I am so excited! I just found out the other day I will be photographing the horse races again this year. It’s Saturday and Sunday afternoons the whole month of April and the first weekend in May. I did it last year for the first time and really had a blast. My job will be to photograph the winner at the finish line and then the winners’ circle shot of the horse, the owner and his posse.
I don’t have to worry about the official photo finish shot, as that is done automatically from up on top of the grandstands. Besides, it would be impossible to capture the official photo finish by hand, the horses are just moving too fast. I tried shooting a continuous burst of shots when I was practicing for this job last year and even at 1/1000 of a second if I began the burst just one post before the finish line, the second shot would catch the lead horse already past the finish line.
The ideal shot is to catch the winner just as his nose crosses the finish line. Like this…
Capturing this shot is not as easy as you might think, especially the quarter horses from down on the track. Even shooting at 1/1000 of a second, I only catch their nose right at the finish line about 20% of the time. The rest are usually about a half a length too soon or too late. No, I am not going to post those.
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