[Tobers]

For some reason I've developed a desire to photograph race horses. And blimey, did I get the opportunity today.

Epsom Downs is fairly nearby, and every morning the local stables take their horses out for a major gallop along the appropriately named "Gallops" alongside the racecourse. I'd agreed to meet up with mpritch at 08:00 on the top of the Downs to see what we could get. For this trip I was tooled up with my 1D with 70-200 and my as yet unsold 30D with the 24-105 on it. I'd left the Speedlight at home as apparently horses go mental if you flash them .

Unfortunately, the early morning light was totally rubbish. Very overcast and gloomy. We were struggling to get 100th of a sec at ISO 3200! Must get 70-200 f2.8 instead of the f4! Before I go on, all the decent shots from today are on my new Smugmug sport gallery, and a small subset are on Flickr.

We had quite a few horses go by but were stuggling to get anything sensible in the first hour. I was shooting in manual all the time by the way. This was to ensure I could hold the ISO, shutter and aperture just where I wanted it to be rather than letting the camera doodle about. The following are all 1Dmk3 with 70-200 F4L non-IS.

#1 this is at 100th f4 ISO3200 and a fairly major crop. Loving the 1D ISO clarity though!

#2 Trying to understand panning & framing ISO2500 f4 1/100th.

#3 Warden's dog. The warden chap was very helpful. He told us when horses were coming up, how many, where the nearest bacon sandwich place was etc. His dog was very cute.

#4 This chap Craig (a South African, good job Gordon wasn't there) stopped for a chat. He is head "lad" at one of the stables and he was on a truly mental horse. Talk about highly strung!! I went to get my 30D out of my bag and the horse just about bolted. I'd moved to a slightly smaller aperture by now as I wasn't getting enough depth of field, and it had brightened up a bit. Chuffing cold & windy though. 1/500th f6.3 ISO 2000.

#5 Craig again

#6 We moved over to the other side of the woods where there is an open Gallop with no rails. It was a bit lighter still, and this guy came hurtling along at monster pace. I was well chuffed with the autofocus performance on the 1D all day. I panned & zoomed this guy and every shot was pin sharp at 10fps as were pretty much all the others from the whole day except where I'd forgotten to mash my thumb onto the AF-ON button. 1/400th f6.3 ISO 2000

#7 Again

I'd decided to spend the afternoon at Lingfield Park race course down near Gatwick airport. There was a flat race meeting on so I reckoned there would be a few good opportunities to get close to the action. Additionally, I decided to put my blagging skills to the test to see if I could get an official photographer's pass.

A quick drive later and I was paying £15 entry fee and heading for the office of the Clerk of the Course.

More in a tick after I've given Mrs Tobers a lift to her pal's....

[tontoshorse]

Hurry up!

BTW #7 up to now.

[Tobers]

Things learned so far...

- race horses go extremely fast, bob up and down and are tricky to hold in frame
- using the widest aperture will focus on the horse's head but the jockey will be blurred & vice versa
- top from mpritch - for head-on shots dont forus on the horse's nose as you'll lose half your usable DOF in front of the horse. Try and focus on something a bit further back e.g. its chest or the jockey's head.
- 1/400th is probably the minimum shutter speed to get close to freezing the action
- crummy overcast early mornings are bad for taking action shots

By the way, I was shooting large JPEGs on the 1D to get more shots onto my 2G card.

Onto Lingfield Park. I was really keen on getting a shot of the horses as they leave the starting gates (called "stalls" I was soon to learn). This would necessitate getting right next to the gate i.e. being on the infield next to the starter. I went along to the office of the Clerk of the Course and using techniques too secret to divulge, exited said office with an official "PHOTOGRAPHER" armband and free reign to go wherever I wanted as long as I didn't spook any horses or get trampled to death. I have to say that having 2 proper cameras with big lenses hung round your neck helps the whole process no end.

#8 Pass for the course (this with the 30D)

#9 Over the track to the infield I went, and up to the start gate where a bunch of guys were getting everything ready. These are the people who shove the horses into the stalls, and they are if anything more mental than the horses. Firstly, here's the stalls which are moved onto the track using a land rover/ 1/160th f6.3 ISO 640.

#10 The big red button that starts the race.

#11 Getting the darned things in. These guys were very chatty. Amazing when you have "official" status - you become one of the workers rather than a punter and everyone was extremely nice to me. 1/320th f5 ISO 640.

#12 "Bang!!!" the gates open and the horses literally explode out of the stalls. This is the shot I wanted. Here I'd set the aperture to f7.1 to get some decent depth of field, and the shutter was at 1/200th to get some movement in their feet. ISO 640.

