Horses in Competition

A fabulous eventing image showing the focus of horse and rider who are already focused, rebalancing and turning towards the next fence before they have even landed from the previous fence.

The image is beautifully exposed but I would have liked to have seen a better balance between the space above the rider and the grass below. A slight crop from the bottom left could balance out the difference ncely in my opinion.

Some may wonder why this showjumping photo ranked higher than orders and it's for a few reasons that it was a standout for me.

Firstly we are presented with a horse booth enjoying and good at its job. A fabulous shape over its back, ears and expression soft and happy. The rider is in an excellent balance, has soft hands and a generally excellent position. The horse and rider just generally look at ease with the task at hand whilst equally focused. They are 'in the groove'! This is a photo that the rider will want to buy which is normally the ultimate priority of an equestrian photographer.

The 'best' phase of the jump is normally the ascent where the front legs will be tighter and the back more bascule, but over a larger fence like this, the moment of suspension over the fence can be very attractive.

The depth of field is ideal separating the horse from the background but enough still that you can clearly make out the people in the stands watching keenly.

The exposure is excellent which is always a challenge with a dark horse.

The only real drawback of the image is something the photographer couldn't really avoid and that is the wings of the fence on the right of frame which somewhat draw the eye. This is always a challenge photographing showjumping as there is almost always something in the background that you would prefer to avoid!

A really lovely image that caught my eye. I like the use of the low angle to include the flowers in the foreground.

Great use of depth of field really makes the horse and rider stand out.

I wasn't entirely convinced this rider was competing and not schooling due to the lack of number bib or similar but gave the photographer the benefit of the doubt.

Although a static image it actually has a great story to tell.

Anyone who has ever watched or competed in showing knows that classes can at times be rather long and tedious. Although we can't see the horse's eyes behind the blinkers given the relaxed ears I would put money that he is having a doze! Add the expression of the handler and we likely would be mistaken in surmising they had been stood there a while!

The image also shows off the pristine turnout of the horse, who can guess the hours that will have gone into cleaning that brass!

I love nearly everything about this image. A great angle, well-exposed given shooting into the sun, the obvious power and effort of the horses and their leader, there is a real energy to the image and the black and white conversion really works. The large crowd watching intently adds some extra atmosphere to the image

My only real critique would be wanting a lower aperture to have blurred slightly the surrounding crowds, at the focal length the photographer should have been able to have dropped a couple of stops which would have further focused the viewer on the subjects.

A really fabulous competition portrait. The only thing stopping this image from reaching the top 10 is that it was taken in the warm-up not during competition according to the image caption so not entirely meeting the brief.

I love the use of black and white here with great balanced tones, the low angle to give the clear sky background with a soft subtle hint of clouds brings all the focus to the horse and rider equally given the aperture of F9 which would otherwise result in a distracting background if shot from a higher vantage point.