After registration, all participants will be able to photograph morning workouts, which conclude at 10 a.m.  At this time a breakfast buffet will be served and a question and answer session with track photographers, trainers and management will follow. After breakfast you will have time to photograph Santa Anita itself.  Wander around, the grounds and architecture are great.

First race post time is 1 p.m., and all participants will be granted access to the track’s paddock and winner’s circle throughout the afternoon.  Be prepared for it to be hot and bright. You will have to shoot around the rail, posts and many other obstacles.

Two things are needed to get good action photos: basic action-shooting skills, and some knowledge of the activity you’re photographing.  Knowledge of the facility that you are going to be photographing at helps too!  The skills include panning, determining peak action, follow thru focusing, prefocusing and developing a sense of timing.  Knowledge of the activity comes with research, actually going there and lots of practice!

Racetrack Valley is a mystical place in Death Valley.  The famous rocks move and leave trails but no one has seen them move or knows exactly how or why they travel.  The Racetrack Valley is at the North end of Death Valley down 27 miles of very rough, bone-jarring, suspension ruining gravel road that might as well be a dead end.  Other roads out are even longer and just as rough.  There is no camping at the racetrack; however, there is a primitive camping spot about 3 miles South of the racetrack.  It is very, very dark at night when there is no moon and it is extremely quiet with only the sound of the wind at times.  It is a magnificent place for stargazing.

Chris (the long-suffering sherpa) and I spent 3 days there at the end of April working on a new theory of how the rocks move – it is the pull of the North Star vortex!  The main work had to be done at night after the North Star was out.  We have photographic evidence of the North Star Vortex at work on the rocks.  See for yourself, maybe the rocks are blasted out of the vortex instead of being pulled along.  Who knows it may be true?

How I made the shot...

The Amgen Tour of California is a professional bicycle race held at various locations in the state.  There were 8 scheduled individual races or stages to determine the overall winner and it was held May 15-22.  The first stage was scheduled to be at Lake Tahoe, but was snowed out.  Four of the stages were within 4-hour driving distance of Southern California.  Chris and I went to see and photograph three of the stages.  One of the interesting things about photographing this race is one’s approach can range from very casual to extremely serious.  One can just show up at the finish line or start line and take pictures as the riders start or finish.  It can be crowded and you may need to get there early for a choice spot.  Photographing the crowd can be rewarding as well. 

The copyright symbol. ©

To help protect my images on the web I put my name, the year I took them and a copyright symbol on them before I put them up.

The easiest way I have found to do this is on a separate layer. Then to get the © symbol use Option + G [mac], or hold down on the Alt key while typing the 0169 from the numeric key pad [windows] or hold down Ctrl and Alt at the same time and press C (Ctrl+Alt+C). Mac are easier at this. You can always type a copyright the simple way like this: (c).

This may not stop someone from taking your images but if a honest person would like to contact you to see about using your images it sure make it easier for them to find you.

Something to think about: Poppies don’t wake up til after 9:30am more like 10am which means you’ll be dealing with the sun a lot. Think water, light colored clothing, long sleeves, hat, sunglasses and sunscreen. I had a long sleeve white shirt on the other day and although it made me a little warm I appreciated the
assist in dealing with the extremely bright sun. Also, you’ll want to wear very comfortable clothing and closed toe shoes. There’s a lot of sand as well as it being spring and there are bees/ insects and maybe even some snakes out and about.

Before an image is submitted to competition it needs to meed the size requirement for that competition, usually 768 x 1024 pixels.  Also, the image file may need to be less than a certain size.  So how do you get your image to fit these size and dimensions  There are several tools available in image editing software, and which ones you use depends upon how you want the final image to look.

More information can be found in the PSA Image Resizing Guide.

The best time to capture holiday lights is at dusk, when the sky still has color.  The colors will be rich.

Flash – Turn it off.

Lens- Typically you’ll use a wide angle lens instead of a zoom lens.  Since the more you zoom in the less light comes into your lens and allows for more motion blur (which might be what you want for a more creative effect).  If using a point & shoot camera – physically move closer to the subject matter you’re trying to shoot and stay zoomed out.