Olympia 2014 Review: What a show!

Hi all,

As you all may know I went to cover The London International Horse Show Olympia at Earls Court as I do every year and I must say I was not disappointed! So what went on, what equipment did I use and what were my thoughts, well let me tell you.

The first day I covered (Wednesday) saw the tops riders in the world of dressage compete head to head to try and gain top position in the Reem Acra FEI World Cup competition. This day held the freestyle or Kur as it's also know saw some fantastic choreography and very well matched music but it was none other
than our Olympic Golden Girl Charlotte Dujardin and wonder horse Valegro that got top spot with a world record breaking score of 94.300%, and what a fantastic performance it was!.

Charlotte Dujardin & Valegro

Charlotte and Valrgro in Prize giving.

We also saw a great Puissance held on the Thursday which saw. Last year's winner Lusa Moneta have the wall down in the third round and it was left up to Karline De Brabander Riding her lovely horse Fantomas de Muze and David Simpson Riding Richi Rich in the last round to figure out a winner and it was David Simpson that took first place with Karline having a bit of the wall down in her last attempt.

Karline De Brabander Riding  Fantomas de Muze

David Simpson Riding Richi Rich

So now let's talk about gear and photo!,Olympia is a great venue and give the photographers a lot of freedom to shoot with both short sides of the area open to shoot from and photography sets provided from one long side you can take a lot of shots from every angle.

However I only shot from the press seats once on the Wednesday where I used my Nikon D800 with the 200mm F2 lens, this is one on my favorite combinations to use and at Olympia where the show is inside under stage lighting the lens let's in a lot of light  and produces a fantastic image which is great as I am still a bit old school and try never to go over 3200 ISO on my cameras as due to there high megapixel noise is more noticeable than on a sport range camera such as the Nikon D4S. As well as using the 200mm during the whole event I also used another D800 with Nikon's 50mm AF-S F1.4G lens with a wireless trigger system to use as a remote and I managed to get a different image of the puissance wall then the standard straight  on shot.

Wide angle remote shot of Jean Christophe De Grande Riding Boccacio Ec

What may come as a surprise to some is my next choice of lens which I used on the final day of my time at Olympia which was my Nikon 600mm F4, yes a 600 inside! But the results are stunning. I did think it might not work but I am always trying to get different images from different angles and not having that same image as the next 20 photographers and it worked very well, even being able to get 8 fences in one class from my elevated position compared to the normal 2-3 fences.

Elevated Office View with the 600mm F4

600mm shot of Scott Brash Riding Hello Sunshine

Before I sign out for 2014 I must say how well the new Olympia press office was, with separate working areas for photographers and journalists and a fantastic new space purely for press conferences, I take my hat off to H Power for listening to what photographers and journalists wanted and providing outstanding facilities.

This has been my time at The London International Horse Show Olympia, my I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Sebastian Oakley
www.sebastianoakley.co.uk
askseb@sebastianoakley.co.uk