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#finish #finishline #horseracing #jockey #photography #photojournalism #quarterhorse #race #racehorse #win #quarterhorseracing #closerace
Published: 2014-11-26 17:07:35 +0000 UTC; Views: 2537; Favourites: 139; Downloads: 0
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Description
Had to crouch down low under the rail at the finish line for this shot to work, but not so low that I was looking up. I feel like it turned out.
Quarter horse sprints are notorious for mass finishes where a half dozen or so horses are a nose apart, you have to get creative sometimes to find a way to portray the win in the middle of the madness (and you better hope you chose the right horse to focus on. 
)I love my job, and I'm very fond of the athletes I work with. All images are ©copyright 1pen and my sports media company.You may NOT use, replicate, manipulate, or modify this image without my permission. All Rights Reserved.
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Comments: 45
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great shot! may i use this for a drawing?
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Sure! Just don't forget to credit, link back, and I'd love it if you noted me the finished product so I can fave it.
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Wow, I've never seen a quarter horse race before! What a fantastic moment to capture
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Noodle, can I ask what settings you use? Especially the focus, do you use a point focus or one of the other options?
Obvs your equipment is better than mine but still 
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Hmmm, I shot open wide because the sun was setting then and it was fairly dark already, so F2.8, iso 400ish? and I'm pretty sure I was at 1250 to 1600 speedwise. If I track down this shot I can pull the info again, but that was probably it. I had it on evaluative focus, which is easier for sports, I keep the focus point high and center since that's usually where the jockey and the horse's heads are, hold it down to tell the camera that's what I want and don't release until I'm sure that it has the right subject locked. I used a Canon 7D for this, which has decent subject tracking, there's more complicated crap like going into the customized settings to tell it how you want it to track, which I set when I get the camera and then pretty much forget about for the most part. In the customized settings, for example, you can tell the camera whether you want it to switch focus if something moves into the foreground or to continue tracking your selected subject no matter what. That's oversimplifying it, but you get the gist.
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Hem I must see if I can get my camera to such a low f... Well it was more a general question, it's probably just my lack of practice shooting sports in so long. I don't think my camera is advanced enough to do that lol. Guess I just need to go racing more often 😉
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The F depends on the lenses you have, the wider/lower the possible aperture the faster you can shoot in low light, hence the term "fast glass" in photography. It's also the most expensive glass and it's why sports photography is the toughest to afford. But yeah, anticipating the shot and good panning will get you far too, it's what I did for years before I upgraded and, of course, what I still always try to do.
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Yeah I have cheap stuff xD I shall hopefully be able to practice more
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I love the angle of the photo. I wish my local track did not have a chain link fence in my way so I could crouch down for some action shots of the equine athletes.
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Thank you! Yeah, every track I know has a chain link fence. One of the nice things about being a photographer though is that I get to be on the otherside of it....well, for most tracks, some will NOT allow it no matter what, and that's where remotes have to come in.
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Since I photograph for fun I don't get to go to the other side. The saddle ring stewart let me in the ring last summer since he got to know me so well and could tell I would not get in the way and respect all the happenings in there. That was a great moment for me to get a different view of the saddle ring
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That's a really big deal! Saddling rings are notoriously very very dangerous places to be, so that the steward let you in is super rare. Anytime I'm in the saddling ring, I'm reading the body language of everyone and watching my own shadow, if anything seems amiss I lower the camera and back away. I'm glad you had the opportunity to get a new perspective from in there, it's really quite the experience.
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Even outside the ring can be dangerous, a horse known for his antics kicked back in my direction. Luckily I seen his hindquarters tense up and took a step back to a back hoof 5" from my camera. Usually this horse was not paraded around the ring, but for The Longacres Mile he was that day and after that kick out he was sent out before the others. I studied horse anatomy when I was younger and that has come in handy. I keep an eye on their body language and muscle movement as well as ears and if they are too tense I will keep my camera down when they pass so I don't spook them. I love when I can really get to know the personality of the regulars through their body language, some of them are quite the hams too
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That's no one horse race!
Love the angle and shot and result. Love all the things
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A camera. 
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It was a canon 7d, and an 70-200mm/F2.8L
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Thank you! Definitely had a beautiful stride and I'm just relieved it stayed perfectly in frame for it.
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Whoa that's a beautiful shot! I'm going to guess you chose the right horse to focus on xD
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Look at that streeeeeeetch! I love that you caught one of the challengers in the foreground, it adds more personality and tension to the shot.
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Thank you, Kristina.
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Looks absolutely awesome! love how the winning (?) horse is splayed from left to right with all legs stretched out
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I think you got the perfect angle .. and a brilliant image.
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