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The Horse and The Rider: Darren Gauci
The Horse and The Rider: Darren Gauci
hotpasta


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Faceless Portrait (Advanced Editing IV)
Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 EX APO IF HSM for Nikon
Location: Flemington Racecourse Melbourne, Australia
Date: Oct 6, 2006
Aperture: f 3.5
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1/1000
Galleries: Black and White, Photojournalism
Date Uploaded: Oct 8, 2006

 Mounting Yards at Flemington...tried for a shot like this where I had two headless faceless subjects and ended up choosing this image.

Basically:
Grayscale
Duotone
Dodge and Burn
healed out a reflection
bluring tool on horse
Noise Ninja
Resize
USM
border 1cm sides 3 cm top and bottom
more blurring and sharpening
Save for web

That's about it...hope for a 6.XXXX

Statistics
Place: 31 out of 185
Avg (all users): 6.2936
Avg (commenters): 8.0909
Avg (participants): 6.0976
Avg (non-participants): 6.4118
Views since voting: 2045
Views during voting: 356
Votes: 218
Comments: 38
Favorites: 6 (view)

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AuthorThread
 11/08/2006 06:31:09 AM
i'm honestly shocked this didn't place better. one of my favourites.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/22/2006 02:09:41 PM
Critique Club

Listening to: The Everyothers - Too Far

The first thing I notice is the quality of the light. Strong, directional light from the left of the frame, raking across the subjects, creating depth and shape. The next thing I see is the quality of the jockey's top, the silky feel that the light and highlights give it. The bright, white region of the leg draws my eye, then I flow through the scene, to the jarring lack of head.

I like the fact that both the horse and rider have had their head's cropped, hitting the challenge theme, twice. Taking it by the neck as it were. Overall, the shot has great flow, across the horse, the rider, along the legs, horses neck, and so on, then through into the out of focus background, with the riders, grounding the shot and giving it a real sense of the place. I think those background elements really help the shot and give it a lot more context.

Seeing the Flemington name on the horse also helps locate it well. Overall very successful at giving a great insight into the jockey, without having his face in the frame at all. Great stuff. The B&W processing works well too, detail where it's needed, blown out and good blacks where required too. Very enjoyable.

The only thing that I take issue with a bit is the selective blurring, particularly around the horse - it seems quite obvious but not consistent - e.g., the horse's haunches are sharp, but blur down the back - but not in a way that would make sense for a lens - least it looks wrong to my eye. Same with the horse's mane it goes from sharp to blurred, without a justifiable transition - same with the jockey's knee. In short, I think that could maybe have been handled more subtly.
I like the blur towards the top of the frame though - so maybe just a bit more care ?

Overall, I really enjoyed this shot - there's plenty of interesting things going on but they've been handled well. There's a great left to right then right to left flow through the scene, out towards the horses. Thanks for entering it!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/18/2006 09:15:03 AM
Just want to tell you again how awesome I think this photo is. It was one of my favorites in the whole challenge, which says alot because there were so many really good ones!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/16/2006 06:17:41 PM
Good picture, and you got 6+ :o)love the colors/tones in it..
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/16/2006 04:59:12 PM
This was one of my favorites also. Should have placed higher!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/16/2006 12:22:10 PM
I thought that this would definitely ribbon and judging from the comments and the number of "after challenge" comments I wasn`t alone.
Really great shot and you can take consolation from the praise it has received.

Gordon
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/16/2006 08:52:11 AM
This is a classic image. Now what is a pastor doing hanging around the parade ring, I ask myself ;-) I expect you have heard the one about the young man who went to the races one day and saw a priest looking all the horses over. The priest finally went up to one of the horses and signed the cross on its forehead. The man didn't think much of it but went on to place a bet on another horse running in the same race. The young man's horse came in last while the horse the priest had blessed romped home well ahead of all the others. The next race came and the young man had placed a bet on a horse. Once again, he saw the priest again blessing another horse. The young man's horse arrived at the winning post well down the field while the priest's blessed horse romped home once again to win. When the next race came up, the young man noticed the priest went up to a horse, looked it in the eye, placed the sign of the corss on its forehead and one each of its hooves. That was it - the young man rushed to the tote and placed all his money on this horse. The starter sent the horses off down the track and the young man was shocked to see his choice of horse pull to the side of the track 20 lengths from the post where he promptly gave up the ghost and died. Having lost all his money, the young man went in search of the priest. How could this be? he asked the priest. Every horse you blessed this afternoon won and this one you gave an extra blessing to. The priest looked at the young man and said, You obviously don't know the difference between a blessing and an absolution.

