrlst

Yeah, I was pleasantly surprised by most of them. The amount of noise still seemed largely dependent on available light and which section of the arena they were in, which I thought was interesting.

And I agree, that mare worked hard, and was amazing! She deserves the spotlight.

waTSX

Nice clean shots. I agree that ISO 800 or 1600 are highly useable with the 40D, or any xxD Canon body for that matter. I'm curious about your technique of underexposing the shots then pushing them in post. I thought underexposing would reveal more shadow noise when you adjusted the exposure, as opposed to less. Also, were these shot RAW or jpeg?

Anyway, nice shots! I like the horsies!

wndrlst

You're right, but the ISO only goes up to 1600, and I had to keep the shutter speed at 200-250 to freeze the motion adequately, so given the lack of light, they were underexposed because I had no other choice. (I shot at f/2.8 the whole night.)

So no, I couldn't bump them up much at all without seriously ugly noise effects, but most of them tolerated a stop or so.

I found that using Levels and bumping up the midtones with Curves brought me pretty good results when I needed just a little more, especially if I brought the low end back down. I had to be careful with the levels correction, though, because it results in loss of highlight detail.

And thanks!

waTSX

Cool, thanks. I asked about RAW V. jpeg because the 40D is actually good shooting RAW in burst mode (V. the 20D), because the buffer doesn't get clogged as easily. The only issue is card space. RAW is so much better in post that it's hard shooting jpeg anymore, for me anyway.

stogie1020

<--- Hasn't used JPG on my 40D once, except to make sure it works...

wndrlst

Ah, sorry forgot to answer that - RAW always! Unlike Stogie, I didn't even check to make sure jpeg works.