...Farmlands Ultimate Te Kuiti Bull Ride 2010

...so a friend of mine hosts and runs a Bullriding tournament up north, so I traveled up north to take some photos for her. I shot it with the Canon Kiss XS, and hired a Canon 70 - 200 F2.8 USM L as well. This was my first time shooting anything "bull" related!

Its an interesting and particularly challenging sport to photograph: I started off at f2.8 but I had trouble keeping both the head of the rider and the bull in focus, so eventually went to f 4 to cope with this: unfortunately this bought the background harshly back into focus. I shot in manual for most of the time, exposing for the bull, not the rider. Again this meant the head of the rider is in shadow, would love to know the best way to fix this if possible...

Comments welcome: this may not be the only bullride I shoot, so want to get better for next time...

1

I like the last picture the best. I think it portrays the true feeling of what its all about. Plus, having been truly hung up myself I can appreciate the close calls. May be wrong, but it looks like this guy came off......once he let go! Nice shot all around

Roamingbull wrote in post #11386508
I like the last picture the best. I think it portrays the true feeling of what its all about. Plus, having been truly hung up myself I can appreciate the close calls. May be wrong, but it looks like this guy came off......once he let go! Nice shot all around

...cheers Roamingbull: appreciate the comments!

The guy in the last photo is Jono Reed: one of NZ's best bullriders and winner of the Te Kuiti event. Are you a bullrider? ::takes hat off:: Not an easy sport to photograph, and I am sure an even harder one to participate in, well done!