Sunday, October 17, 2021

Trail Gate

       Even with a beautiful indoor arena, studio lighting, and a new camera that helps me take way better photos, performance photos are still not easy. Setting up for a live show performance class isn't easy either, but in some ways it's easier than photo showing. Sure, in photo showing you can cheat with the side of the horse that isn't going to show and things can be out of place, taped, or any number of other things, but you also have to get just the right angle to make your photo work. That part can be tricky. I took a ton of photos of my trail entry for the Mares in Black Spooktacular show. I know the mechanics of how the horse needs to move to make a rope gate obstacle work, that is always part of the challenge. But knowing what will make the best photo is trickier. So I started with the horse and rider coming up to the gate. My pattern says it is a left hand gate so the rider has both reins in her right hand and is grabbing the gate loop with her left hand. 
     The next stage is the horse backs up a few steps and turns to walk through the gate. This is not the nicest angle for a variety of reasons. 
    This is basically the same step from a somewhat different angle. The horse is a little further into the gate and is ready to turn to the left. You can see more of the horse, but I still don't love this angle. 
    The next photo and stage is further through the gate. This is a pretty good shot, you can see more of the horse and what the rider is doing. 
    Once the horse is through the gate the rider will cue him to back up. I like this photo, but not for performance showing. A lot of the horse is blocked and the judge wouldn't be able to see if the tack is on correctly. 
     I don't have a photo of it for Time Lord, but the last step is for the horse to be back all the way up so the rider can slip the gate loop back over the post. I really like gate obstacles. They are visually interesting in a class that is often a sea of poles entries, but they are definitely tricky to get nice pictures of for photo showing. But I still like it. And the skeleton crowd seems to like it too. 
 

No comments: