Its that time of year again. The pandemic has subsided, it looks like last week’s rainy sky has cleared, and I will be taking my camera to the Pritchard rodeo to join other photographers along the arena railing.
There will be all sorts of people sitting in the viewing stands, wearing their shinny western boots, and keeping the sun off their eyes with stiff cowboy hats that only get used for the rodeo.
For opportunistic photographers the Pritchard rodeo, or any rodeo for that matter, is a perfect place that along with the exciting explosive action, is packed with interesting subjects to photograph.
My photo pal Jo McAvany will be using our DSLR cameras with 70-200mm lenses. The 70-200mm f/2.8 lens is my preference for lively sports. There are other lenses, but in my opinion the 70-200mm is the best design for sports like a rodeo. For those that are contemplating a new lens for 2022; no matter what manufacture that lens will always be made to focus fast and sharp. And the 70-200mm focal length gives great coverage for rodeos.
I have tried lots of lenses over the years and unless one is positioned far up, or an uncomfortable distance from the action longer focal length lenses don’t give wide enough coverage when an athlete moves in close.
For sports there isn’t much need for the F2.8 aperture. Nevertheless those wide aperture lenses are always made to be fast focusing and when a wide aperture is selected details in the background will be softly diffused. The word photographers use for that effect is Bokeh.
When I get to an action-catching spot that I like I will select the Shutter Priority Mode. That means I select the Shutterspeed and the camera will choose the Aperture depending on the brightness of the scene. I follow that old ‘photo-rule’ that says, “use a shutterspeed that matches or surpasses the lenses focal length”, and for rodeos, anything 1/250th a second or faster works.
The forecast is for a partly cloudy day so I expect I might be able to use 1/500th a second.
On a cloudy day I might pick an ISO of 800, but if it’s partly cloudy there should be enough light to use ISO 400.
Those days of worrying about film grain with high ISO (ASA) or digital cameras from 10 or so years ago that were noisy are long gone. Most modern cameras don’t even show noise at ISO 800.
I think that when photographing fast action sports like a rodeo, a tripod or monopod get in the way. One needs to be ready for riders and explosive animals to change direction in an instant. I start with my lens at a wide focal length and am ready to zoom in on the action.
The rodeo is a great place to spend the day learning to stop fast movement. Heck, the rodeo is a great place period.
Don’t glue your butt to a stadium seat, move around, say high to people you know and don’t know. Make friends with other photographers and be creative and make fun photos of that exciting and explosive event.
“Sometimes I think life is just a rodeo, the trick is to ride and make it to the bell.” - John Fogerty.
Stay safe and be creative. These are my thoughts for this week. Contact me at www.enmanscamera.com or emcam@telus.net.
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