Action photography

When photographing action -- horses, birds in flight, kids playing sports -- the first decision, always, is shutter speed. If you want sharp pictures, then you need a super fast shutter to freeze the action. The faster the subjects move, the faster your shutter needs to be. For birds in flight (except for hummingbirds), this needs to be 1/3200th of a second to freeze the tips of the wings. For horses running through water, 1/1250 to 1/1600 works well. For kids playing soccer or football, 1/1000th of a second and faster should give you the sharp pictures you want. If you want 'artistically' blurred images, then you have to do a few test shots to see what speed gives you the kinds of images you're looking for. In this picture of the white horses of the Camargue in France running through a marsh at sunset, my settings were: 1/1250, f/9, 800 ISO, and I set the camera on shutter priority. For the focus points, I used a center cluster of 15 points. I hand held the camera because with action photography, I feel a tripod, even with a gimbal head, is too inhibiting. For my upcoming photo workshop in May with the white horses, I have one slot left.