Kevin Bernard invited Photographic Society of Rhode Island members to shoot a polo match at the New Port International Polo Series. Newport Polo was the first polo club in the United States, established in 1876.  It has been welcoming teams from other US cities, and from around the world, for the past twenty-five years. Newport hosts exhibition matches every Saturday from June through September, creating many opportunities for a photographer to practice their craft. For this photographer it was a chance to practice a new type of photography. I had never seen a polo match before, much less shot one, and knew nothing about it. 

Kevin told us to get there about one, even though the match didn’t start until four. The first thing we did was get the best area to shoot from. Next we went to the far corner of the property, to get pictures of the grooms getting the horses ready. No one seemed to mind that we were there taking pictures. I guess it was the norm for them. The atmosphere among the people and horses was one of fun and excitement for the upcoming match.

Another reason to get there early was the before-match activities. Similar to football, half the fun is the tailgate party with the food, drinks, and fun on the field. 

PSRI has meet-ups many times throughout the year. Each one being in a different place, and a different type of photography.  Before the match started, Kevin made sure we all had the correct settings for chasing horses around the field. My Canon camera was set to Shutter Priority mode with a shutter speed of 1000. The drive mode set to high burst, AI servo, ISO to auto. Under menu – AF – Case 2 = tracking sensitivity between 0 and +, acceleration/ deceleration. tracking to 1, AF pt auto switching to 1. Some of these settings I had never used before. I was used to setting a focus point for a stationary object or one that didn’t move very fast. Keeping a galloping horse in the frame required letting the camera do the focusing, but still I had some blurry pictures. (I have no examples of blurry pictures. They are immediately deleted so no one can see that I take a blurry picture.)

At times the action happen so fast I couldn’t zoom out fast enough or far enough. All of a sudden the horse was too close for my 70 to 200mm. Then they would race to the far and of the field and I wish I had a 500mm lens.

At halftime it was the responsibility of the spectators to go out on the field and stamp down the divots. This was also a good time to get photos of  people living up the spectator’s life. This included anything from frisbee throwing to the latest suit to impress the women. People and dogs alike got to have fun on the field while the riders and horses rested and prepared for the second half. Late in the second half the sun went behind the clouds and it was getting late in the evening. We were loosing light and it was tough getting a shot that wasn’t blurry. Here a fast lens would have been helpful. After the match all the spectators lined up along the edge of the field. The riders galloped by, and slapped hands with the spectators. After the last horse went by I was sad it was over, but left knowing I could come back next year and do it again.     

  On October 23, 2016 Mark Spremulli worked with Dave Lewalski to organize the meet-up for the Photographic Society of Rhode Island at the Essex Train Station. Mark is a train enthusiast and knew this was a good day to get some images of the steam train that is only run a few times a year. We were able to spend plenty of time taking images at the station as workers readied the train for the trip. We could get images up close and personal and be awed by its size. 

[See image gallery at www.psri.us] Then Mark told us it was time to move to the next location where we could get images of a run-by. The location gave us a couple of vantage points that gave us a selection of views, and we had time to scout the different places. This was a popular meet-up and there was about twenty of us, but there was plenty of room for each of us to set up.  There was a more distant viewt that included the pond in the foreground or a closer view that was just the train and the fall foliage in the background. You had to pick your spot for today and decide to get a different view next year.   

Then we moved on to the Deep River Steam Train and Riverboat station to shoot more images of this train and a second train that was also unloading at the station.  It was a good opportunity to get two trains in the same image, but you had to work fast they didn’t stay next to each other for long.   

At Christmas time Essex does the Polar Express, another chance to take images of the train with Christmas lights. 

At the meet-up on 13 September, eight members spent about two hours shooting the different attractions including the horses and the frogs and oh yes more humming birds.

[See image gallery at www.psri.us]

Text and images provided by Leslie Jean.

Once folks got out on the rocks, they scattered in all different directions – some climbed up high on the rocks to look around and get a lay of the land:

Others chose to stay on top of the rocks

While others climbed down to be near the waters edge

Once the sun had crossed the horizon the group packed up and headed home to work on their images, and maybe, just maybe, get a little sleep. Here are a sample of 4 images created by some of the workshops participants.

 Sunrise by Bob Dansereau

 Sunrise by Donna Hughes

 Sunrise by David Lewalski

 Sunrise by Tara Ann Marshall

We’re planning a late afternoon and early evening photo shoot in Galilee. There’s a lot to see and shoot here- fishing docks, boats, harbor and beach. There’s usually a lot of activity for candid shots and street shooting also. For members who took the Lance Keimig’s night photo workshop, there are a lot of different kinds of commercial and industrial lighting around the harbor with different color temperatures.  Also, on one side of the road leading into Galilee there is a saltwater pond where people stop to dig for quahogs. On the other side is a bird sanctuary at various critters and deer.  Point Judith light house is about 5 minutes away by car.

Getting There:

1. Drive yourself and meet up in Galilee at 4:45
2. Drive to Warwick “park and ride” and then carpool.

For those who want to carpool, we’ll meet up at the commuter parking area on RT 117 in Warwick at 4:00 pm. Carpooling makes sense- we can save on gas and parking problems and have a chance to talk photo, football, flounder or fleeing to Florida on the way.

Directions to the park and ride:
From 95 south take exit 10A. This merges you onto 117 East. Continue on 117 E., passing under the Rt 95 overpass and the “park and ride” lot will be on your right  -less than ½ mile from the exit.

At 4:45 we’ll all get together in Galilee around the flagpole just across the street from the from the Block Island ferry terminal.

Here’s a link to the SunCalc.  It works like TPE but you can drag teh bar at the top to see the sun’s position at anytime during the day.  I set it for Saturday the 22nd at Galilee.

https://www.suncalc.net/#/41.379,-71.5103,16/2012.09.22/16:30

Hope to see you there. Let’s start shooting.
David Lewalski
Field Trip Chairperson