Smalltown rodeos are great for photography. Because they are smaller, you can get closer to the action more easily than at a larger rodeo. I went to a rodeo on a late August Sunday afternoon in St-Albert, a short drive outside Ottawa Ontario. This event was scheduled through the Rawhide Rodeo Company and was part of the St-Albert Curd Festival.

Although the shooting conditions looked less than ideal because it was a bit rainy.  The overcast sky actually provided good even lighting as opposed to the harsh/contrasty lighting conditions of a sunny day. Less light however means shooting at higher ISOs than on a sunny day. All photos were shot with a Canon 40D with a 100-300 5.6L lens. Most photos were shot at ISOs ranging between 400-800 in order to be able to shoot at acceptable shutter speeds for this slow lens. In order to help with stability, I used a monopod.  The monopod helps to get better panned shots as some of the included shots

In order to protect the camera and lens I made myself a protective cover using a large Ziploc bag and an elastic band. This worked well because the rain was quite light. As with any rain cover however, it works better when your lens is an internally focusing lens. In this case, the lens was not an internally focusing lens, so focusing caused the plastic bag to twist with focus which can prevent achieving the right focus…

One of the problems with shooting this type of event is getting a good backgroud. Using a fast shutter speed and freezing the action would mostly yield photos with a subject having very little definition with respect with the background.  The subject would blend in with the background.   In order to prevent having clear views of spectators as a background, I like to use a panning technique to get a relatively clear image with a blurred background.

Here are some examples.  The first three photos were shot using parallel panning where you follow the subject’s motion while using a slower shutter speed.  Because of the relatively fast speed of the running horses, a slow shutter speed in this case means 1/125 sec.

Cowgirl on the run

Cowboy on the run

For more information on panning techniques refer to my article on ‘Slow shutter panning bike race photos‘

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No flash allowed. No tripods allowed.

These two rules make it challenging to capture images within the Biodome, but certainly not impossible.

Many areas of the building receive light from the outside through glass ceilings. The birds area is a good example were you will get more available light.
The aquarium area is quite dark and does not offer much light.
Another challenge is that in many areas, including the Antartica and Arctic ecosystems, are located behind glass. When shooting through glass, you have to be aware of reflections in the glass. Try to minimize these reflections, otherwise your images will loose contrast and detail.

Suggested equipment:

- DSLR
- The fastest lens that you can get! This means preferably f2.8 or faster.
- A 70-200mm f2.8 lens would be the best lens to use. A fast lens with a good range that will allow you to get close to pretty much everything at the Biodôme. I used only my 100mm f2.8 macro lens when I was there and that was not long enough to capture a pair of Lynx that would stay far from the visitors.

Shooting Tips:

- Set you camera ISO at 400 or above. Use the highest ISO that you can with a noise level that you can live with. With many of today’s last generation digital cameras you can easily set you ISO at 800 or above without being too concerned about noise.

- Set your camera to RAW file format in order to get more flexibility in setting the photo’s white balance in post-processing. You are dealing with mixed lighting sources which will make it problematic to select an appropriate white balance setting if you select JPG file format.

- When shooting through glass at the penguin display, it’s best to shoot directly against the glass. If your entire lens is resting against the glass that should basically eliminate reflections from the glass.

- Using a polarizing filter would also be useful in removing glass reflections if you want to step back from the glass, however because there isn’t much light available, you probably don’t want to loose precious f-stops of light by using the polarizing filter. So unless it is your intent to capture the visitor reflections in the glass, get close to the glass.

- In cases where you have to set your lens at an angle to the glass, you can reduce reflections by setting the lens against the glass and using your hand to act as a lens hood to prevent reflections from showing up in your camera’s field of view.

- The Biodome is divided into five different ecosystem: Tropical Forest,Laurentian Forest,St. Lawrence Marine ecosystem,Arctic,Antarctica. Please note that the Tropical Forest has a very high level of humidity. You might want to place your camera in a plastic bag before entering this area and wait a few minutes for the camera to warm up before you take it out and start shooting. This will also reduce the chance of condensation buildup in your camera which could be problematic.

Here are a few sample images from my visit to the Biodome:

King Penguin at Montreal Biodome - ISO 800, 1/160, f4.0, 100mm Canon macro lens. Shot through glass