#13 1/10th of a second later. I think the guy on the light brown horse on the left was in for a rough ride!!

#14 Here's another start. A bit closer in this time and with a wider aperture at f4.0. Note the shallower depth of field - the near and far horses aren't quite in focus. I love the face of the guy on the right in the yellow hat. "Yeehaaa!!". My fave of the day I think. 1/800th ISO 640.

#15 After watching 3 starts and frankly freezing my nuts off, I went round to the finish line to see the 4th race. Note that before each bout of shooting I'd re-check all my settings and re-meter to make sure I was exposing correctly. Here's one of the riders warming up. In fact my race card says it is Zafonical Storm from the USA ridden by Nicky Mackay. 1/320th at f6.3 ISO 1250.

#16 Crowd

#17 The winner - Vortex ridden by George Baker. They go f-fast as they cross the finish line. This is at 1/250th f6.3 ISO 1250. It's about the 20th shot in a sequence as they ran in. I was balancing some decent DOF with a decent shutter speed, against noise from the ISO level. It seems that I can probably go much higher on ISO on the 1D without major quality issues which will be really useful to remember for the future.

#18 George Baker & Vortex in the winnder's enclosure. Yes, they let me in with the other 3 or 4 togs that were there. Just breezed in. Nice! I alternated between my 1D and 30D whilst in here as the 30D had the wider angle lens on it. This is with the 1D. 1/200th f4.5 ISO 1250.

#19 Aftermath (with 30D).

What a superb day. Now I'm known to their PR people I think I'll try this again. It's an amazing spectacle I can assure you. Capturing the force and power of thoroughbred racehorses is tricky but very satisfying if/when you get it right.

I'll do Epsom Downs again as well, but on a sunnier day. I think some good light would give stunning shots at both the Downs and on the race course itself.

Cheers!!!

Tobers

[danrich1]

Excellent tobers!!

i love racing and would love to do something like this.

some excellent shots, you should contact the owners of Vortex to see if they want to buy that head shot off you.

[Tobers]

Originally Posted by danrich1

you should contact the owners of Vortex to see if they want to buy that head shot off you.

Done

[dfrear]

Wow, that pretty much sums it up! I own three horses myself (not race horses mind you) so this was of great interest to me. I thought the first set was good, but the second set really blew me away - the photographers pass was well deserved.

[belfastblitz]

Your new kit has certainly given you a reason to get out!!!

Lets see if yu can blag into Buck Palace next!!!!


Then you can be by royal appointment

[Holowlegs]

Hi ya

Great set of shots Tober



This is not as easy as it looks, have been twice myslef this year once Newmarket and then Newbury. Both rainy days. Only just starting to PP the Newmarket ones now, and the results are not brilliant.

Epsom downs looks an interesting place to go, have to think about that one next year.

This is my only real keeper from Newmarket so far.

# Aperture: f/5.6 # Exposure:1/640 # ISO Speed: 200 Focal Length: 149 mm

Hope you don't mind me posting this here, done with slightly different kit than yours 400D and Sigma 70 - 300mm


Cheers Holo

[vulkan75]

Nice Job.Iso performance looks excellent/

I like #2
#13
#15
#17

Great

[mpritch]

Hey Tobers,

OMG ! Well done mate.....I'm more than impressed. Bet it made getting up early worthwhile. After I left, I was thinking it was going to pee down, but saw the breaks in the sky and it looks like it held for you and got alot brighter.

What magazine did you say you were from - the cuban edition of horse and hound, or equestrian tomorrow (L.A), or Filly and Mare (Shanghai ) ?

I'd keep the contact going and get some shots sold.... you may be able to afford that 300 2.8 sooner than you think.

If I'm brave, I post a couple of shots from this morning later, but as you know the lack of light was really hurting me. But I was on cloud nine even with some duff shots - just doing something different and learning how things work in horse world was a joy - stinger #1, stringer #2, where the trainers park etc etc....

It'll be fun to do again on a sunnier morning,

Mark.

..... still can't believe you got a press pass.......

[Tobers]

Ha ha ha! Ye of little faith. Obviously I cant reveal my methods .

Come on, get some pics up...

[Gordon @ Convergent AV]

Sorry for being late to this party....other stuff in life intruded today...

Looks like you had a laugh...I'm jealous..In pic number 18 was the guy really that blue? Looks like the white balance is wrong to me. Like 14 as well...the first thing I noticed was that guys mouth too. You have really captured how toned these animals are. The other thing you captured, which I love, is how much the folk involved in this industry seem to enjoy it. Smiley faces all round. It's quite uplifting!

