Horse Racing Photography

Transcription

1 Horse Racing Photography - How to take spectacular racing action shots Practical tips and advice for the serious amateur (The content of this article is copyright Neil Murray, May 2007) INDEX Introduction 2 Equipment 2 Preparation 4 -At Home -On Track Position 5 -Access -Background -Lighting Depth of Field 7 Type of Shot 8 Stopping the Action 10 A Sense of Motion 10 Panning Technique 11 Focussing 12 Exposure 13 Camera Settings for Racing Action 13 Good Racing Photographs 13 In Conclusion 14 Photos used to illustrate this article can be viewed at larger size and better quality on 1

2 INTRODUCTION The observations and guidance in this article spring from four years of concentrated horse racing photography. Over the past four years, I ve been to the track at least once, and often two or three times a week mostly at tracks in my home state of Victoria, Australia, but also at tracks in Hong Kong, California and Scotland. Apart from a lighter bank balance, the result of all this race-going has been thousands of photographs. Of course, not all of them were good. Those that I thought were my better efforts I submitted to the scrutiny and judgement of other photographers. I did this through the critique forums of internet photography sites such as Photo.net, ephotozine and Photopoints. The feedback and ratings on my own and on other photographers racing photos helped me understand what others consider to be good horse racing photos. Hence, much of the advice in this article has been corroborated, to an extent, by the opinions and judgements of other photographers from around the world. In presenting what follows I ve assumed that readers will have a good understanding of basic photographic principles and terminology. Because I now shoot digital exclusively, much of the commentary centres on this mode of photography. But the principles apply equally to film. I hope that readers will find what follows to be interesting and of practical help in taking their own action shots in the exciting and colourful sport of horse racing. EQUIPMENT Equipment is a compromise between what you would like to use and what you can afford. You can take good photos with a basic SLR and a relatively inexpensive lens. But if you want versatility and high image quality, go for the best equipment that your hip pocket can stand. I started shooting racing with a Nikon 90X film camera fitted with a mm f zoom lens. This combination served my needs at the time and produced some good photos. I now use a Canon 1D MkIIN. At present, the MkIIN is the top Canon camera for sports photography. It has this status for a number of reasons; the two most beneficial for horse racing being its ability to take a long sequence of shots at rapid speed, and its ability to track the focus accurately on moving subjects. You don t need a MKIIN to take good racing photos, but you do need a camera capable of fast shutter speeds to stop the action, and a camera with an autofocus system capable of tracking a fast moving subject. Your chances of getting good photos increase if the camera can also take a rapid burst of shots. Fortunately, modern SLRs meet all three of these needs. 2

3 I can t recommend specific cameras as my experience with racing photography is limited to the Nikon 90X, the Canon 20D and the Canon 1D MKIIN. In all probability you have photographic interests other than horse racing; and you need to consider these in choosing a camera. There are plenty of reviews on the web to help evaluate the options. I find Fred Miranda s review site fredmiranda.com particularly helpful. You ll need a good zoom lens for the focal length versatility that is essential for track photography. An effective focal length range of 70mm to 300mm will cover most racing requirements. If you can afford it, get an f2.8, or at least an f4 to cope with low light and to give a shallow depth of field when required. Lenses with image stabilisation are more expensive. If you take a lot of still subjects in low light, image stabilisation can be very beneficial. Their only benefit for racing action is to help stabilise horizontal motion when panning at slow shutter speeds. The first digital system I purchased for racing was a Canon 20D with a Canon mm f L IS lens. This proved a very versatile combination. With the 20D s cropping factor of 1.6 it gave an effective focal length range of 160mm 620mm. But over time I found that I needed something less than the minimum 160mm; mainly to get the compositions right when taking shots close up from the running rail. So my next investment was the Canon f2.8 L lens. This lens works beautifully at the track. Nine out of ten of my photos are taken with the mm. On the MKIIN, with a cropping factor of 1.3, the lens gives an effective focal range of 91mm-260mm. This gets plenty of angled or side on shots from the rail at most tracks. A long telephoto is handy for home turn, acute angle and head on shots from the fence, and for long shots from the stands. It would be wonderful to be able to afford a 500mm or 600mm f4 prime lens such as some press photographers use. I settled for the cheaper 400mm f5.6 L. My decision was influenced by my interest in bird photography where this lens on its own, or with a 1.4 extender, produces excellent results. Good Ba Ba winning the 2008 Hong Kong Mile in course record time 3

