Tuesday 26th February 2013
With the annual Cheltenham Festival fast approaching I was asked to attend a stable day at Donald McCain’s racing yard in Cheshire – the Bankhouse Stables – for the Sports section of The Sunday Times.
I’ve photographed Donald before at his stables and he is one of racings nicest people – affable, humorous and generous with his time … which is much in demand.
So on a cold February morning I set off at a gallop to be in Cheshire in time for the assembled media pack to be introduced to the horses that Donald would be running at the Cheltenham Festival. A sort of ‘meet & greet’ with some racing thoroughbreds if you like!
Donald’s own pedigree as a trainer makes him stand out too amongst his peers … a former jockey whose father, Ginger McCain, trained four Grand National winning horses. Donald has trained four Cheltenham Festival winners as well as the 2011 Grand National winner, Ballabriggs. He was hoping that the horses he would parade today would also come home with the goods.
Stable Days are great fun, you get up and close with the horses, the trainer and the brave jockeys. It’s a chance to try and capture something that the others in the press pack may have missed too.
My brief was to capture one or two specific horses (Donald’s favourites for a win) and also a posed portrait of Donald to accompany the piece which was going to be written by Andrew Longmore, one of the staff sports journalists at the paper.
Awaiting the parade of horses – a time to catch up with colleagues
Assembled on the front lawn of Donald’s house, each horse was paraded infront of us, with a biography handed out ensuring we knew all its latest results, size, age, breeding etc… Ensuring that you match the correct biography to the right horse (picture) is key. None of the horses were paraded in the order they were presented on the written biography sheets, so writing down the digital file number from the camera beside each respective horses ensures you don’t get them mixed up. Even with only 9 horses to parade, mistakes can be easy to make.
Looking for a different viewpoint offers the desk a choice of images that are not too similar to the other photographers
The use of flash is forbidden as it could spook a highly strung horse, so a tad of adjustment in post production ensures that shadows are not too dark, (usually a tad of applied fill-in-flash would address this, but today it was forbidden).
With each horse photographed from a location standing on the grass (where all the press tended to be) I also took opportunities to photograph from the side and the back if I could. This offers a different perspective and ensures that you’re not just replicating your colleague’s picture, who is stood a foot away to the side of you. Choosing where you stand needn’t be the luck of the draw.
With the media pack looking for quotes, I keep my lens trained on the thoroughbreds
With the horse poses done, Donald gave one-on-ones to the assembled media, interviews that took up to 10 minutes per journalist. He also gave a group briefing to ensure he didn’t have to repeat the ‘basics’ 20 times over!
I used this opportunity to capture a few more images of Donald with the press pack as they hunted down a headline grabbing quote as he discussed the scope of his horses.
Donald is surrounded by journalists seeking a soundbite – the use of on camera flash here would have lit up the foreground, so no flash was used
Once Donald was engaged with his one-on-one interviews I went off to scout a suitable location where I could pose him for my portrait. I wanted to be away from my media colleagues – unfortunately it always comes as no surprise when some journalist will continue to chat with Donald whilst I am trying to photograph him. Such a situation can be a huge distraction for both Donald and me. So I found a quiet spot at the edge of the garden where a wooden rail offered a suitable prop to pose Donald leaning on, and where he would be far away enough from my media colleagues for me to have his undivided focus.
My chosen location away from the media offered some privacy to work with Donald
I set up two flash lights on stands, one aimed at Donald from my left and a second aimed at Donald from my right: this one was a tad more angled to project light on to Donald’s side.
With the lights set I took a few test shots, observing that the winter trees in the background would help frame him once in location.
The use of winter trees in the background would help frame Donald, once stood in
Soon Donald completed his last interview and before he disappeared into the house for a more lengthy TV interview I grabbed my chance to get him posed up. We were under starters orders …
A few test shots indicated that each light’s respective flash output required a quick tweak and I was good to go. Donald posed for less than two minutes – such was the demands on his time today – but being ready and set up helps in such situations ensuring that what time you get with a subject is used to maximum benefit taking pictures, rather than setting up!
With Donald in location I tried both landscape and portrait viewpoints. The portrait option wasn’t really working for me
With the finish line in sight and the shoot complete, I thanked Donald and wished him luck for the forthcoming Cheltenham Festival. I packed up and headed home down the A49 on the home straight.
Once back in the office I edited up my favorites from the shoot in PhotoMechanic – these were individually captioned with each of the respective horse’s biography taken from the detailed sheets handed out at the stables. My final edit was imported into Photoshop where I individually adjusted each picture to ensure the correct exposure levels, colour balance, tones, brightness & contrast and shadow & highlight detail.
Happy with my completed pictures, they were sent to the picture desk via FTP.
My thanks go to The Sunday Times for the Sports section shift and to Donald and his team at the Bankhouse Stables for once again being so welcoming on the day … (with hot coffee and cake all round … it made the shoot an odds on favourite on such a cold day).
Footnote: Donald netted the following results from the 2013 Cheltenham Festival:
Racing Post Arkle Challenge Trophy Chase (Grade 1) – Tues 12th March:
4th with Overturn (IRE) @ 7/2, ridden by J M Maguire.
JLT Specialty Handicap Chase (Grade 3) – Tues 12th March:
2nd with Our Mick @ 13/2, ridden by J M Maguire.
OLBG Mares’ Hurdle (Registered As The David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle) (Grade 2) – Tues 12th March:
14th with She Ranks Me (IRE) @ 33/1, ridden by J M Maguire.
RSA Chase (Grade 1 Novices’ Chase) – Wed 13th March:
8th with Real Milan (IRE) @ 20/1, ridden by J M Maguire.
Coral Cup (Grade 3 Handicap Hurdle) Wed 13th March:
11th with Hollow Tree @ 33/1, ridden by J M Maguire.
and
24th with Any Given Day (IRE) @ 40/1, ridden by Mr N Slatter.
Fred Winter Juvenile Handicap Hurdle (Grade 3) – Wed 13th March:
22nd with Counsel (IRE) @ 12/1, ridden by J M Maguire.
Weatherbys Champion Bumper (Standard Open NH Flat Race) (Grade 1) – Wed 13th March:
14th with Hellorboston (IRE) @ 80/1, ridden by J M Maguire.
RSA Chase (Grade 1 Novices’ Chase) – Wed 13th March:
8th with Real Milan (IRE) @ 20/1, ridden by J M Maguire.
Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup Handicap Chase (Amateur Riders) – Thurs 14th March:
2nd with Super Duty (IRE) @ 11/2, ridden by Mr Derek O’Connor.
Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle – Fri 15th March:
7th with Bourne @ 14/1, ridden by Henry Brooke.
