10 Observations from Shooting Equestrian Sports

1 Scheduling challenges

• Prime events typically happen during midday, resulting in harsh lighting conditions.

• Events start around 8 and wrap up by 5 PM. Sometimes events start at 7am. Late afternoon or night events are unlikely.

2 Large and Expansive venue

• The venues are vast, requiring careful planning on which events to cover and where to position yourself. The Traverse City Horse Shows venue gives you a ride to the ring but once you’re there, it’s a lot of walking to access various areas. Most people have golf carts or scooters to get around.

• Moving around the facility with a lot of equipment is challenging due to the size of the area.

3 Flexibility in shooting angles

• The large field space offers flexibility in choosing shooting angles without having to adjust for fans in the audience. There is a ton of room to work with as a photographer.

• The stands ringside abut up to the ring and provide opportunities for elevated shots which was pretty awesome. Having a shaded spot with creative potential is always nice!

4 Repetitive routes

• During competitions, particularly speed events, each jump is numbered and predictable.

• While riders may vary their approach, the overall route remains consistent, offering some predictability in shooting.

While most of the routes were repetitive you would still get some wide turns or thing that set some riders apart from others and made them look more dynamic.

5 Horse Coloration & beauty

• All of the horses were stunning. Their muscle and the contrast between various horse colorations was interesting to me.

• Darker horses stood out more, giving me more highlights and details.

• B&W highlighted this contrast even more.

6 Difference between Jumper and hunter

• Hunter competitions require more caution as horses can be easily spooked, limiting how close photographers can get.

• Technique and symmetry are more crucial in hunter events, so I focused more on the proper form.

7 Complex or Busy backgrounds

• Similar to other sports, you have sponsors within the field but I did feel this was particularly emphasized within the equestrian field. Part of it is they are sponsors we are not exactly used to seeing so they stand out a little more. Conversely, the riders don’t have any sponsors on their attire.

• The hunter series offers slightly cleaner shots, less logos, and sponsors.

8 Rider Variability

• I felt the variability between competitors was lower than other sports, making it difficult to show personality within the sport. The attire is much more formal, preventing you from showing tattoos, hair, or other personally identifying features.

9 emotion

One of the earlier runs I was able to capture some emotion after the finish line but it was still fairly muted.

• I found the competitors to be fairly focused before and during their events and not likely to show emotion until after a run.

• I definitely feel a culture of professionalism across equestrian events that lends itself to less emotion than other sporting events I’ve worked.

10 Limitations on low angle shots

• A wall around the field, about three or four feet high, limits the ability to get low-angle shots.

• Unlike other sports like soccer, where you can sit in front of the wall, equestrian events require shooting from the other side, restricting the low-angle perspective.

• I did see a photographer granted access within the ring but they are supported/hired by the venue itself.