Predictive Autofocus

By Jim Zuckerman

As I write this blog, I'm in France. A couple of days ago, I arranged to photograph the famous white horses of the Camargue Region. These beautiful horses have been in this area for several thousand years -- the ancient Romans knew of them -- and they are stunning to see and photograph.

The famous shot often seen is of a group of horses running through shallow water, so that's what I wanted to capture. During the summer, though, the marshes dry out and there's not much water left. When the horses run, their wonderful white hair turns muddy pretty quickly, so if you don' t a great shot in the first or second pass, no one would believe they are really white.

As they galloped toward the camera through the marshland, I set my Canon 1Ds Mark II to predictive autofocus, or AI servo. Canon lenses are known for how fast they can focus on objects moving toward the photographer, and the fact that my pictures are sharp is a testament to that. It's obviously impossible to think about composition with ten horses running and splashing because the scene changes every millisecond. The horses spread out as they run, and it's a challenge to include as many as possible for maximum impact. I shot a lot of images and the three action shots I've included here are my favorites. I also added two portraits of the horses I took as they rested.

I'm very happy with what I shot, but I'll be going back next spring to do it again, hoping for more water in the marsh and pictures that show all ten horses in one frame.

Comments

[Donna Cuic]

Jim, Awesome photos of these horses. I can see why you wanted to photograph them. Wonderful job capturing it and I love the portrait of the dark horse with the tail blowing around its head.

~Donna

[Shelley Spillenaar]

these shots are just incredible!!!

[Jeff]

Maybe one day I can capture a shot like this with lots of practice. Awesome!!!

[stacy]

Wow!!! how beautiful