They are all taken at the Del Mar Fairgrounds in Del Mar, CA. The first was taken during the Professional Bull Riders tour, the second is of an extraordinary horse, Flexible, who is a world class show jumper. The third is of another world class (dressage) horse and rider team, Steffen Peters and Ravel, who are Olympic champions. Ravel is retiring this year. Thanks for asking!

Happy rider!

He is riding one of the best dressage horses in the world!

I've missed your posts.

The lighting was so dramatic! If you look closely you can see a hand in front -- winners get carrot treats!

Each so very different in emotion and depiction. I can't link them.
The first one wins my heart.
The second wins the artist in me.
And the third makes me simply happy all over. Because the photo exudes it and this horse is not owned by Ann rMoney, I presume.

You make me laugh! Well, no that's not Rafalca, although he has shown here at Del Mar. I have photos of Ann (I took them under duress) but not Mitt. I imagine we'll be seeing more of them now that they have nothing better to do... yippee, can't wait... sigh.

Good eye!

the contrast between the hats in the first is wonderful - not unlike the unseen faces, I am sure.

...and tell yourself a story! I love it!

And the lighting on the horse... that is just amazing and the kind of things I shoot for.. no pun intended!
I prefer natural light...or should I say "available" light. and I like to shoot in low light situations. I only recently bought this Canon EOS 60D. I HATE my on camera flash!!! HATE HATE HATE IT. I even try and mute it with a layer of kleenex sometimes if It pops up on some settings because it is just too harsh and dead in your face kind of crap. I have to admit I'm not really well versed on using the on camera flash, and I've been wanting to get an external remote flash. Or maybe I should just read my owners manual and figure out how to set it up????

Did you light these shots at all?

But I love using a flash only when I bounce the light. I've had good results with that. I rarely use the pop-up but also have a double layer of tissue taped over it.

Both shots were ambient light -- the horse was in the arena under spot lighting. Very dramatic but challenging to shoot. You can see I missed the focus but it isn't maddeningly out of focus -- kinda artsy so I can live with it.