Photochrome Camera Club

Gary Larsen, Chair

This may be a challenging event to photograph since the sport involves a burst of high-speed action. Even so, it’s easy to anticipate where the horses are headed since they race in a predetermined space. The choice of panning or just freezing the entire action shot is up to you. Try both techniques and see what you get.

The first race is at 12:45 so let’s try to get there around 11:00 AM to give us plenty of time to park, go through the gates, and get some dollar hot dogs, beer and soda. Then we can look around for good places to shoot horses from the trackside. Check out the jockey mount area just before and after each race to get posed images of jockeys on their horses. Races are something like 30 to 45 minutes apart. This is a good time to get more dollar hot dogs, beer and soda or just wander around photographing other things. You might find the people quite interesting too.

Tripods are ok as long as you don’t block passageways. A telephoto or zoom lens would be great to capture close-up images of races.

Directions:

Take I-80 East onto the Bay Bridge.
Continue on I-80 towards Berkeley.
After Gilman Exit, take the Buchanan Street Exit (Exit on the left side heading for the Bay under the freeway).
Park in the large dirt parking lot. After paying your dollar parking and admission fees, go get some dollar hot dogs, beer and soda.