4 PREPARATION: At Home To increase the chances of getting that perfect shot, it pays to prepare. Start with your equipment. Decide what camera and lens/lenses to take to the track. Keep it simple, you don t want to be lugging a bag full of equipment around the track all day. I use a small shoulder bag that just takes the camera with either a mm f2.8 or mm f L attached. If I am going to use my 400mm f5.6 L as well, I ll sling it over my other shoulder in its carry bag. Clean your filters, lenses and camera sensor if necessary; check battery charge and have a charged spare. Make sure you have enough memory cards, free of images and formatted; or enough film. If it looks like rain, take a plastic bag or suitable cloth to protect camera and lens. At the Track Arrive early on track, particularly if you haven t been there before. Check the best locations for photography and where you can and can t go. Walk around the facilities, and up and down the home straight. Look for the best positions for angle, background and unobstructed view. If the sun is out, check its position and determine how it will throw shadows and produce contrast as it moves across the sky during the day. Assessing the track in this way, and doing a bit of planning can make your day s shooting go that bit smoother. Early morning trackwork at Santa Anita racecourse, California 4

5 CHOOSING A POSITION Access The first consideration is where to position yourself. Unless you ve got some sort of accreditation or press pass, your access will be limited to the public areas of the track. Press photographers have access to the parade ring/mounting yard and usually to a fenced off area along the running rail opposite the winning post. They need to be near the winning post to get usable photos of winners for their publishers. The serious amateur has no such obligation and can capture the action anywhere from the home turn to somewhere past the winning post. Not all the exciting action takes place at the winning post. I rarely take winning post shots, preferring instead to get further back along the straight where the backgrounds are less distracting in the final image. Depending on the length of the straight, the rails are accessible at most tracks for two to four furlongs back from the winning post to the home turn. From the rail, you can get excellent results with a lens in the focal range mm. An alternative is to shoot from higher ground or from the stand with a longer telephoto lens somewhere in the range 400mm to 600mm. And at some tracks you can get dramatic head-on or acute-angle shots from a position twenty yards or so past the winning post. Most days you will want to vary your position according to the type of race or style of photograph you want. Other days you might like to do all your photography from the one spot, either to hone a particular skill, or in the hope of getting that perfect shot. Always respect any restrictions or safety rules imposed by the racing club. Never encroach on the track or do anything to spook a horse or jeopardise the safety of horse, rider or member of the public. Be as unobtrusive as possible. On crowded days it can test your patience when someone barges in front of you and blocks your view. Remember that the punter has just as much right to a good spot as the photographer. With practice, you can become adept at shooting between heads or stretching up or sideways to get a shot, or simply shifting position. I ve managed to get a couple of good steeple and hurdle shots by shooting between the heads of the press photographers at the last jump in the straight at Flemington. If you get blocked, well, it s no disaster. There ll be plenty more opportunities. It pays to be relaxed, tolerant and courteous. Part of Hong Kong s Sha Tin straight Part of California s Santa Anita straight 5

6 Lighting (get the sun at your back) Cloudy bright days are best. The lighting is even and you can get good photos from almost any position. If the sun is shining, your position will determine the amount of contrast you capture on the image. On full sun days, with lots of contrasting highlights and shadows, it s much more difficult to get good results. To get decent photos you have to be aware of the sun s position in relation to you, and to the subject, and try to find a position to minimise contrast. The photographic maxim of keeping the sun behind you holds good for horse racing. But on some tracks the orientation of the home straight means that you can only get the sun behind you for part of the day s racing; or, you can t get it behind you at all. The problem is at its worst in mid- summer when the sun glares high in the sky for most of the race meeting. On days such as these there are tracks you ll need to change your shooting position throughout the day to try and cope with the contrast. There are other tracks where the track orientation makes contrast just too strong to accommodate. At such times you can experiment with slow shutter speed panning shots, backlit shots, or shots around the parade ring or the stalls. Gloomy, overcast weather poses its own set of problems. Low light may not allow fast enough shutter speeds to stop the action; in addition, the camera s auto focus capability drops off in low light, resulting in fewer sharp images. The solution is to have a fast lens, say f2.8 and to increase the ISO rating to 400 or 800. Digital cameras produce satisfactory results up to ISO800, although I prefer not to go over 400. The settings you have to balance under low light conditions are aperture, shutter speed and ISO rating. You can open the aperture to f2.8, you can raise the ISO value to 400 or 800; and you can slow the shutter speed to say 1/320sec. As long as the focal length doesn t go above about 100mm, if you pan at 1/320sec you will get acceptable sharpness, except for the legs, hands and whip where there will be pleasing motion blur. Go below this shutter speed and you risk unacceptable motion blur. In summary: - when it s cloudy bright, you ll get nice, evenly exposed photos - when it s bright and sunny, try and get the sun behind you - when it s too glary, use the adverse conditions to experiment and improve your photographic skills - when it s dull and gloomy, try one or more of the following: wider aperture, higher ISO rating, or slower shutter speed panning. Cloudy bright conditions at ShaTin HK f4.0, 1/800, ISO250 Under lights at Happy Valley Hong Kong f2.8, 1/320, ISO800 6

