The Hockomock Digital Photographers (one of the camera clubs I belong to) was invited the other day (Mon., 14 June 2010) to make photographs at the Plainridge Racecourse in Plainville, MA (about a half hours drive away). I am not a gambler (that comes from having a better than average understanding of probability and statistics) and had never been to a race track (for horses) before. So all of this was new to me.
Plainridge specializes in harness racing where the drivers sit in small two-wheeled sulkies behind the horse rather than in a saddle atop the horse. There are two types of events: trotting and pacing. These differ in the gait that the horse must maintain for the duration of the race. (Thanks to Jac for explaining all of this to me.)
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There were nine races of two laps each so there were 18 chances to catch the racing action. In addition there were horses and drivers warming up between races to photograph.
Lighting-wise, it was a pretty good day. We started with high clouds giving nice soft lighting. By the last few races the clouds were breaking up and there were periods of iffy, harsher light. All in all the light was pretty good.
I started out the day in a position to catch the action at the finish line about half way down the straightaway. Eventually, I moved down to the beginning of the straightaway, where I could catch the action as they came out of the final turn and into the home stretch… the action here was much better. Finding spots and angles which allowed for relatively uncluttered backgrounds was a challenge.
Anyway… here are the days photos:
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