Sunday past saw me take a brief hiatus from Dermot's challenge and spend the day in Moira at the National Countrysports Fair along with some friends and family.

Now, as well as not annoying the people I was with, I wanted to try and approach the photographs I was taking armed with the things I was learning from Dermot's challenge.

The problem with this (the challenge, not the people - they were patient and friendly and didn't complain when I kept taking their picture), was that things moved too fast to allow me to spend time setting stuff up. As a result I ended up drifting back into my Av or Tv modes. And to be honest, it was mostly Tv as I was using that Tamron 55-200 I got with the camera originally and I know I've fallen foul of having too slow a shutter speed in the past.

I shouldn't have worried about the shutter speed. It was a glorious day.

I'll post some of the shots I took over the next while, but for now here's some knights - old and new(ish)

Old Knights

(f/10, 1/200sec, 68mm, ISO-200, 01/06/2008)

I wanted to try and catch the movement of the horses, but think it would have been better if I'd managed to include the hooves in shot. I sharpened this a little as well to try and make the Knight cleaner.

New Knights

(f/11, 1/500sec, 200mm, ISO-200, 01/06/2008)

I'm happier with this one. Given the speeds involved, I think the planes came out quite well. They've been tweaked a little, but nothing serious.

Hopefully they both give an impression of speed.

One of the biggest problems with these events is the crowd. My gut says the Knight would have been a lot better if I'd managed to blur out the crowd or get the shot without them altogether.