Horse Races

With the Kentucky Derby running yesterday & an add on this forum for race track shooters, it got me inspired to head out to the local track & take some shots.

My wife & 12 y/o daughter joined me & we had a ball. Even came home with more money than when we got there. Anyway, if your ever looking for a day out, & a place to try some action shots, give it a go. We'll be back. Here are just a select few that I was happy with. No pp, just out of camera. It was a very high % of keepers today. Enjoy!!

Mark

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a few more

and a few more

over 60 looks & no comments. I didn't think they were half bad

What the heck do I know. Feel free to rip them apart.

Mark

great job. I posted a night harness racing shot today. I cant use a flash, and the lighting is not too good at Yonkers Raceway. Day racing makes for great pics

Awesome shots with fantastic detail. Love the shots with all feet off the ground, with 1 & 4-6 being my favorites. I'd love to see #1 with a tighter crop, cropping out some of the dead space to the right, and bringing the horses more to the fore.

i like them.. the one with all four legs off the ground.. nice capture...

phamster

Thank you for all the kind words. I had thought the turned out rather decent myself but was second guessing them when there was no comment.

Guess I should have asked for CC in my first post


Apollo, here's a tighter crop on that pic.

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I like them, I would like to see a little less detail on the background myself though. Wider aperture or a little panning blur? I am not familiar with equestrian photography.

Awesome crop, just add a little more lead-in front of the lead horse. This picture now shows SPEED!

Sorry, but in the "Share" areas IMAGE POSTING RULES only allow 2 attachments by the OP per thread. (Maximum 1024 pixels on any side.) You can always just post a link to them, though, or better yet, post a link to a gallery so we don't have to click on each image.
Some exceptions are "Show Me...", "Post your best...", Tutorials, etc.

sevans16 wrote in post #5467544
I like them, I would like to see a little less detail on the background myself though. Wider aperture or a little panning blur? I am
not familiar with equestrian photography.

I was panning but I think my shutter speed was just too high to blur. It was pretty bright out. Next time I'll crank down the iso all the way & try for some background blur.

Apollo11 wrote in post #5467866
Awesome crop, just add a little more lead-in front of the lead horse. This picture now shows SPEED!

Yes, I like it, good call.

PhotosGuy wrote in post #5467918
Sorry, but in the "Share" areas IMAGE POSTING RULES only allow 2 attachments by the OP per thread. (Maximum 1024 pixels on any side.) You can always just post a link to them, though, or better yet, post a link to a gallery so we don't have to click on each image.
Some exceptions are "Show Me...", "Post your best...", Tutorials, etc.

Sorry for the extra pics. I thought it was 2 pics per post, not per thread.

My apologies,

Mark

Nice series of shots. I agree with others that you should try to shoot fully open and lower your ISO for better background blur.

Also try some panning at slower shutter speeds for some nice effects. Panning usually works really well for horse racing. Try a setting around 1/60-1/125 and adjust accordingly for the desired effect. You want the rider and horses body in focus with the blurry legs. You can decrease your aperture a bit when you pan (which you probably have to do anyway to avoid overexposure) so you get some margin of error when focusing.

I personally don't like the last crop at all. It's too tight IMHO and the image looks much better with some space in front of the horse.

I like this crop better, hope you don't mind.

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Very nicely done. You captured the action well. Particularly like that second shot. That tongue sticking out the side of the horse's mouth is priceless!

Bollan, it was a bright sunny day & I think my iso was around 250, shooting in av mode @ 7.1 & I was getting shutter speeds @ around 1k.

My first atttempt at race horse's. Next time I'll play around some more with the settings, see what I can come up with.

I checked out your gallery, very nice. I shoot all of my daughters schooling shows. Plays hell on a sunny day with the shadows from the helmets.
I shoot all the girls at our farm. Love doing it & the parents are always happy with the results. It's almost to the point where they stop taking pics with their p/s & just wait for me to post mine in my zenfolio.

CanadianKitKat wrote in post #5470373
Very nicely done. You captured the action well. Particularly like that second shot. That tongue sticking out the side of the horse's mouth is priceless!

Yeah, got lucky on that one...............

Mark