I took some film photos at the Saratoga Harness track last night, just to practice with my Nikon F2S (“Nikon Athena”) and my 55mm f/1.2 lens. It was similar to an experiment I tried last year, where I wanted to get the horses as they were crossing the finish line – but with only the overhead finish line lit up.
I won’t know how those photos turned out for a few days, but after about the 13th race of 15, I started goofing around with my camera gear. I decided to test out my cell phone camera’s slow-motion capabilities, so here’s the start of the 15th race at 1/8 the speed of normal.
If you’re not familiar with harness racing, the horses start at full speed, and the starting line is designated by that pickup truck, who will move the automated gates out of the way once the race starts.
Also … apparently the track’s overhead lighting system doesn’t totally sync up with the shutter speed of 1/8″ speed filming, so you will experience some strobing effects. If you are prone to any sort of epileptic disturbance due to strobes or flashing lights, best not to click on this video.
That being said … this was fun. And hopefully it’ll be just as fun when the film comes back from the developers.
Chuck The Writer 