I shot this photo over a year ago at Arlington Park Race Track, and just revisited it the other day. Initially, I did nothing with this shot, as I was underwhelmed by it and just did not see much of anything in the shot. Fast forward about a year, and as I was looking through old photos, I saw a different crop, and thought that passing the RAW image through Photomatix to create an HDR image could be something.
The image below is the result, and I really like the outcome…the magnificent horses frozen in stride, the lush greens of the grasses and the ominous storm clouds rolling in just put a nice feel on this photograph. Four race horses, one with about a length-and-a-half lead, frozen in time as they head out of the last turn at Arlington Park Racetrack toward the finish line, while rather dramatic and ominious storm clouds roll in.
It’s pretty neat to see both the white-gray horse and the reddish-brown horse in the background with all four feet off the ground, especially when you consider the lengths that Eadweard Muybridge had to go to in 1878 to prove horses had four feet off the ground when at trot.