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Training at the sighthound racetrack
Training at the sighthound racetrack
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Oct, 2016Views
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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
This picture was taken at a sighthoundtraining in Beringen (Belgium)Time
It was early afternoon. The training starts at 10h30' and ends around 17h00', depending on the number of sighthounds that are entered. When taking action photo's you have very little time to think, compose, study the light, aso. Everything happens at a split second. One second you have a lot of sunshine, a minute later the clouds can cover the sun.Lighting
For this type of photography at this location you can not choose your lightning. The sun is always on your left and sometimes you get very hard shadows from the club house that is right next the racetrack. Sometimes it can happen that one minute you have bright sunshine and hard shadows, the next minute your have no sunshine at all.Equipment
After I stopped for about 6 years with photography and had sold all my equipment I had to start from scratch again. So I bought the most important and expensive equipment first, the Canon 70-200 F2.8 L IS USM lens and started with the Canon 760D crop camera.Inspiration
I've always had sighthounds (Afghan Hounds) and went to a lot of shows all over Europe were I took pictures of the judging. However, I admired them on the racetrack, their speed, the looks in their eyes seconds before they get the lure, the excitement, ... it's very special. Even as an outsider you can feel the adrenaline while watching them run.Editing
Because of the lens I used and the fact that you need to keep your distance for your own safety and the safety of the sighthounds I had to do some cropping. Apart from some minor adjustments in lightning and contrast no post-processing was done.In my camera bag
It depends on the type of shoots I do. At the racetrack I actually use the Canon EOS 1DX Mk II with the Canon prime 300 mm F 2.8. For models I switch between the 100 mm and the 24-70. Landscape is done with the 16-35 or the 24-70. Of course some Lee filters, tripod, remote control, flash and umbrella's. For every type of shoot I carefully choose the equipment I take along.Feedback
For this type of photography I suggest you go to the same racetrack very often. Study the sighthounds, how they start, how they run and how they arrive. You should be able to adjust your camera settings with your eyes closed because of the continually changing weather conditions and the very little time you have to make the adjustments, get in position, focus on your object and take your picture. I always shoot in manual mode for the best results and full control.
