Auburn Horse Park- Show Day- Jumpers

This was the Jumper Ring.

You need to bump up your ISO to get a faster shutter speed. Your shutter speed needs to be at least 1/500s and faster would be better. I normally shoot these events with a shutter speed of at least 1/1000s.

Except for the lack of headroom in the first shot, your timing and composition look good.

Edited: I just noticed that these were shot in Landscape mode (probably by accident) which would account for the slow shutter speeds. Your other posts had much better settings.

landscape wasn't by accident. i tried to play around with my Tv settings, but the pictures turned out too dark or blurry, so I went with the next best think I could think of.
It was also overcast when they did the jumpers, and i find it difficult to get good pictures when there isn't much sun... but, i'm trying to figure it out. thanks for the advice!

The one with the smiling face is the winner. Sports mode would have been a better choice than landscape. Trees and mountains don't gallop. Next time try a higher ISO, which will allow you to get more depth of field (f/8.0 instead of f/5.6) and less motion blur. But I think you did pretty well with your panning.

First suggestion is rather than three different posts, which is asking a lot of people to respond, I would consolidate your shots into one post. I know you had hunters and jumpers and the warm up, but most of the responses above apply to all three posts.

Secondly, I am really surprised these are as sharp as they are with a shutter speed of 1/200th. For any equine shooting my rule is always at least 1/500th and that is really marginal. If I am shooting indoors (without flash) I up the ISO to whatever I need to get 1/500th and F2.0. But outdoors I am typically 1/1000 to 1/2000, f/4-5.6 and ISO of 400.

You need to learn the basics of exposure to be able to take control of your settings.

I disagree with going to F/8 rather than F/5.6. You are going to lose isolation of your subject from the background.

As bob_r said your timing and composition on these is really good. But you show so you know what riders want. That should definitely give you an advantage to learn shooting equine.

Thanks for sharing these.