IMG_8161-e2

The above photograph shows rider in the Tour of The North (TON) cycling towards Carnlough a village on the Antrim Coast Road in Northern Ireland. This was held each Easter Week-end and attracted many teams from across Europe. However no sponsorship funding was available for the year that Northern Ireland held the GIRO which meant no TON that year. A smaller event has been held in recent years but it has not reached the level of those events held before the GIRO. 

I recently posted this article on my Camera Club Site for new members who may be interested in Sports Photography. It covers local sporting events that I have attended which did not require accreditation.

Sports Photography is not popular in Camera Club circles. Since I joined my Club in 2019 there have been no special Northern Ireland Photographic Association rounds for sports photography and the first one is scheduled for the 2028/2029 session ie once in 10 years. There not many entries in the Open rounds.
For any new members interested in having a go at Sports Photography here is a set of photographs taken at local events which did not require accreditation ie I just turned up and started clicking. I presented these to some members in November 2020 on Zoom during Covid.
Sports covered included - rugby, cycling, cross country running, road running, mountain running, sailing and horse racing taken at about 20 local locations.
I have been interested in Sports Photography for many years and have taken thousands of photographs and been to hundreds of events - I have uploaded over 100,000 to my website which to date have been viewed around 63,000 times from visitors from more than 75 countries.
I have had photographs published in 19 publications including newspapers from local to international, magazines and one book and had many viewers have purchased framed prints, prints and jpg files from my site.
Sports photography is good fun, gets you out into the open air in all weathers, challenges and improves your photographic skills, allows you to meet and photograph many interesting people and most of all provides an opportunity to take many photographs on a regular basis. I can take up to 1000 photographs at an event. So it is a good genre if you like taking lots of photographs.
The London Guardian’s prizewinning photographer Tom Jenkins says “Portraiture and Sports are at the opposite ends of the scale. Portraiture is about being in control, creating whatever you want in front of the lens, whereas with Sport you have no control”.
He goes on to say “Sport is the toughest photography to excel in”.

Click the link below to view photographs taken at various local events that I photographed that did not require accreditation.

https://www.hmphotographs.com/p665421097
 

Hyperfocal distance is the focussing distance that gives your photographs the greatest Depth of Field (DoF).

The definition is the closest focussing distance that allows objects at infinity to be acceptable sharp.

When a lens is focussed on the hyperfocal distance the depth of field extends from half that distance to infinity.

The mathematics are:

H =   f²/ (N* c)

Where:

    H = Hyperfocal Distance

                f = focal length of lens(mm)        

                N = Aperature (f stop)

                c = Circle of Confusion

Example 1 : Full frame camera with a 50mm lens set at f8

H  =  (50 *50)/(8*0.033)= 9470 mm = 9.47 metres

Example 2 : Full frame camera with 20mm lens at f11

                                H = (20*20)/(11*0.033) = 1212.12mm = 1.2m

49,357 visitors viewed my 72 blog posts as at 12:14 on Tuesday 29th August 2023.

I have logged 60,000 visitors on my site by 21st July 2023. A visitor is counted when they open a full photograph. Viewing a thumbnail does not count
 

FT8E8685-61The opening ceremony at the grounds of the King's Hall in South Belfast

      Pic shows the Opening Ceremony 

The 2023 World Fire and Police Games have just finished in Winnipeg in Canada on 6th August 2023.

The games were held in Northern Ireland 10 years ago in 2013, This was the first time in the 28 years history of the games that they were held in the United Kingdom and only the third time in Europe.

Approximately 7000 athletes competed in 2013 from 62 countries in 56 sports.

I attended and photographed a number of event at the 2013 games:

• Media Briefing
• Opening Ceremony
• Cross Country Running at the Stormont Estate
• Open Swimming at Groomsport
• Mountain Running in the Mourne Mountains
• Track and Field at the Mary Peter's Track

I have published 1648 photographs on my site at: hmphotographs | 2013 WPFG - World Police and Fire Games

Depth of Field (DOF)

Depth of field is the distance between two planes, a closer one and a farther one, in which objects  can be positioned to have an "acceptably sharp" image formed in a camera.

There are two formulae for calculating Depth of Field (DOF), a simple one as described below which produces an approximate value and more a more complicated one which produces a more accurate value. The latter is not discussed in this document.

I will focus on the simple formula as below.

           DOF = (2 u² N c)/f² 

Where:

• C = circle of confusion*
• F= focal length
• U = distance to subject
• N – F number

*circle of confusion has been defined as the largest blur circle that will be perceived by the human eye as a point when viewed at a distance of 25cm. Note there are more specific definitions but for the purposes of this document the above definition is considered sufficient.

The formula shows that DOF varies proportionally with the aperture, and with the square of the focal length and distance to subject.