7 Background (shoot the gaps) Backgrounds at racetracks are full of clutter corporate signage, video screens, grandstands, light poles, flag poles, stewards towers, marquees, cars, ambulances and buildings all conspire to blemish our photos. Even when only partially in focus, background objects usually detract from, and often ruin, an otherwise good photo. There are times when you want to include the background to give context or impact to the racing action. For example, horses photographed against a cheering crowd, against the towering stands, or against the picturesque countryside at a provincial track. A classic example is Sha Tin racecourse in Hong Kong. The whole setting is spectacularly picturesque. High rise apartment blocks standing against the green hills form the distant background; and two huge, brightly lit, colourful video screens behind the running rail extend along the straight to form the near background. At Sha Tin, it s hard to avoid getting buildings and video screens behind the action. Most racing shots look better with clean, blurred backgrounds. This concentrates attention on the racing action without the presence of distracting elements. So, when going to a new track, the first thing to do is seek out the gaps in the nearer background. If you want shots that include winning post, grandstand or cheering crowd, that s fine. If you re like me, you ll choose locations where your sequence of shots covers a background free of distracting objects. More often than not, you won t get a fully clear section. Just make sure there are gaps at which you can get some clean background shots. Shooting at sharp angles or head-on can be a good way of eliminating unsightly backgrounds. Shooting from a high angle such as from the grandstand or from a low angle against the sky can also eliminate unwanted backgrounds. We can t always avoid distracting backgrounds; but we can usually soften their effect by controlling the depth of field. A deliberate inclusion of background Background vehicle mars the photo DEPTH OF FIELD (blur the background) Other than the times when an in-focus background enhances or gives impact to an image, racing photos generally look best with a blurred background. To do this we need a shallow depth of field. This isolates the action from the background for more impact. Three factors control depth of field: lens aperture, lens focal length, and camera to subject distance. A wide aperture gives a shallower depth of field. All other things being equal, f2.8 gives a shallower depth of field than f5.6. If you want blurry backgrounds use wide apertures. 7

8 The shorter the distance between subject and camera, the shallower the depth of field. So, photographing the action at close range helps to blur the background. Unfortunately, you don t have a great deal of control over this at the races. The longer the focal length of the lens, the shallower the depth of field will be. All else being equal, a lens at 400mm will have a shallower depth of field than a lens at 100mm. Many of the photos taken by press photographers with long telephoto lenses have excellent blur (or bokeh) in the background. The prime lenses they use have the double advantage of a wide aperture and a long focal length. Of the three factors affecting depth of field, lens aperture has the most influence and is easiest to control. The shallow depth of field produced by wide apertures helps to blur backgrounds, but it can also create selective focus problems. For example, when photographing two horses side by side, one might be in focus and sharp, the other out of focus and blurry. That s not always a problem since it might be just the effect you re after. But most times you want both horses in focus. A good compromise seems to be f4, provided the horses aren t too far apart. It gives enough depth of field to keep both horses in focus while maintaining acceptable blur in the background. Aperture at f3.2 blurs the background nicely TYPE OF SHOT Angle of View In choosing a position, you generally have a certain type of photo in mind. One of the first considerations is the angle of view. If you have a camera capable of fast frames per second and a long burst sequence, you can pan a useful arc from a position somewhere on the rails. Start panning from about 45 degrees on to the action through 90 degrees as the horses pass directly opposite you and exit the pan about 30 degrees past you. You can use a zoom to adjust the coverage and keep the composition tight. Maybe start at 200mm and move to 100mm as the horses pass you. This type of panned stop-action photo is the bread and butter shot of horse racing. Some of the sharpest stop action images are those taken by panning side-on to the horses as they pass your position on the rail. Again, depth of field can be a problem if you are using wide-open apertures. The outside horse may be in focus and the inside horse out of focus. Apertures of f4 or f5.6 are preferable for these shots. If you zoom right in you can get some great jockey and horse action. If you take whole horse shots you have the option of leaving them as is, or cropping in using the software. 8

