The Giant Within

I love horse racing but it's not always fun and games. In the eight race on opening day at Fort Erie Race Track yesterday this great 5 year old champion named The Giant Within took a terrible fall and broke his front leg. Here is probably the last image of him healthy right before the race. Little did anyone suspect the horror that was about to happen minutes later.

The jockey, Christopher Griffith was thrown off his mount but appeared to be unhurt as he chased down the terrified horse. Meanwhile owners, trainers, horsemen, track officials swarmed on the scene.

They removed his saddle as quick as they could and tried control him. The following images are very graphic and should be viewed at your discretion.

Sadly there is nothing that can be done for this poor horse and I am sure he will need to be put down when they get him back to the stables. My heart goes out to all who suffered from this loss.

Opening Day

Traditionally I like to go shoot the ponies on opening day at Fort Erie race track in Ontario.

Hummingbird Garden Series

I like the challenge of shooting hummingbirds. I added some foreground to this image after the fact.

To Compress or Not

A nice profile shot of the same female featured below. Adding textured overlays to the background for interest. The lens I use is a 70-200mm racked out to 200mm and this compresses and blurs out the background. In most cases this is preferred but I wanted to see if a slightly muted background would make it more interesting. Any opinions on this?

She's a Beaut...Clark

Gorgeous female hummingbird shot with morning light.

Hummingbird

Experiment with shutter speeds to blur the wings to show action and movement.

So...Why Does a Hummer Hum?

Our hummingbirds have arrived this week.

Thrillium About Trilliums

The best thing I like about light painting is you're in total control of where and how the light illuminates your subject. As you can see from this trillium series I have achieved numerous looks with one single stream light pro.

Don't Move....I'm Light Painting

The trilliums I found are located in the a woodland area in the middle of the island. The slightest breeze moves these delicate flowers and makes light painting a little more challenging. I tried to find trilliums with natural obstacles nearby to block any wind so I could make 30 second exposures.

Trillium Series ( part 2 )

You can completely change the composition and your viewers perception of your image simply by changing the crop or converting to black and white. Here I have used the same flower image to demonstrate how that can be accomplished.

Painted Flower Series

I finally got a chance to shoot the trilliums of Goat Island today. The weather decided to cut me short and rained me out but I managed a few images. I wanted a different look this year so I decided to try and light paint the flowers. I used a 10x neutral density filter on an overcast day to get an exposure of iso 200, f-11 at 30 sec. I then painted in the scene with a stream light pro to make the image. I will be posting a few more of this series in the next few days.

Ryot Covered Bridge

The last of the eight bridges we toured while in Bedford county, Pa. The Ryot covered bridge was lost in a fire in 2002. The Bedford county commissioners committed to rebuilding the structure and was reopened in 2004.

Colvin Covered Bridge

The Colvin covered bridge was built in 1866 and refurbished in 1997.

Snook's Covered Bridge

Another great looking white with red accents Pennsylvania bridge. Built in 1882 the bridge is in remarkably good shape. I started out on this series of covered bridges using a tripod and seven image bursts of bracketed exposures but after the first two bridges I ditched the tripod and reduced the exposures to three bracketed. By then the sun had come out and I could maintain faster shutter speeds to hand hold the camera and still get sharp images.

Kniseley Covered Bridge

A really well maintained bridge in a park like setting. White with red accents the Kniseley bridge is not usable to traffic but you can walk across it.

Turner Covered Bridge

Another white covered bridge in Pennsylvania. The Turner covered bridge was a great find off the main road on a dirt and gravel road the bridge is still in operation. There is a five dollar fine for driving over the bridge faster than a walk.

Claycomb Covered Bridge

Gracing the entrance to Old Bedford Village is this beautifully landscaped Claycomb covered bridge. The bridge was originally in Reynoldsdale and moved to this location in 1975.

Bowser's Covered Bridge

Interestingly we found some white bridges in Pennsylvania. I have shot a lot of covered bridges and the only white ones I have seen were in Indiana. Most of the Pa bridges are red so this was a pleasant surprise. This Bowser's covered bridge is no longer in service as there is a concrete bridge next to it.

Covered Bridge Tour

The Herline covered bridge built in 1906 is the longest covered bridge in Bedford County, Pa.

This is the opposite side view of Herline covered bridge. I used a bracketed three image burst hand held for these images. Nikon D3, iso 200, f-11.