A Horse with No Name

[Brian Moore]

Actually I am sure he or she does have a name but I don't know it. Anyway, I visited Los Alamitos Race Course on Saturday evening to get some pictures of the quarter-horse racing. These magnificent beasties gallop 300 yards in an all out sprint. They're shorter and, in the sprint, more powerful than the thoroughbreds I'm told. This gray was from race 6 that night.


I used my Canon 7d and my Tamron 18-270 lens.

I made a photoblog and posted a few pics to it:

losalamitosracing.blogspot.com

 

[Hamish Gill]

I love that song!

As with a portion of people from my generation im sure ... discovered whilst playing GTA SA

[video=youtube;HdsHfZG19HM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdsHfZG19HM[/video]

Great shot too, superb sense of speed and lovely toning!
some beauties in that blog too!

 

[Paul Lange]

I love that song!
some beauties in that blog too!

I didn't realise you had a thing for horses Hamish!

Yeah, I did wonder if it was going down the road of the horse being a Neil Young fan. This really captures the sense of movement unlike my photographic abortions last Saturday at the fair in Southend. I tried a few panning shots of the kids on the rides but didn't really do very well.

 

[Brian Moore]

I love that song!

Me too Hamish And thanks for the comments.

I tried a few panning shots of the kids on the rides but didn't really do very well.

I've discovered that good paning shots are not all that easy to do, Paul. I've got a few few corkers of my own. (The panning attempts gave me a new appreciation of Richard Sloman's wonderful car racing shots!) Thanks for the comments.

 

[Pete Askew]

I agree with the above comments Brian, just the right amount of movement there. Super.

 

[Brian Moore]

Thank a lot, Pete. Much appreciated.

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Very nice pan shot - horse are more difficult than cars as they move in a cyclic motion as they gallop, rather than the smooth motion of a car.

So AF etc is easily confused - and getting the subject sharp can be a real challenge.

 

[Brian Moore]

Chris,...you're right on about the challenge. I was surprised at the level of difficulty. It was a lot of fun, though.

And thank you.

 

[Pete Askew]

I've been pondering this image as there is something familiar about the style. Now I have it I think. It reminds me of my dad watching the racing on the TV on a Saturday afternoon. Something about the motion, colour and crop is almost like a frozen frame from the TV coverage. I keep expecting it to start moving or to hear an over-excited commentator announce the finish order!! ".. and it's number 7, Barber's Boy, in the lead as we approach the final furlong, Barber's Boy and then Misty...".

 

[Brian Moore]

You're spot on, Pete. It does have that TV look. I didn't crop it, though. That's how it looked out of the camera.

Thanks Pete.

 

[Pete Askew]

Did Barber's Boy win?

 

[Brian Moore]

Looks like me might have, eh? But no, The Old Gray Mare finished 4th.

Funny, I was planning to leave before this race. But I had spotted another photog there. He had a bazooka for a lens. One of those big white Canon lenses with glass the size of a dinner plate. Anyway, before leaving I wandered over and struck up a conversation. He had been curious about me, too, it seems, and he was ready to chat. Turned out he was a friend of the owner of this horse and he had been comissioned to get some photos of The Gray and that particular jockey you see in the photo. But since he only had the one opportunity he voiced concern that might fail to get a good one due to other horses getting in the way or whatever. So I volunteered to hang out and shoot at this horse from another angle and that way between the two of us we might salvage something decent. Well, I got a few decent shots that night, but this is one of my favorites, although it almost didn;t happen.