CaptainC Loc: Colorado, south of Denver

The Elizabeth (Colorado) Stampede - great small-town rodeo.

OK for those who just have to know:
Nikon D7000, 70-200 with a 1.4TC, everything at f4 and whatever shutter speed that produced, Photoshop CS6, Some Topaz stuff, some NIK stuff. Everything was shot raw.

Significant cropping in most of them.

Joe F.N. Loc: Oshawa, Ontario

This is a very nice set Cliff. It's obvious you're good at your craft. My settings on my Canon gear would have been so close to yours. I enjoyed this. You have a good 'eye' and great reactionary skills. The last image proves that.

robert palmer Loc: great barrington, ma

Great action shots. :)

tlbuljac Loc: Oklahoma

ride em cowboy...and girl too

ace-mt Loc: Montana

Wow, Captain those are really good. Thanks for always giving us something to aspire to.

tramsey Loc: Texas

I am relatively new at photography and I have to ask you a question. This will probably be on page one of your new photography book. I have all ways been told that on action shots, if I don't go manual to go shutter and set it at least at 500. But you went aperture priority at f4. F4 to me means blurred background. But look at your shoots, focus is sharp even being cropped and they have very good background. SO what am I missing?
I admire all your work and take notes on what you say. But most of the time you are talking way over my head but sometimes when I do some research I understand. But this to me is just bass ackwards.

scurveedog Loc: Petaluma California

Great pictures, I really like the second picture best, dirt flying, legs akimbo and sunglasses no less.

CaptainC Loc: Colorado, south of Denver

Tramsey - Shooting manual in this environment would have been fine, but with the metering set as center-weighted, the camera does a fine job of fine-tuning the shutter speed. It is a bright June afternoon and I want as blurred background as possible and with the 1.4TC, f/4 is as wide as I can get. So I will just let the shutter speed float to whatever it needs and I KNOW it will always be up over 1/1000 - sometimes WAY over. (The ISO was 400 - I neglected to say that.)

The reason the BG is not more blurred, is because the subjects are 50 yards or more away. The cropping makes it appear as though I was closer.

When using flash, I do use manual and an incident light meter. In tricky natural light I do the same. But this stuff is child's play. Set an aperture for the DOF you want, set the ISO to deliver the shutter speed you want, and go shoot.

tramsey Loc: Texas

And you make it sound sooo simple. OK so I'm ready to shoot. Then I think, now what did he say? But not to worry I will keep going and shooting until I can say like you do. Ohn just set the apeature here and the ISO here and let's go shoot. Ha, child' play. I know myself well enough to know that, that day is coming.

Thanks for the tip- :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

CaptainC Loc: Colorado, south of Denver

No - really - just think it through: If your subject can stand a short DOF, you want f/4, f/2.8, etc. I say "can stand it" because I would not shoot portraits that way (except for a few for special effect) but landscapes would benefit from f/8. f/11, f/16, so I would set that. Then you look at what you need for shutter. For action we need 1/500 at least and faster is usually better, so we set the aperture, take a photo or just read the meter and see what shutter we get with the aperture we said we wanted. Too low? Raise the ISO. If that means the ISO has to go to 6400, you need to evaluate if you need to go home or if you can live with 6400, or can you get away with a longer shutter duration.

Once you understand the three legs of the exposure triangle, you simply adjust each one to get what you want or compromise on the one(s) that best get you where you want to be. It is great to solve problems with ONLY THREE variables. How cool is that! When you get to studio work, you have those three PLUS each strobe/speedlight that is added.

It IS important to understand that each full f/stop is twice or half as much light. As is each doubling/halving of shutter and each doubling or halving of the ISO.

You could just as easily start with a required shutter speed. If you think you really need 1/2000, set that and set shutter priority, see what your camera delivers for an aperture. If it is metering at 1.4 and your lens is an f5.6, you need to adjust the ISO to get to f/5.6. Then it is the same decision as above: If the ISO required is going to deliver too much noise, you need to decide if you can get away with a slower shutter or if you need a more expensive lens!

This is why people who shoot AUTO don't learn much, IMO. Unless you have to make these decisions - and suffer the consequences of bad ones - what are you learning? Not a helluva lot. Those are the people who get on here with a mediocre image and ask how to improve that shot. If they thought through the three variables, they would learn/know what to do. I know I will have insulted some with that statement - tough. Photography actually requires us to think.

CaptainC Loc: Colorado, south of Denver

Here is one more I thought was decent.

To anthropomorphize the bull, look at his expression!

NZBarry

That's what you get for turning your back on a raging bull. Nice set of photos Cap'n.

Bret Loc: Dayton Ohio

Yes very nice set of shots Cliff...even the "painful" ones...man that's gotta hurt the next day.

Hankwt Loc: kingsville ontario

Gee captain all that info !! lol but just in case.... What time did you have breakfast ??

Indrajeet Singh Loc: Goa, India

Nice shots. Caught the action well.