I am always so diligent about using a long lens to keep the distortion at bay. I figured I would do something totally different.

I took this at 11mm, while crouching in the sand as this pony came over(it was a medium) I tilted it to exaggerate the effect.

I love it. It is definitely unlike anything I normally shoot. just pure fun, though not really attractive

Hey Julie,

I like the shot a lot. I like shooting from down low. You nailed both the exposure and the composition very nicely.

James

I do have to really give it to the camera, the meter works great.

Here are some more from this weekend

Hey Julie,
I like the Wide angle shot. Looks like you startled that horse a little too, isn't she looking right at you?
That second shot is awesome and of course the little girl in pink is very cute.

The first horse is a cremello and has blue eyes(it is a double dilute gene) They always look startled. It is not one of my favorite colors. Funny thing is, this horse was my mare's weaning buddy. They are both 9 years old now. He was a freakin pistol. I think it has taken him until now to settle

He wasn't at all worried about me though. I wouldn't have been that close to the jump if I was afraid I would scare him.

Can you talk a bit about the technical aspects of shooting these? The light seems pretty darned close to perfect. No shadows, not overly bright, and of course, sharp as a tack.

James

The light was *really* nice on the two greys. I have some very warm, very nice shots(from a light standpoint) from that morning. It was almost hazy, but was still letting th warm morning sunshine through. Just hazy enough to keep the shadows at bay. The light was at my back and I was shooting straight away from it.

The pinto jumper, was actually under pretty harsh light conditions, but again, it was still somewhat to my back and shooting away from the sun. The very first with the wide angle, you can see the direction of the shadows. That was shot about 15min before the pinto jumper.

I have found with my camera, the esp metering plus giving it +.3 exposure compensation gives me perfectly exposed shots out of the camera. In the mornings I am usually shooting 400 ISO wide open on the 50-200 and the as the day progresses, it goes to F4 and ISO 100.

The wide angle shot I did use some shadow/highlight treatment on. Her face was shadowed with the helmet. It was very very little of it though.