Photo by #CanonExplorerOfLight @ricksammonphotography: “There is a big difference between taking a picture and making a picture. This pre-sunrise image of a horse and rider on a beach near St. Augustine, Florida is the result of the latter.
To make this image, I first envisioned the end result: the horse and rider silhouetted against the beautiful clouds in the background, along with their full reflection in the foreground.
To reach that goal, I first scanned the horizon, from far left to far right, to see where the clouds looked most colorful and most dramatic, and then chose the best location for the photograph. Then I directed the rider to ride as fast as she could through the scene, framing wide with my Canon RF24-105mm F4 L IS USM set at 24mm so as to include the subjects, sky and reflection . . . as opposed to taking a tightly-cropped shot of the main subjects.
Another goal was to get an image that showed the horse with all four hooves off the ground. Setting my Canon EOS R to the highest frame rate was the key to reaching that goal. What’s more, setting my camera to AI Servo Focus (focus tracking) helped me keep the subjects in focus as they moved through the scene.
As is often the case, the prettiest light fills the sky several minutes before the actual sunrise, when the light level is relatively low. Because I wanted a sharp shot, I set my ISO to 25000, which gave me a shutter speed of 1/320th second – fast enough to stop the action. Even at that high ISO, there is very little noise in the digital file.
Summing up, here’s an important tip: Set a goal in your photography, which, by the way, works in many aspects of your life, too.”
📸 Canon EOS R
Lens: RF24-105mm F4 L IS USM
Ciao, Nihon.