Yep, that’s me, waiting in line to get into the Saratoga Race Course for the final day of the flat track’s summer horse race meet. Yep, that’s me muttering under my breath about paying $20 for parking and then seeing a $10 admission fee just to get onto the grounds.
Yeesh. Like I really need to be down $30 before I even place a bet.
Well, between bets, I’ve got my Nikon Df camera – the one modified for infrared photography – set up for a few shots. This ought to be fun.
Okay, I need to purchase a race-day program. In addition to knowing what horses will race today, the program will also tell me which of the three tracks at Saratoga – the inner, the middle or the outer track – will be used for which race. I brought camera gear that will capture great shots from the outer track, so let’s work with that.
There’s a program stand right near the entrance to the track. Aw jeez, the racing programs are $8. Come on.
Well, you gotta invest money to make money, I suppose. I pulled out a $10 and handed it to the cashier.
She handed the $10 back. “We’re cashless, sir, we only take credit or debit cards at this station.”
Oh, for the love of – Like I need my credit card company knowing that I’m at the track today? Ugh.
“The gift shop takes cash, sir. Just go down the walkway and visit the gift shop.”
Fine. As long as there’s a reasonable alternative …
One long walk and $8 later, I now had a program in my possession. First race is on the outer track. Let’s get set up.
I slapped a 50mm f/1.8 lens on the Nikon Df, added an Infrachrome filter to the glass, and caught this shot as the horses ran by.
I can work with this. They’ve set the starting gate here, and once the horses arrive, they’ll reposition the gate for the race start.
And a few minutes later, after the horses zipped out of the starting gate and galloped around the track, I captured this shot as they passed by.
Understand that for me to get color infrared shots before my Df was modified, I had to purchase $150/roll film that was 20 years past its expiry date, find the one lab out there who could process infrared slide film, and pray that three weeks later I’d get usable photos. What you see here was taken yesterday. I can deal with this improvement in technology.
Okay, I can get color infrared … now let’s try black-and-white infrared. For that, I switched my filter to a 780nm one, and waited for another race.
Sure enough … the third race gave me a chance to capture this.
The positives on this – you CAN get action here, even if the edges are a little soft. The negatives are – you cannot SEE through the viewfinder when the 780nm filter covers your lens, and you just have to pray that you’ve got the right angle for this. And I didn’t bring my tripod with me (like I needed to lug that heavy thing all over the track today), so what I get is what I get.
Okay, let’s go one step further. This time, I swapped out the camera lens with a 20mm f/2.8, with the goal of getting the widest possible photo.
And this one came through for me.
I mean, I caught everything, but this may have been too wide a shot. The clouds don’t enhance the photo, they pull your eye away from the horses. But still … at least I know what I’m working with, so there’s that.
Oh, and as for my betting – I finished the day with a $70 profit, having picked the Daily Double and a few other win-place-show successes. So I’ll take my victories where I get them.
Now let’s see what happens down the road with this infrared photography kick.
I could have LOTS of fun with this.
And I’m just getting started.
Chuck The Writer 
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