A Day at the Races

[Magslad]

Had a day out at Royal Ascot a week and a half ago - had been meaning to post some pics from it but haven't had the time until now. Here's a selection from the day - all taken on the D50 with 18-200mm VR lens. Not much post-processing: a few crops, and a little colour correction or unsharp mask on a couple of the pictures.

Any comments/critiques welcome as always.



First up, our friends' daughter at the pre-race picnic.

Next a couple of the new grandstand - has a bit of a 'love it or hate it' effect on people, personally I love it.

One of the on-course bookies (now slightly wealthier thanks to my selections!)

The band getting ready to play in the royal party

"Good afternoon my loyal subjects"

A few pre-race nerves in the parade ring?

Heading off down to the starting stalls

And they're off (well, most of them - usually apart from my horse which was generally a couple of furlongs back by this point. Definitely need to find a way of betting on which horse will come last in each race - then I'll be quids in!)

Cheers
Dave.

[PeaJay]

I like the last two...
the ones with the races horses, erm racing ...
they have captured the movement and speed well.
the second to last being my favourite!

I like the grandstand too (so, not in the hate it camp)
excellent pics

[Bristol Pete]

Great stuff Magslad. Out of interest, what speed did you shoot the moving horses at. Perfectly still but still moving. Nice work, really impressed.

Pete.

[Magslad]

what speed did you shoot the moving horses at

I will check for certain when I get home tonight, but it was about 1/50 sec, on shutter priority mode.

Thanks for the comments.

[tontoshorse]

Great pics.
Looks like a top notch lens too!

[Jazz Monkey Jr]

Agree with the other comments, some great shots, really sharp and colourful, looks like a great lens.

[asidmax]

ohhhh wow!!!

deffo need that lens now... really nice detail.. the horse pics are amazing..

cheers

[Hrochnick]

The horse pics are cool. pity you're just a couple of weeks too late for the 'movement' photo comp - I might well have voted for one of those. Very nice.

[Magslad]

Thanks for the kind comments - very pleased with this lens, IMHO definitely worth the money for the combination of picture quality and the VR, would highly recommend it to anyone

Pete, have now had a chance to look at the exif data, so in answer to your earlier question the first of the two racing shots was at 1/30s, the second was at 1/60s. The one of the horse heading off to the starting stalls was at 1/80s. All were on shutter priority mode.

[Magslad]

pity you're just a couple of weeks too late for the 'movement' photo comp

Yep, especially annoying as the photos were actually taken within the timeframe for the comp, but by the time I had got round to transferring them all and doing the post-processing I had missed the close date

[Pirate!!]

Originally Posted by Magslad

Had a day out at Royal Ascot a week and a half ago - had been meaning to post some pics from it but haven't had the time until now. Here's a selection from the day - all taken on the D50 with 18-200mm VR lens. Not much post-processing: a few crops, and a little colour correction or unsharp mask on a couple of the pictures.

Any comments/critiques welcome as always.



First up, our friends' daughter at the pre-race picnic.

Next a couple of the new grandstand - has a bit of a 'love it or hate it' effect on people, personally I love it.

One of the on-course bookies (now slightly wealthier thanks to my selections!)

The band getting ready to play in the royal party

"Good afternoon my loyal subjects"

A few pre-race nerves in the parade ring?

Heading off down to the starting stalls

And they're off (well, most of them - usually apart from my horse which was generally a couple of furlongs back by this point. Definitely need to find a way of betting on which horse will come last in each race - then I'll be quids in!)

Cheers
Dave.

The baby pic (#1) is a corker! Mind you, they all are. Her Madge and Phillipe look well don't they!