Tampa Bay Downs

Not my best shooting day. The problem with shooting horse races is that they run only one each 30 minutes. In a football or basketball game, the next play comes much sooner, and you have more chances to get shots. I shot these with my "Bigma" lens, the 50-500mm Sigma.

Tampa Bay Downs

I went to Tampa Bay Downs, the thoroughbred horse racing track in Oldsmar with my dad. He makes $2 show bets and I take pictures. These are my favorites of more than 200 photos. Horses, as elegant as they look with our eyes, often look awkward and clumsy in photographs unless you catch them when all four of their hooves are off the ground.

Been Too Long

Wow. More than two months since I last posted. Full-time work has put a crimp in my photography. But I dragged myself out of bed early last Saturday to shoot some youth football. I had to bail out at halftime of the second game to get ready for work. So I didn't take nearly as many shots as I did last time we shot at this venue.

I got there around 9 and the first game didn't start until at least 9:30 so I squeezed off a few shots of kids practicing catching as someone tossed a ball up in the air to them.

Youth Football Photography

The photo club I shoot with took a stab at shooting sports with a trip to a youth football field. Games start at 9 a.m. and last until almost 3:30 in the afternoon. We couldn't get right up to the field and my 200mm lens lacked the reach to get close-ups so most of these shots required a lot of cropping to look presentable.

My camera struggled to focus quickly enough to catch the action and maybe as many as half the shots I took came back blurry. I spare you those.

I do have a new camera (Sony A550) on order that should improve my action sports shooting, as well as to give me a larger image to work from when I have to crop. (14.2 megapixel vs. my current A100's 10.2 MP)

If I shoot something like this again, I will devote more attention to things off the field. Players on the sideline, coaches yelling, more of the cheerleaders and maybe even fans. But today I wanted to practice following action.

Track Two

This would be the BMX track redux as opposed to the horse racing track, where I return next week with the Brandon-Riverview Photography Meetup Group. Today we met to shoot bicycle races. I had shot some at this track last week, staying longer didn't seem to give me more success.



Now some in vertical orientation:

More Bike Photos

This time human-powered "engines" instead of horse-powered ones. I shot a few frames at a BMX racing track in Riverview. The photo group I shoot with is scheduled to go back out next week and the track's organizers say he'll outfit us with passes that let us go into the infield where we can get a greater variety of shots.

The riders can catch a lot of air on the clay moguls but do it mostly in practice rather than the races. I saw riders as young as five and as old as 17. The track is looking for more kids to participate so if you have somehow stumbled across this and you or your children live in southeastern Hillsborough County, the link above will take you to the organization's web site.



Here are some in portrait orientation:

Dirt Bike Photographs from Croom Motorcycle Park

Saturday I shot horsepower that did not involve horses. The organizer of the photo group I often shoot with also rides dirt bikes at Croom Motorcycle Park in Hernando County. He'll be on bike #43 in the photo montage below. Despite excellent weather, there weren't many riders. Our guess was that a bike week and a big race at Daytona siphoned off many of the usual Croom crowd.

I shot more than 800 frames of the same five shots. A lot of burst mode! I did capture two kids crashing but the soft sand that can make turns difficult also cushions riders who go down. Both kids were OK, though getting out from beneath the bikes took more exertion than riding them.

The soft sand also made the bikes look like surfboards cutting through waves in some shots. In others the bikes kicked up "rooster tails" behind them that helped illustrate their power. All in all, it was a cool thing to shoot and looking at the photos gives me a better idea of which things to focus on if I go back.

Tampa Bay Downs Photos - Meetup

This time I had to go. I had organized an outing for the Brandon-Riverview Photography Meetup Group at the track so I was sort of obligated to go. Yeah, that's the ticket!

I did not have a brilliant day behind the camera. The overcast sky that is normally a photographer's friend because it eliminates shadows didn't seem to agree with my camera. A lot of these shots needed cropping to look presentable. I did spy one perspective you'll see in the montage that I need to shoot again when a race is going on.



And, yes, blackbirds will fight each other for the right to eat horse manure.

Perfection

Or as close to it as I get. The three photos below were consecutive frames taken at — say it with me — Tampa Bay Downs yesterday. I had actually gone Saturday and didn't like what I brought home, not to mention going 0-for-2 on my first two bets of the year.

These are NOT cropped. The first one may be the best action shot I have ever captured. It is certainly my current favorite.







Now the slide show:



Oh, and I even won my only wager of the day. The $3.60 payout means I'm down only $2.40 for the year.

See more of my work at photoquist.com.

Still More Tampa Bay Downs Photos

This is becoming a habit, I know. One of the jockeys walking back to the jocks' room after a race passed by and said, "you're always out here taking pictures." Not as often as she's out there riding horses but, apparently, often enough to notice.



Most of these are cropped at least a little bit but I did consciously shoot some tighter shots trying to capture expressions, either human or equine.

See more of my work at photoquist.com.

Tampa Bay Downs Photos

Like the zoo, the local horse racing track is a frequent venue for my photography. Strangely enough, I rarely gamble and can't remember the last time I bet on a race. But I visit the track fairly regularly to try to capture the action of a race. It's not easy.



See more of my work at photoquist.com.

Another Day at the Races

I know it's beginning to look like the only thing I photograph are horses, I know. My father goes to the track frequently and sometimes I meet him out there. It is a good place to try to capture action and there is color and character around the track, too.

Tampa Bay Downs Photos

The racing season has begun at Tampa Bay Downs. I don't gamble much. Instead I play games of chance with my camera. Can I capture the action? Will it be in frame? In focus? Perhaps if I shot action sports more than a few times a year I'd be more proficient at it.

As it is, I got a few good shots, though some of these had to be heavily cropped to fill the frame as much as they do.

Tampa Horse Show

The Bob Thomas Equestrian Center at the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa frequently hosts horse shows and jumping competitions. The one this past Saturday was a low-level event, I think.

The course was also muddy, and I wore some of it home as a companion souvenir to the horse manure I — of course — stepped in.