Set goals. In photography, and in life of course, it's important to set goals. It's not enough to just say, "I want to get good pictures." Rather, you need to set the goal of getting a specific type of picture.
In this case, the goal was to get a photograph of the horse with all the hooves off the ground. Knowing that, I knew I had to:
• Use the focusing tracking mode on my camera. (Canon 5D Mark II).
• Use a shutter speed of at least 1/500th of a second.
• Make a test exposure of the scene to ensure a good exposure.
• Set the camera to rapid frame advance.
• Follow the subject in the viewfinder, leaving some space around the subject so that a hoof or the tail or the nose was not cut off.
In addition, I had to select a nice, non-distracting background. What's more, I wanted the horse and rider's complete reflection to be in the frame.
Remember: If you set goals, you'll know where you are going. If you don't, you may get lost.
Explore the light,
Rick