9 You re less likely to get an interesting shot when the horses have swept too much past you. It s bettter to see the jockeys and the horses heads rather than their tails. Nevertheless, always finish your sequence pan with the horses well past you. You never know what might happen. Head on shots also provide spectacular images. In my experience, these are the hardest type of shot to get the focussing right. I know the fault lies with me more often than not, but AI Servo mode seems to falter more often when tracking head on action. You can vary the vertical angle of view by shooting from the stands or from a hill. I sometimes shoot from the roof of my car. At picnic meetings at my local track, Woolamai, you can park your car at the running rail; very handy for photography. At another Victorian country track, I park my car outside the course, get up on the roof and take photographs of hurdle races over the fence. I should add, I always pay and go into the course at some stage of the day. Getting a low angle of view is more difficult for the amateur photographer. Press photographers take spectacular low angle shots with remote fired cameras set up under the running rail; but this is outside the province of the amateur. You might get a low angle by crouching down or lying on the ground if you have an unobstructed view under the rail. I don t recommend this approach as you lose the freedom of movement that you have when standing and you could spook a horse. High angle Low angle Side on Composition When photographing racing action, composition of the shot depends on how the race unfolds and the arrangement of the field as it comes into your shooting zone. You have no control over what confronts you, and you will have to make quick decisions about what to focus on. If a leader clears out several lengths on the rest of the field, you may decide to photograph the leader. On the other hand, if the action by the chasers is fast and furious, you might decide to switch your focus to them. When there is a clear leader with one or more swoopers looming, things can get difficult: which horse to focus on, leader or swooper? If you commit to focussing on the leader you may find that by the time the horses are opposite you, the swooper overtakes the leader but the camera hasn t had time to refocus. You get a dud shot. There is no easy answer to this problem. Familiarity with horse racing in general and knowing the racing patterns of horses and riding styles of jockeys helps to some extent when sizing up this sort of situation. But luck plays a big part too. Home turn compositions using a telephoto lens can be very pleasing. Shoot the action headon, or at an angle as the horses sweep around the turn. The compression of the image produced by the long lens makes for dramatic and colourful photos. You can shoot at a wide 9

10 angle to include the whole field, or at a tight angle to pick out two, three or four horses and jockeys. On tracks with short straights, the home turn shot is more dramatic because the jockeys are already working on their mounts, with whips cracking and determined facial expressions. On tracks with long straights, home turn action won t be quite as good. You ll often find that the jockeys are crouching lower, with faces hidden behind the horses heads and manes. Head-on compositions look dramatic. They can be anything from single horse to whole field shots. If you want to photograph the winner head-on, from a position past the finish line, it can be very difficult to judge positions as the field moves quickly toward you; particularly so if the field splits, with runners on both sides, or spread right across the track. If the track has a video screen within view, you can glance at it and listen to the course broadcaster until the field is within 150yards or so of the finish and then compose, focus and shoot. Again, more racing knowledge and plenty of practice bring better judgement. If there s one rule of composition for taking good racing photos it is this: get in close. Press photographers understand the public s preference for close-up action, that s why they lug around those giant prime lenses. Check the racing photos in your daily paper and you will see what I mean. But you don t need long telephotos to get close in when shooting from the rails. At 200mm or 300mm you can fill the frame with just jockey and upper part of the horse as they sweep past you. If you want a more acute angle or head-on close up, then you do need a longer focal length, say 400mmm. Or, you can shoot wide with a shorter lens and crop in later on the software. Home turn action Tight angle STOPPING THE ACTION (pan at fast shutter speed) The majority of racing shots can be described as stop action. That is, freezing the motion using relatively high shutter speeds. As far as the exact shutter speeds to use, there is no hard and fast rule. If you re holding the camera still and firing the shutter when the horses hit the frame, you ll need a higher shutter speed, about 1/1000sec to freeze the action. If, instead of holding the camera still, you follow the horse s path by panning, you can use a slower shutter speed, even down to 1/320sec provided the focal length is less than 100mm. When using telephoto lenses, shutter speeds need to be faster than when using shorter lenses. That s because the longer lens magnifies any movement in the camera and lens. When there s plenty of light, setting the required high shutter speed is no problem. When light is low, however, you may have to use a slower shutter speed and accept more motion blur in the fast moving parts of the action. A SENSE OF MOTION (pan at slow shutter speed) If you set your shutter speed at 1/80 or 1/100sec., fix the focus point on a horse s saddle cloth, and pan with a steady sweep as the horse moves across in front of you, with a lot of practice and a little luck you will get a pleasing photo. A good part of the jockey and the horse s head 10