Example: what is the DOF of a 50mm lens, when the circle of confusion is 0.029mm, f-stop is f/4 or 4 for the calculation, with a focus distance of 1200mm (1.2m)

Answer: square of u = 1200 * 1200 = 1,440,000

So DOF = 1,440,000*2*4*0.029 = 334,080 divided by square of focal length = 50 *50 = 2500

Ie 334,080/2500 = 133.632mm = 0.13m

AA1V4356" TULLYORIOR and R A Devine ( 10 , PURPLE; white sleeves; red cap,white star ) Trainer: Catherine Barry , Owner : Catherine Barry"

In late 2020 my Camera Club held a "Show & Tell " session where members had to present 12 photographs taken from the same place.
I entered this sequence of 12 photographs depicting a horse jumping the last fence at the Portrush Point to Point in May 2018, stumbling on landing and as a consequence unseating the rider and throwing him over the its head where he eventually fell to the ground. The rider was uninjured as he can be seen can walking back in front of the spectators to the changing room.
This was a good example of the use of the "Back Button Focus" on my camera whereby the focussing and taking of the photograph are separated and spread across two buttons. The shutter button which usually focuses when pressed half way down and takes the photograph when fully depressed is only used to take the photograph.  A button at the back of the camera is configured to focus the lens. I depressed both buttons for this sequence and followed the horse and rider such that the camera kept the rider in focus throughout. The rider was Rory Devine and the horse was named Tullyoroir.

The full sequence of 12 photographs can be viewed at:  https://www.hmphotographs.com/p878971621
 

1 Limerick Lace (1 ,emerald green and orange hoops ), Jockey - L P Dempsey ,Trainer - G P CromwellFT8E4411.jpg

First Event if 2023

My first event if 2023 was horse racing at Down Royal. The event was the Molson Coors Raceday national hunt meeting.  It was also Students’ Day and was noisy. There were three hurdle races , three steeplechase races and a flat race to complete the meeting. The meeting was the only one in the UK and Ireland on the day so got good coverage on Racing UK TV. The weather was good considering it was January- dry and bright and not too cold for most if the afternoon. I took photographs with 24-70 and 70-200mm lenses on both sides of course at the the last hurdle and fence as well as some at the finish. I had 5 photographs published in a weekly newspaper. Photographs from the day can be viewed at gallery https://www.hmphotographs.com/p193199369

As of March 2022 I have attended and photographed 270 horse race meetings. I thought it would be interesting to document the things I do for each meeting in terms of pre-meeting, at the meeting and post meeting activities. I have attached a chart detailing these activities.

Event Activities - jpg-2023-01-10_15-36-16
 

Stephen Metcalfe (Leeds City AC) Triple Jump-3rd place 15,03m

This is the top viewed photograph on my site in 2022. The list is at: https://www.hmphotographs.com/p189364346

I took it at the GRE Games at the Antrim Forum in Northern Ireland in 1982 and shows Stephen Metcalfe jumping in the long, ship and jump comptetition.
 

Rory McIlroy after breaking the course record at Royal Portrush in 2005

Rory - IMG_1479This is the image in question. I took this on 12th July 2005.
It is of Rory McIlroy on the 18th green at Royal Portrush after he had broken the course record for the course. He shot an amazing score of 61.
He was playing in the second day of the five day North of Ireland Amateur Golf Championship. The competition is played each year in July over the Royal Portrush and Valley Courses. The first two days are stroke and the top 64 players enter a match play competition over the last three days with the final on the Friday afternoon. I have attended this competition for many years and watched Darren Clark win it as well as watching Graeme McDowell, Padriag Harrington and Paul McGinley compete when they were amateurs.  

I presented this slide set to Larne Camera Club members via Zoom on Tuesday 13th October 2020.
The title of the members talk was " The Impact on my photography of setting up a web site"
I covered my photography pre-web site from 1978 to 2005 and post-web site from 2005 to the present showing photographs that I considered had been successful in my terms and talking about the subjects and the background to taking the photographs in each case.
 

hmphotographs | 2020-10-08th-Camera Club Slide set V1
 

The photograph below is of the 2010 JNWine Champion Chase at Down Royal and shows Killyglen ridden by Paul Carberry on the left and Kauto Star ridden by Ruby Walsh in the right. Killyglen was owned by David McCammond of Killyglen and trained by Stuart Crawford at Magheramourne near Larne in County Antrim, N Ireland and finished 5th in the race. Kauto Star, winner of the race was trained by Paul Nicholls from England.

Killyglen , Jockey Paul Carberry 5th & Kauto Star , Jockey Ruby Walsh - Winner - T8E4723-e2Killyglen
Trainer - S R B Crawford
Owner - D L McCammon

Collection of Photographs of Champion Race at Down Royal referred to below: hmphotographs | 2023-01-06th-Where to Stand?

Ansel Adams states that “A good photograph is knowing where to stand” and best selling author Tom Ang states in one of his books  “The essential foundation for every image you make is your choice of viewpoint”
I agree with these statements and thought it would be interesting to attempt to relate them to my own experience.

At each event I attend the most difficult decision I make is usually where to stand. I have attended the same events on many occasions and struggle with this decision each time.

My most attended event is horse racing at Down Royal. I have attended this race track on 104 occasions ( as at November 2022) and with 7 races at each meeting photographed 728 races so I have focused on this location for the purposes of this discussion.

I will state at the outset that my objectives in taking horse racing sports photographs are to capture action pictures of horses galloping and jumping as well as interesting photographs recording the events such that parties involved with a horse will consider buying a print or jpg file and newspapers editors will consider publishing in the sports section of their newspapers.

