The weather held out for us for the New Marske ride and it was a great turn out.  Thank you for all your smiling faces.

              Please enjoy the short slide show below, and don't forget to check out all the photos from the ride in the equestrian ride gallery on this website.  There are also extra photos to be viewed on my Facebook page album at the following link. 

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1113392952052690.1073741928.100001459869526&type=1&l=736d6a240c

I arrived at the venue in plenty of time, and was able to stop off at the road crossing near the crematorium and take a look around for possible photo positions.  Having photographed a venue a couple of times I am always looking to find different areas of a route to use.

I used the car this time so that I could capture most of the riders on the first section, then after a couple of hours drove up to the hill car park to photograph the longer distance group.

  Last year I picked out a field that the riders would pass through, and thought it would be a great location.  The light was in the right location, there was large trees and a great dry stone wall to use as a back drop, everything looked perfect.  I noticed the cows in the far end of the field and didn't give them a second thought.  However, the cows did give me a second thought and came over for a very close and personal introduction.

I didn't mind the cows and stood my ground and waited for the riders to come through, and when the first ones came, the cows moved closer to the gate.  The riders dismounted and walked their horses past the cows and down the hill and my perfect shot was lost.

This year there were no cows, so tried for this again but when I had the time to walk around the site it just did not work as I had hoped, so I walked on further and explored the rest of the route and grab a view of the sea.  Always an uplifting sight.  I discovered that the best position is the one used the previous year so gravitated back there and was pleased to capture a few shots with Roseberry Topping in the background.

  One of the things I try to do when a rider approaches is to read them, sometimes they are in the zone, concentrating and just ride past.  These can be great images, as I like to capture the horse and rider enjoying the their time together be it pleasure or competitive.  If I can, I try to isolate riders so that I can at least offer a photo of themselves but the larger the group, the harder this becomes. 

However, I really like the group shots also, as this shows the very social side of the EGB group rides that may sometimes get overlooked by seeing row after row of single riders.  In between riders there can be some lengthy spells so this allows me time to observe my surrounding and relax a little before I get home to a couple of hours on the laptop.

Thank you for your time, and
 

hope to see you at a ride soon.