Alamo Dressage Association - Spring 2009

Want to learn about dressage?  Try immersion...   I just spent two, intense, but fantastic days shooting a new sport for me, while trying to deal with less than ideal lighting situations.

The Alamo Dressage Association hosted their Spring show at the San Antonio Rose Palace the weekend of March 21-22, 2009.  Three rings, two days, over 90 riders/horses and me trying to figure how to shoot the indoor rings with low light (Nikon D700, 70-200/2.8, ISO 2500-4000), bad backgrounds, all while trying to learn what makes a horse and rider look great. You can read up on any new sport to get a sense of what makes a good photo, but I had the fortune to be able to pick the brains of top riders, coaches and trainers and a seemingly never-ending supply of riders to refine my technique on.  Three rings, a new rider every nine minutes or so and me with a camera.  Way cool!

If you ever get a chance to attend a dressage event, go with a sense of patience and appreciation for the nuances...and watch the top class riders.  They had their horses doing moves I'm not sure I can do with only two feet.

Alamo Dressage Association Spring Show 2009 Photo Galleries 

Baseball & Softball Season is back!

New fields, new tournament, new faces and great weather....a great way to start up the Boerne-Champion High School baseball and softball season.

Boerne-Champion hosted their first Champion Memorial Baseball Tournament this weekend (5-7 March). I spent Friday shooting a couple of baseball games and finished up the day shooting the Charger girls vs the Antonian Apaches late in the afternoon. Great lighting on the catcher and batters, but major glare with the sun setting in the outfield.

Boerne-Champion Chargers vs San Antonio Burbank Bulldogs

Smithson Valley Rangers vs El Paso Burges Mustangs

Boerne-Champion Chargers Softball vs San Antonian Apaches

The new fields look great to play on, but I knew it was going to be interesting to figure out how to shoot through and around all the new fencing and netting. With a long lens and shooting close to the net you can minimize the impact, but anything other than straight on is going to be an issue. All that said these were afternoon games with great light and great action so it was worth the eight hour day.

In between games I caught some of the Charger pole vaulters practicing. The Track & Field team has a home field meet coming up on 28 March, so that should be another fun day with a whole new mix of action shots.