So I went to the Tejas Rodeo last night specifically to take some photos of barrel racers. I had taken one shot on a previous visit, but did not have the ability to get above ISO 3200 and it was pretty noisy. This time I was prepared to shoot up to ISO 12,800 which I thought would be helpful in the relatively low light in the arena. It is surprising how much dimmer the light is for photographs than with the eye. I needed to get shutter speed faster than 1/100 for a good action shot. I had an 85mm f1.4 lens and a 45mm f2.8 in case I was too close for the longer lens. Turns out I was in fact too close to the barrel I picked out, so I used the 45mm. I shot burst mode giving me three or four shots as the rider circled the barrel. Those came out OK so I will probably enter one in the Viewfinders challenge this month. In barrel racing the riders circle three barrels and then ride fast as possible to the other end of the arena. Total time is the measure of their performance. Most times were in the range of 15 to 17 seconds. If you dislodge a barrel, you are penalized time.
We had one contestant who had won the national championship in barrel racing. I think she is from Bandera. The photo shown here is of her sprint back down the arena. Her total time was 15.166 seconds which was the fastest time ever recorded for the Tejas Rodeo. I do not know horses, but hers was magnificent. I think she is a very good rider, but the horse deserves a lot of the credit. This photo I include to show all four hooves off the ground during the gallop. I believe that was one of the first dramatic findings when the movie camera was being developed. They found a single frame that showed all four hooves of a running horse off the ground. That had been debated prior to that time.
