John Bean, FULL-FLIGHT, Ekka Harness Horse Racing (LANDSCAPE 2020)

The ‘Ekka’ is Brisbane’s annual Show. Like many Shows across the Country, the Ekka has been cancelled in 2020 due to COVID-19 health management. So it’s nice to have photo reminders of the August Show’s contribution to our City’s annual rhythm, particularly as we’re encouraged to keep travel local. One special event is Harness Horse Racing. It’s an event that never interested me much, that is, until I noticed those horses energetically fly around the very tight Ekka Main Ring circuit, one of the shortest circuits in the Country. So my goal over the last couple of years has been to catch a sequence all horses suspended in full flight in all four images. I chose my very wide angle zoom lens, the Sigma Art 12-24mm f/4, as it enabled me to accommodate the full width of the pack through the fence barrier, to cover the unpredictable spread of the pack. This spread varied immensely race to race, lap to lap. At 12 mm the lens with camera (Nikon D810) set to fast shutter helped suspend the horses in space and time. The circuit background to the horses was uncluttered fortunately, for horse clarity, yet sharp due to the incredibly wide depth-of-field created by the 12mm setting. This meant that our familiar Ekka setting framing the circuit was also sharp, including the historical covered wooden Grandstands where we all have our favourite seats.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.