Cross Country with K3

I took this at a local cross country event - first real chance to do action shots. The light was very changeable all day - it went quickly from very bright to very overcast. I was keen to try out action shots for sharpness and I think the jumping shot were probably a bit over-exposed. (I couldn't get everything right !!!)
These are all virtually straight from the camera, with just a tweek of the levels. There came a point later in the afternoon where I had to stop due to low light.

Earlier tests showed the DA 55-300 doesn't like low light and speed - the shots were far too grainy at anything over 800 ISO. So for the early morning shots (dressage) I used the Vivitar 100mm macro which naturally coped far better in low light.

I used Tav with a wide open aperture. The speed of response to AF was excellent.

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Lovely shots. I only dislike the last one, the "one horse power Audi" one. All others are really lovely. The "c" one is so amusing to me - both the raider and the horse do the landing with their eyes closed Glad to see K-3 being so reliable and enjoyable

Thank you, Dariusz ! It's surprising what you can catch on camera - what particularly surprised me was how the horses land so heavily, particularly on a downhill jump, that they are actually landing on their 'heels' as well as their hooves. It must put one heck of a strain on them. I was also surprised to see just how many horses closed their eyes, particularly when going through water.

The last one was one I deliberately cropped fairly closely to see how sharp the image stayed. This was nearly 50%.

Very nice