In most races at Down Royal the horses and riders pass you two times if you stand in the correct place so you get two bites of the cherry. I usually  photograph from the same place on both circuits but I have moved from the last fence to nearer the finish for the second circuit  to be able to get to the winners closure in time. 

At Down Royal the direction of the light is not usually a problem as the horses run towards the light at the last fence and the finish. Backgrounds are a problem as there are car and bus parks near the last fence and overhead electric power lines and poles near the finish.

Each time I attend Down Royal I to and fro on where to stand for each race. A horse race is an exciting, colourful and dangerous event.

There are a number of viewpoints at Down Royal and it is tempting to try to summarise where I stood for each of the 728 races photographed. I may attempt this analysis in the future however for the purposes of this exercise I have considered one race which I have photographed 12 times. This is the Grade 1 Champion Steeplechase which is held at the two day festival of racing in early November each year.

It is a major National Hunt Race in the UK and Ireland Racing calendar and it attracts the best horses, owners and jockeys as well as the top sports photographers from across Ireland. A National Hunt race means the race includes fences. Where to Stand for Flat races poses different questions than jumps races.

I photograph a horse race at Down Royal from a number of locations  ie parade ring, leaving the parade ring, going down to the start, running on the course, jumping - usually the last fence, running up the finishing straight, crossing the finishing line, entering the winner’s enclosure and in the winners enclosure.

The photographs which cause me most indecision are:

- running up the finishing straight and
 - jumping the last fence.
 - approaching/crossing the finish line.

In each case you can stand on the horses’ left or right side as they run to the finish line.

At the last fence there is also the option of standing on a ladder which can get you above spectators and/or provide more of the horse as it jumps the fence.

I have compiled a collection of photographs from the galleries of the 12 races to demonstrate where I have stood for the various races.  I have also included photographs taken in the parade ring, leaving the parade ring, going to the start and entering the winners enclosure and in the winners enclosure. Where to stand is less of a problem for these photographs because they were mostly staged and arranged or are random shots. Problems arose though if the groups were standing with their backs to the sun and a flash unit was needed in those circumstances.

I have listed below the various races attended by year, winning horse name and in each case which side of the course I photographed the horses jumping the last fence or running up the finishing straight. I have also indicated when I used a ladder at the last fence. The ladder allows the photographer to get above spectators heads and also provides for a fuller view of the horse as it jumps the fence.

Factors that affected the decision as to which side to stand:

1 It was easier to get to the winners Enclosure from the left hand side before horses returned to the winners enclosure

2 The location of the last fence also affected whether the last fence was the chosen – the further away the last fence was from the finish line the longer it took to get to the winners enclosure.

3 The location of the last fence also affected the background – some locations on both sides had cars and buses showing

4 In the 2010 Kauto Star Race a fence past the finishing post was chosen which had the Grandstand in the background. It was not possible to get to the last fence for the final circuit so photographs were taken from the run-in near the finish.

5 The last 4 races were photographed from the left side using a ladder primarily because it was possible to get to the winners enclosure in time to photograph the winning representatives. The ladder also improved the background.

6  I have photographed this race from the left hand side of the course on 8 occasions compared to 4 on the right primarily because of the ease of getting to the winner's enclosure on time. 

7 My preference is to photograph from the right hand side of the course as the horses run to the finish as for 2015 Don Cossack and 2016 Valseur Lido. The background is better if the fence is positioned in a certain place at the final fence when the photographs were taken from a kneeling position. On the run-in to the finish it is possible to get the spectators in the photograph which adds to the atmosphere.

8 The photograph shown above of the 2010 Race showing Kauto Star jumping was taken at a fence beyond the finish on the left hand side of the course and is probably my favourite of all photographs taken of the race, mainly because it is of Kauto Star, a very famous race horse but also because the horse on the inside (Killyglen) was a locally owned and trained horse. Also I liked the fence location, the background of the grandstand and the direction of the light. I only shot from this position once because the horses only passed once and it was not possible to get to the last fence on time.

Gavin Bland (12) Borrowdale - winner in 1:43:00 - FT8E3138-3

Between 2005 and 2017 I photographed 43 Mountain Running events in Northern Ireland. There were mostly in the Mourne Mountain.

I have over 10,000 photographs in my gallery - https://www.hmphotographs.com/f691398371

Mountain Running is organised in Northern Ireland by the Northern Ireland Mountain Running Association (NIMRA) and the two Athletics Clubs most involved are based in Newcastle- Newcastle AC and Mourne Runners.

The same races are run every year which provided the opportunity to photograph the races from different locations.

Some of the races I have photographed are as follows:

- British Championships: 2017, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009 2008,2007

- Lurig Mountain Race in Cushendall - 2011, 2010, 2008, 2007,2006

- Race over The Glens - 2015, 2014, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2008, 2007

- Sevens Sevens in The Mourne Mountains - 2010, 2009, 2007

- P&O Irish Sea International Mountain Race at Knockdhu - 2006

- World Police and Fire Games including the Mountain Race in the Mourne Mountains -