11 and body will be in sharp focus while the horse s legs and the jockey s whip hand will be blurred. The background and foreground will be a nice streaky blur. To get this effect with racing cars is difficult enough, to get it with racing horses is a whole lot more difficult. With racing cars, your pan only has to contend with movement in the horizontal plane, whereas with horses and jockeys you have movement in every direction. The pan only stops movement in the horizontal direction; movement in other directions shows up as blur. Lenses that have image stabilisation are of help for slow shutter speed pans in the horizontal direction but are of no benefit for movement in other directions. Most slow shutter speed pan shots of horse racing that I ve seen have too much blur in the horses and jockeys, with very little sharpness at all; just a blurry, out-of-focus shot. That can sometimes create a pleasing effect but to my mind it defeats the purpose of the classic slow shutter speed pan shot. You need some sharpness in the subjects to get the best look. A shutter speeds of 1/80 or 1/100 sec. Is capable of giving enough streakiness in the background and sufficient sharpness in horse and jockey. A shutter speed of 1/60sec gives great streakiness but less likelihood of satisfactory sharpness in horse and jockey. At 1/125sec you don t get enough streakiness in the background. In this type of panning the percentage of satisfying shots is low. You just have to try and try again. Every now and then devote a day, or a part day s photography to slow shutter speed pans. The results might be very rewarding. Panned at 1/100sec Panned at 1/80sec PANNING TECHNIQUE Panning is an essential technique for race action photography. The ability to fix the focus on a point and hold it as you follow the horse with a steady horizontal sweep at the same time releasing the shutter, only comes with practice. I do all my panning hand-held. This goes against recommendations for the use of a monopod. Apart from the fact that I find them a nuisance to cart around at the races, I find I lose that fluid freedom of motion that comes with handholding a lens. I am talking about zoom lenses, not the big heavy prime telephotos, which definitely need a monopod. Many people complain about the difficulty of keeping a heavy lens steady in one plane when panning hand-held. I have no trouble whatsoever with hand-holding my Canon f L IS USM; and that s no light lens. But what suits me, might not suit you, so try using a monopod and go with it if you are comfortable and get good results. Finally, do practise panning at every opportunity. On an eight event race day you only get eight opportunities to pan. However, you can get some practice in elsewhere. If you can get to 11

12 the car racing or the motorbike racing you can pan to your hearts content, all day long. And cars and bikes go much faster than horses, so it s great practice. If you re a bit unsteady and erratic with your follow focus, try practicing one handed. Focus on the running rail while holding the camera to your eye with one hand. Pan in an arc trying to keep the focus point on the running rail. You can practise a few repetitions while waiting for each race. FOCUSSING Nothing is more frustrating, than to upload a sequence of action shots only to find none are sharp; or to find the horse you thought you d focussed on is blurred but the one behind it is sharp; or to find you ve missed the horses altogether and focussed on something in the background. Fortunately, today s auto focus systems make getting sharp images much easier. But they are by no means foolproof and horse racing is one sport that shows up weaknesses in auto focus capability very quickly. Most cameras have an auto focus system for tracking moving subjects - an essential for horse racing. Higher level cameras also give you a choice of focus points from a pattern displayed in the viewfinder. You can leave it to the camera to choose the focus point, or you can select any one of the focus points in the pattern. After much experimentation on my Canon 20D and Canon 1D MkIIN, I now stick exclusively to the central focus point. Auto focus systems struggle when the focus point area isn t presented with enough colour contrast. For example, if the focus point falls on a blank area of the horse s coat, the camera may not be able to focus. This is unfortunate because much of the time in a horse race this is exactly what you end up focussed on. The problem becomes even worse in low light. If you can, aim the focus point at an area of colour contrast such as the saddlecloth. This is easier said than done. Let s face it, the racing action can be hectic; and you can t always be spot on. As often as not, I end up focussing on the horse s coat. In a sequence of shots it usually takes the camera a few frames to lock focus. Starting your sequence early will ensure focus is locked for sufficient frames. Once you ve aimed the camera s focus point on something, the task is to keep it aimed at that spot as you pan - a difficult task indeed. Selective focus on outside horse Focus on inside horse 12