Good man!

[mpritch]

Decided I better post some images of this mornings visit with Tobers to the downs in Epsom. As we said earlier we were fighting for the light - on some images I hit ISO 3200, widest aperture poss, and could only acheive 1/50th sec. As the horses travel at some speed, it's nigh on impossible to get pin sharp panning shots. Guess we'll go back again......

I'll only post a few even though they are similar to Tobers .....the rest can be found at

http://www.pbase.com/markpritchard/h...at_epsom_downs


#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

Any comments more than welcome,

Cheers,

Mark.

[Chancer78]

Really impressive shots there guys. Some of them are very Eadweard Muybridge

I must try and find out your "secret method" of getting a photographers status and see if it works in Carlisle.. though I think thy would be less impressed with my Canon 350D than your kit!!

But saying that, as I have recently learnt, gaining a press pass is not as hard as one may think!

[Tobers]

Originally Posted by Gordon @ Convergent AV

In pic number 18 was the guy really that blue? Looks like the white balance is wrong to me.

He did look seriously unwell actually. I guess they dont eat much, and it was v.cold as well.

[Tobers]

Mark - nice pics there. Looks like the 40D produced some really good results too.

Here's a few more pics from the day for you to browse through...

#20 getting the stalls ready

#21 flock of birds

#22 jockey

#23 I'm not going in there however much you push me

#24 bookies

That's the lot

Tobers

[bstonehouse]

Heres 3 from Goodwood - quite near you Tobers ans well worth a visit - the mosr picturesque in the country.

[M4RK1988]

Nice photos.
I was thinking of trying to get a pass for the Jim Clark Rally next year. I wonder if a headed letter to the organisers would do the trick.

mpritch, I can't believe it, we have the same name and both have photography websites

Mark Pritchard

[mpritch]

Originally Posted by M4RK1988

mpritch, I can't believe it, we have the same name and both have photography websites

Mark Pritchard

good choice of name ! could get confusing.....

[mpritch]

Looking at the shots from Tobers and I, what facinates me is the difference of colours, and how representative they are of the actual time we were on the downs. Look at these two images

Tobers, JPEG, (I assume straight from camera ?)

Mpritch, RAW, processed

Until I saw Tobers, I thought mine looked a correct representation of the day. But now mine looks way muddy, over saturated (esp the greens, wrong hue), and too contrasty.

It's been good though having someone else's images to help set a reference point in determining a better balance. My white balance looks wrong, even though I had it set for cloudy, and I think Tobers has a slight blue cast to his image.

I'll try out a few 're-develops' on mine to see where things could be done better and report back later in the week..... with any tips.

Thanks,

Mark.

[Tobers]

Mark - that's very interesting. Mine is large jpeg out of the camera which was on auto white balance. I keep meaning to get one of those grey card things to take a picture of at the start of every session, then use it to apply a WB setting to all the pics from that session in Lightroom. Must get round to doing that.

I resized my pics for the internet chopping them to max 1024 pixels on the longest side. I might do a bit of white balance fiddling to see what I get...

[Liquid101]

It's strange - I was thinknig that Tobers shots looked a little on the cold side. It's difficult to know without actually being there - The grey card idea is a good one

[senu]

To be Honest they both look highly impressive to me.
At the time I was in bed with a warm horlicks!

[Tobers]

Originally Posted by Liquid101

It's strange - I was thinknig that Tobers shots looked a little on the cold side.

It was indeed very cold . I've played about with a few different white balance settings but I'm not sure I like any of them. I'll do the grey card thing though and see what difference that makes. Now I wonder where I can get one from.

[Gordon @ Convergent AV]

I can give you a grey card thingy tobers....

[Tobers]

Woohoo

Thanks

[lutonian]

nice photos tobers

[hot-fuzz]

Originally Posted by Tobers

Woohoo

Thanks

There is one free on this months Digital Camera Mag. On the otehr side is a test card for your lens. Worth the £3.99 for the mag as it has some good tips in this month.

P.S nice set of photos boys. Like em

[sim667]

Originally Posted by Gordon @ Convergent AV

I can give you a grey card thingy tobers....

What do u reckon is the best grey card to get? I know i need a 17% one and kodak do one..... you reckon thats a goer?

[nej]

I drive past Epsom Downs on my way to and from work every day. One thing I've been meaning to do for a while is stop on the way home and get a picture of the Queen's stand. At night it's all lit up in purple, and by standing on the other side of the road I reckon you'd get a great shot of the building and some nice head/brake light trails if you expose it right.