The West Ring

Last weekend we took the hounds to an off-lead socialisation event organised by Greyhound Gap. The idea behind this is that it’s a chance for the hounds to run off-lead in a safe environment, something that not all of them are able to do very often. Though ours do get to run off-lead we like to go along for the social aspect, both human and hound. It is held in indoors in a riding school, which despite a number of skylights is quite dark. Especially when it’s completely overcast outside.

We got there early whilst the first group were having their run so I went in to take a few test shots. Even with the ISO pushed right up to 1600 and a fairly large aperture I couldn’t get a non-blurry shot. Luckily I had recently re-read about the Program (P) mode and decided to give that a whirl. What that allows you to do is set the ISO and let the camera decide on the aperture and shutter speed. So I set the ISO to 800 and began shooting.

It did feel kinda like cheating, using this mode, but I decided that getting a usable shot was more important than insisting on a level of control. Luckily part way into our session the sun began to break through.

The rest of the pictures can be seen here.

There is a follow-up thread on Gap where people have posted their pictures. When looking through that thread I was really amazed by those taken by Ali. I couldn’t see any exif so I had to badger her for details As suspected, she does have some fairly fast glass, and the ones that really caught my eye for the clarity and depth of field were taken using a fast prime lens, 100mm f/2.8. It’s certainly worth a few minutes of your time to take a look at her pictures from the event and her website as a whole.

If you’ve any tips on low light photography (other than buying fast glass!) the please let me know in the comments.