13 EXPOSURE When shooting film, I used to pay much more attention to exposure than I do now with digital. With my Nikon 90X, I would operate in manual mode, take a reading off the track grass and adjust shutter speed, aperture and ISO according to the lighting conditions. Now, with digital I leave exposure largely to the camera. Both the Canon 20D and the ID MkIIN produce excellent exposures. And if you shoot in RAW you can make adjustments during conversion with the software. For stop action shots I use aperture priority mode and for slow shutter speed panning I use the shutter priority mode. I rarely use anything other than evaluative metering and apply exposure compensation for some situations such as backlighting. Working this way I ve found exposure to be the least of my worries. The camera takes good care of it, leaving me to concentrate on framing and focussing. My recommendations: -shoot RAW -use aperture priority for stop action shots -use shutter speed priority for slow shutter speed pans -use evaluative metering and leave it to your camera to set the exposure -use exposure compensation for bringing up detail in shadows or reducing highlights. CAMERA SETTINGS FOR RACING ACTION Here in summary is the sequence of camera setting decisions that I use. I ve adopted Canon terminology here. It should be readily translatable into the equivalent for other camera brands. Fixed settings: Variable settings: Metering mode Evaluative Image quality RAW Focus Mode AI Servo Shooting mode aperture priority (Av) or shutter priority (Tv) Aperture select value when in Av mode Shutter speed select value when in Tv mode ISO speed set at lowest value to give sufficient shutter speed in Av mode Exposure compensation - (+ or -) according to effect desired on shadows/highlights Drive mode high speed continuous for action, low speed or single shot for mounting yard, parading etc. GOOD RACING PHOTOGRAPHS What constitutes a good racing photograph? The first thing to appreciate is that most photographers, indeed most people at large, don t find horseracing photographs particularly interesting at all. Your favourite shots can be treated with indifference. You really have to produce something special to get anyone s attention. Some people just don t like horse racing, they find racing photos boring; and some are so used to seeing excellent racing photos in the daily papers that they have to see something exceptional to be impressed. Horse owners, trainers and racing fans, on the other hand, like looking at race photos; particularly of their own horses, or of championship races and champion horses. They tend to be more forgiving of any photographic deficiencies. 13

14 Types of photo that most often stir interest and rate well on internet photographic sites are as follows: - angled close-ups of two horse battles with intense jockey and horse action - angled close-ups of interesting jockey interactions - angled or side-on close-ups of jockey and horse - well executed slow shutter speed panned shots. Of course I am generalising here and there are always exceptions. Keep in mind that I am talking of the opinions of photographers from other genres, and members of the public who are not necessarily racing fans or horse lovers. Although we don t take photos to always please others, I don t know any photographer who doesn t want approval and recognition for his or her work. So, if you want to display your photos, it pays to be aware of what appeals. I believe the characteristics of a good racing action photograph are as follows: - close-up, with interesting movement and expression by jockey and /or horse - sharp, well exposed, clear, and colourful - uncluttered, blurred background - concentrated action, generally no more than three horses and jockeys in the frame IN CONCLUSION Don t expect to have the odd day at the races and produce plenty of spectacular shots. Chance and luck play a big part. But you can increase your chances and make your own luck by going to the races as often as possible, and to as many tracks as possible. Photograph the action from a variety of positions and angles. Shoot mainly stop action shots, but also try some slow shutter speed pans. Study racing photos in the daily papers, in racing magazines and on the web. Analyse their strengths and weaknesses. Apply what you learn to your own photography. If you want feedback and advice and you ve got a thick skin, submit your photos for critique on one of the many photographic community sites. Don t be discouraged if good shots are few and far between. If you get one or two really good photos for a day s work, be happy. If you get five or six, be delighted. As your race judgement and photographic technique improve, chances are you ll capture some spectacular photos. In any case, if you re like me and love thoroughbred horse racing, you ll have lots of fun trying. Good luck. 14