You will no doubt be delighted to know that this last weekend saw the final tournament of the polo season; less delighted to know that I have a load of photos to process so there is still a risk I could drop some on here for your delight; or otherwise.
Due to circumstances entirely beyond my control, Saturday’s games started late and finished in almost total darkness. Complete idiot that I am, I kept on shooting. Normally I use 1/640th second for head-on shots, 1/400th or 1/320th for sideways panning shots; and I will sometimes go down to 1/200th for some extra-blurry loveliness, although the failure rate is fairly high. A 300mm lens does not really enjoy being used at such low speeds on a moving target.
But as the time headed towards 1830 and dusk arrived, I had little choice but to drop the shutter speed even further. At 18:28 I was forced to use 1/60th second and a high ISO. Most shots were a mess; but the occasional one worked quite well.
By 18:31 it was almost completely dark and I was down to 1/30th second, not a speed to capture anything moving, especially with a sodding long lens. This is as close as I got to a useable photo:
Have to give a nod to the Canon 1D which continued to lock focus quickly and accurately, even though it was hard to see what it was focusing on. Respect.