Horse and Rider Photo

Photographer’s Note

Besides the many floats at the East Indian parade that I attended there was this horse and rider all decorated up to join in on the occasion. I managed to get nice and close but felt the horse was about to lick my camera lens. The rider spoke excellent English and with a quick chat he allowed me to capture this while he held his horse steady. Taken on 128th street in Surrey where over 100,000 people attended for the occasion. Enjoy.

For those who shoot with the Canon Xti 400D I am offering the suggestion to quickly check your ISO setting before you shoot. 100 ISO is only one click down from 1600 ISO. This photo was taken at 1600 by mistake. But because of bright daylight the results turned out to be quite good. But for those who are picky with image quality this will explain for some of the grain that is hardly noticeable.

leo61, quillo, Dyerco, Merline, macondo, japiey, jaywalker, ku-fotak-chtik has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

leo61 (43830) 2008-04-30 11:15

Hi Paul!
I hope your lens survived!
Great shot,I like your close POV and the background.Great sharpness overall and good ,well saturated colors .
Regards,Leo

clic (4065) 2008-04-30 11:30

Hello Paul
I would have rather title: "Nostrils"!
I'm amazed by the zoom effect on clouds and the overall vivid blue color.
A dab of exotism.
Take care.
Robert

bombilla (3402) 2008-04-30 12:02

Nice looking stuff for ISO 1600. You do seem to need to give that sensor a cleaning, though. Beautiful color, dramatic POV. The crop I offer in the workshop might give you something to think about. Best, -Hugh

[workshop] [compare] +

quillo (7348) 2008-04-30 13:01

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Hello Paul, the framing is magnificent with the first plane of the face of the horse and the elegant rider centred on the image, the sky is spectacular and the very good colors.

Congratulations for the good work.

Un saludo.

-

Dyerco (9318) 2008-05-01 9:33

A good composition Paul with the horses head to the left to show the rider. We do not often associate the Sikhs with horses but they have used them for a long time now. The wide angle lens tends to distort the horses head but I'm sure he won't mind.
Phil

Merline (6578) 2008-05-04 2:38

Hi Paul,
A pity about having slightly cut his ears and I've done mistakes with ISO more than you can imagine:o).
Love the composition beautifully dramatic, amazing effect of the wide angle...and interesting subject. Beautiful eye(s) and I could give him (the horse) a hug, so close he is. I also like very much Hugh's workshop that concentrates more on the subject. Well done !

TFS
Regards, Michèle

macondo (13275) 2008-05-04 5:32

Hello Paul...

...after a while of not seeing your shots. I think you must have had a break for a while a few shots back. Anyway, I've been back to your gallery and lo and behold found this rather big departure from your usual landscapes! Yes, as has been said, it's a pity about the ears. But the horse's nose seems almost to leap out of the screen at one. The lens distortion and the weird cloud formation, plus somewhat over-saturated colour, gives this a real dynamism and energy. The noise is not bad at all (we've all done that with ISO and other settings), but I think you might have a bit of dust on your sensor, judging from little blobs in the sky. I'm not sure if you need that bus on the right.
Regards,
Andrew
PS edit - just saw Hugh's comment and WS, and read your reply! Cancel that remark of mine about sensor dust.
A

danielswalsh (13330) 2008-05-11 19:05

Hmmm... I'm a bit torn on this shot Paul

Sharpness is good as are the colors (maybe a touch over saturated).
Given the vertical of the horse and rider- I think a portrait cropping would be more suited to this shot and save the poor horses ears!

The high ISO screwed this shot up for you mate;
- Overexposed bits (like the horses head).
- Excess noise visible in the sky.
- High ISO meant the camera compensated by using an F/22 or so- making the sensor dust quite visible (dark spots in the sky).
Which coule have been cloned out in Photoshop...

Sorry dude, not one of your better ones in my opinion.
- Dan

japiey (9521) 2008-05-18 9:41

Hi Paul,

Brilliant effort in composing this concept.
Sharp and fine details.
Superb tones.
All the best.

jp

jaywalker (12312) 2008-05-28 15:50

Hi Paul, A great capture of the horse with its nose in your lens, a great overall photo, with superb colour & a wonderfully proud looking rider, TFS, kind regards Wilson.

ku-fotak-chtik (1132) 2008-07-04 1:42

I was so mean an copied critique from Dan because hi is absolutelly right with:

Sharpness is good as are the colors (maybe a touch over saturated).
Given the vertical of the horse and rider- I think a portrait cropping would be more suited to this shot and save the poor horses ears and the bus doesn't look very nice and could be cropped!

- Excess noise visible in the sky.
- High ISO meant the camera compensated by using an F/22 or so- making the sensor dust quite visible (dark spots in the sky).
Which coule have been cloned out in Photoshop...

Anyway very nice shot and moment!

Kind regards Jiri