Freezing the Action

I went to shoot the horse races Sunday, and I got some great action shots with my Nikon D40. As you may know, I love shooting sports. There's a local racetrack called Golden Gate Fields that I have passed forever but never visited. They have a great deal that attracted me - Dollar Sundays.

I mostly went to photograph the horses. But, on Dollar Sundays you can get parking, admission, hot dogs, sodas, or beer for ONE dollar. Good excuse to go, so I did.

Now let me get back to photography. I had a Flickr user ask how I got such sharp pics from my D40. It's not as hard as you think. For these shots, I primarily used Shutter Priority mode. I set the shutter speed to 1/1000 sec. as a starting point, and made adjustments as necessary.

Some of the shots were made in the shade(no pun intended). As a result, I had to pop a flash for a little fill. I use the Nikon SB-600 speedlight. The D40 is great because it has a sync speed of 1/500 sec. That means that I can shoot up to 1/500 sec.

Overall, I had fun this weekend. I don't get to shoot sports as much as I would like, but I shoot when I can. Next time I'll try some panning shots. I didn't have time because I only had a few chances to shoot the races. That's OK, it just gives me another reason to go back!