Mounting Yards at Flemington...tried for a shot like this where I had two headless faceless subjects and ended up choosing this image.
Basically:
Grayscale
Duotone
Dodge and Burn
healed out a reflection
bluring tool on horse
Noise Ninja
Resize
USM
border 1cm sides 3 cm top and bottom
more blurring and sharpening
Save for web
That's about it...hope for a 6.XXXX
Statistics
Place: 31 out of 185 Avg (all users): 6.2936 Avg (commenters): 8.0909 Avg (participants): 6.0976 Avg (non-participants): 6.4118 Views since voting: 2196 Views during voting: 356 Votes: 218 Comments: 38 Favorites: 6 (view)
The first thing I notice is the quality of the light. Strong, directional light from the left of the frame, raking across the subjects, creating depth and shape. The next thing I see is the quality of the jockey's top, the silky feel that the light and highlights give it. The bright, white region of the leg draws my eye, then I flow through the scene, to the jarring lack of head.
I like the fact that both the horse and rider have had their head's cropped, hitting the challenge theme, twice. Taking it by the neck as it were. Overall, the shot has great flow, across the horse, the rider, along the legs, horses neck, and so on, then through into the out of focus background, with the riders, grounding the shot and giving it a real sense of the place. I think those background elements really help the shot and give it a lot more context.
Seeing the Flemington name on the horse also helps locate it well. Overall very successful at giving a great insight into the jockey, without having his face in the frame at all. Great stuff. The B&W processing works well too, detail where it's needed, blown out and good blacks where required too. Very enjoyable.
The only thing that I take issue with a bit is the selective blurring, particularly around the horse - it seems quite obvious but not consistent - e.g., the horse's haunches are sharp, but blur down the back - but not in a way that would make sense for a lens - least it looks wrong to my eye. Same with the horse's mane it goes from sharp to blurred, without a justifiable transition - same with the jockey's knee. In short, I think that could maybe have been handled more subtly.
I like the blur towards the top of the frame though - so maybe just a bit more care ?
Overall, I really enjoyed this shot - there's plenty of interesting things going on but they've been handled well. There's a great left to right then right to left flow through the scene, out towards the horses. Thanks for entering it!
Just want to tell you again how awesome I think this photo is. It was one of my favorites in the whole challenge, which says alot because there were so many really good ones!
I thought that this would definitely ribbon and judging from the comments and the number of "after challenge" comments I wasn`t alone.
Really great shot and you can take consolation from the praise it has received.
This is a classic image. Now what is a pastor doing hanging around the parade ring, I ask myself ;-) I expect you have heard the one about the young man who went to the races one day and saw a priest looking all the horses over. The priest finally went up to one of the horses and signed the cross on its forehead. The man didn't think much of it but went on to place a bet on another horse running in the same race. The young man's horse came in last while the horse the priest had blessed romped home well ahead of all the others. The next race came and the young man had placed a bet on a horse. Once again, he saw the priest again blessing another horse. The young man's horse arrived at the winning post well down the field while the priest's blessed horse romped home once again to win. When the next race came up, the young man noticed the priest went up to a horse, looked it in the eye, placed the sign of the corss on its forehead and one each of its hooves. That was it - the young man rushed to the tote and placed all his money on this horse. The starter sent the horses off down the track and the young man was shocked to see his choice of horse pull to the side of the track 20 lengths from the post where he promptly gave up the ghost and died. Having lost all his money, the young man went in search of the priest. How could this be? he asked the priest. Every horse you blessed this afternoon won and this one you gave an extra blessing to. The priest looked at the young man and said, You obviously don't know the difference between a blessing and an absolution.
ok, not judi. sorry. i had read somewhere of her going to the races a while ago, so i thought... i even googled darren gauci to discover he is australian...
i stand by comments - this is a stunning image. it didn't place as well as it should have, but, well, that's par for the course.
Would have been better if you had left his head in as I'm sure he would have been looking away and therefore would have been faceless.
Like it all the same
Absolutely perfect for this challenge and an incredible photograph on it's own. Gorgeous processing. Can't bump it any higher - the best of a very good challenge.
Something about this is realy good. You might get points off for the blur of the horse's hid quarters, but to me it's just narrow DOF, with the focus on the jockey's name. I like the frame too! 8
Great shot. Border seems a little thick on this one as there is already plenty of black or dark in the photo. The little black splotch at the base of the jockeys neck distracts a bit too. 6.
Add photograph to your favorites
Add photographer to your favorites
Photographer found comment helpful.
