Eclipse Sportswire Workshop First of Its Kind

[Wandering Eyes]

Ever wonder what it’s like to professionally photograph horse racing on a daily basis? Eclipse Sportswire gave amateur photographers the chance to find out when it hosted it’s inaugural Photography Workshop Mar. 27-30 at Santa Anita Park.

Organized and taught by founder and chief photographer of Eclipse Sportwire Scott Serio and assistant managing editor Alex Evers, students got the chance to get first-hand experience honing their skills while snapping shots during morning workouts, getting live editing instruction from industry professionals and preparing remotes and capturing the day’s live races.

“We have a large social media presence with Eclipse Sportswire and get a lot of requests about how we do things, how we made certain pictures and people who want to break into the business and do it the right way,” said Serio, who won the 2015 Eclipse Award for photography. “We thought this would be a great way to pull together all those elements and teach photographers of varying skill levels how to create story-telling images in horse racing. We want to cultivate the next generation.”

A field of eight assembled the last weekend in March. One of the group was Carolyn Simancik, a veterinary technician from Oklahoma, who works with Quarter Horses.

“I’ve photographed as a hobby for the last few years and have been fortunate to shoot for some people in the quarter horse industry, but have only been watching Thoroughbreds for a few years.” said Simancik. “I really wanted to learn how you may all look at the exact same horse, but you and I are able to get a different shot and to tell a different story. I think my favorite part of the workshop was just listening to their [Serio and Evers] stories. They make you think outside the box.”

By the end of the workshop, Simancik’s portfolio was named the Most Improved, which earns her an opportunity to work alongside Eclipse Sportwire as an assistant at the Breeders’ Cup at Churchill Downs in November.

Another participant was Delaney Witbrod. A native of Atlanta, Georgia, she is currently a student of photography at Gwuinnett Technical College and first got her shot to photograph racehorses while enrolled at the University of Kentucky.

“It was pretty cool to see how Scott and Alex’s minds function and how professionals like them work on and off the track,” said Witbrod. “It wasn’t really until the last day where everything pieced together and made sense. It really was one of the coolest experiences of my life.”

At the end of the week, her portfolio was honored as the best of the weekend and with that, she is going to be assisting Eclipse Sportwire in a few weeks at the May 5th Kentucky Derby.

“I dreamed of the Derby every since I was a little kid. Being able to shoot such an amazing event will be one of the coolest experiences,” Witbrod said.

With the success of this first workshop, Eclipse Sportswire is excited to get the ball rolling on the next one.

“We would love to do more of these workshops and there is a demand for something like this,” said Serio. “I think with this being our first one, I feel there was a little bit of hesitancy because people really didn’t know what to expect and the timing of Easter weekend didn’t help. If we were to come east for our next one, I know we have at least 15-20 people who would attend something like this.”

 

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