Janet Worne - Thoughtful Photography

Lucky Me

Horse racing is a sport where luck often goes hand in hand with skill and experience. I’m talking about for the photographers as well as for the jockeys and betters. I shot this photo a split second before they crossed the finish line at Keeneland Race Track. I was happy with it because of how the first four finishers lined up so perfectly and how colorful they all were against the green grass. What I didn’t realize at the time was that the winning jockey, Mike Smith, was kissing his mount as they won the race. That was a surprise I got when I enlarged it later.

Manual Focus--What's that?

Here's another one in time for football season. It's one of my favorite football pictures (out of those that I took). I like it because it contains many of those elements we look for in a good sports photo. It is nicely composed (nearly full-frame), top of the action, and a key moment (a fumble recovery that got Kentucky into the peach bowl in 1993).

At the time I shot this I wasn't using an auto focus camera and the auto exposure wasn't reliable so everything I shot was manual everything. Not bad, huh? The way my eyesight has gone lately, I'm not sure I could still do it. Now I shoot AF much of the time. I do still shoot almost exclusively in manual exposure mode though.

I think it's a good idea to stay in practice and not let the machines take over completely.

Facing Insurmountable Odds

In time for football season...

The Big Race

In what has been billed as the most exciting two minutes in sports, Big Brown and Kent Desormeaux pulled off a win over Eight Belles. Unfortunately, the 134th running of the Kentucky Derby was marred by the fatal injury to the second place horse.

I was sitting on the track at the finish line for this picture. I used a Canon Mark III camera with a 70-200 mm, f2.8 lens. The difficulty here was that the shadow of the clubhouse was covering nearly the whole track at race time. There was no telling if the winning horse would cross the line in shadow or bright sun. On these races I usually go with a manual setting but in this situation I didn't dare. Luckily the automatic exposure on my camera was accurate.

Click here to see all of our coverage of the Kentucky Derby--the results of many hours of work.

Kentucky Derby

Things are starting to get busy here. Photos are coming in to our work station for editing, toning and captioning. Editing photos is my job.

We are on a balcony and below us is the main workroom where photographers and writers from all over the world are working.

Day at the Races

After 18 years at the Lexington Herald-Leader, I moved to New Mexico and thought that my string of covering 18 Kentucky Derby's was over. But today I'm back at Churchill Downs, working for my old boss. My daughter graduated UK Law School last night and I was in town anyway, so I thought, why not? It pays for my plane ticket and I get to see many old friends.

It's still early and not much is happening yet. Check back later today for some updates.