Better told over a pint of Guinness. :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/16/2006 08:35:46 AM
I cannot believe this did not do better. (Not that it did badly) I had it pegged to place first or second. Beautiful photo!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/16/2006 07:08:59 AM
One of my fav's for the challenge! The tone looks really good here! Congratulations
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/16/2006 07:02:20 AM
ok, not judi. sorry. i had read somewhere of her going to the races a while ago, so i thought... i even googled darren gauci to discover he is australian...

i stand by comments - this is a stunning image. it didn't place as well as it should have, but, well, that's par for the course.

well done indeed.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/16/2006 02:36:30 AM
Love the tonal values here.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/16/2006 12:11:35 AM
Fantastic shot - I fully expected this to finish in the top 10. Great work.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/16/2006 12:11:10 AM
Sorry, Enzo, I must have cursed you - this really is a WONDERFUL shot, and I thought it was perfect for this challenge!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/16/2006 12:10:35 AM
Darn. This needed a higher placement. I love it.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
10/15/2006 10:16:03 PM
Beautiful and rich. Nice photo
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/15/2006 01:09:31 PM
An expert capture with good contrasts and lovely tones. Bump.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/15/2006 09:35:04 AM
judi? absolutely stunning. a 10, and that's a rarity from me. exposure, composition, toning, depth of field, focus; superb. thank you.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/15/2006 01:59:02 AM
Beautiful contrast, composition, depth, and textures!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/15/2006 12:32:52 AM
fantastic image. i wish that foreground blur...neat image? wasn't so distracting for me.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/13/2006 05:51:15 PM
awesome
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/13/2006 04:30:32 PM
I'm not liking the composition here. Too much of the rider is out of the frame and/or out of focus. It doesn't really work well as a portrait.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/12/2006 10:11:43 PM
Great composition. Flawless editing. Nice job. I vote 10.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/12/2006 05:33:12 PM
Just perfect for this challenge in my opinion.
Compositionally...very creative and interesting..and really suits the tonal treatment.
Nice work.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/12/2006 02:15:43 PM
Would have been better if you had left his head in as I'm sure he would have been looking away and therefore would have been faceless.
Like it all the same
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/12/2006 12:11:58 AM
Absolutely perfect for this challenge and an incredible photograph on it's own. Gorgeous processing. Can't bump it any higher - the best of a very good challenge.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/11/2006 04:52:15 PM
10
absolutely beautiful
perfect is all i can say!!!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/11/2006 01:22:11 PM
this really gets the essence of horse and rider for me. the waiting, anticipation, excitement, textures, etc???
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/10/2006 07:29:30 PM
Really like this shot. This is the type of photo that totally meets this challenge perfectly.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/10/2006 03:09:20 PM
great smootness in there
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/10/2006 10:13:25 AM
Good photo, good tones, good entry.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/09/2006 02:42:33 PM
really nice atmosphere in this image!
nice capture!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/09/2006 01:44:46 PM
I love this one. Beautiful sepia tones, and composed perfectly for this challenge. Great job!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/09/2006 11:45:17 AM
Something about this is realy good. You might get points off for the blur of the horse's hid quarters, but to me it's just narrow DOF, with the focus on the jockey's name. I like the frame too! 8
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/09/2006 10:47:34 AM
Great shot!!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/09/2006 10:13:00 AM
Great shot. Border seems a little thick on this one as there is already plenty of black or dark in the photo. The little black splotch at the base of the jockeys neck distracts a bit too. 6.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/09/2006 10:11:51 AM
very good, is this taken with lens baby ? i like the film look like border, nice tonal range
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/09/2006 03:06:32 AM
Wow! This is a really nice shot with perfect lighting. I'm adding this to my favorites.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/09/2006 12:32:48 AM
awesome effect, not sure about the edge blurring though
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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