David Ashdown's Sports Picture Diary: Lingfield Park racecourse

On the face of it, all-weather horse racing gets the blood pumping. While the organisers may not get more than a couple of hundred punters in, photographically it can be very rewarding.

On Thursday night it was -7 centigrade and very foggy - and it was taking a long time to clear. When I got to Lingfield Park there were still patches floating about, the trees were covered in frost and the sun, as it is at this time of year, was very low in the sky.

When the weather at the races is foggy, using a long focal length lens as I often do, can produce low quality pictures because any fog between myself and the horses makes the picture look flat and grey. But the reverse is true if one can get close to the competitors. To be on the track with them would be perfect, but that's not possible. Or at least that's what you would think.

This picture was taken on the last bend, and because the sun is shining into the lens the horses appear silhouetted against the sky.

There was still a lot of fog about during the first race I photographed, so the sky looked white, which was OK, but I hoped it would become clearer as blue sky makes for a better background.

This picture was of the fourth race. The sun was getting very low by this time and the winter light makes it all the more atmospheric. I was using a Nikon D3 camera set at 1/2000 second on a very fast shutter speed, which it has to be as the horses come very close to the lens. I was using a 14mm F2.8 about four feet away. The nearer moving objects get, the faster they are going, so the shutter speed has to rise relative to the movement.

But how was it taken? The camera was resting on the ground under the rail. I had screwed a sort of spike to the bottom of it and pushed it into the soil. It's necessary to lay flat on the ground in order to angle the camera correctly. It has a radio receiver, called a remote, attached to it. After that, it's all about the timing. Not setting the camera off to soon is the most difficult part. The Nikon D3 will do eight frames a second, with a burst of twenty four before it stops to download to the storage card. That's only three seconds, so leaving it to the last possible moment is all important.

It's always a strange feeling being away from the camera. I was only about ten feet from it, but you can never be sure if it will go off, or if the angle is right, so it's quite exciting to see what's there after the race.

Remaining with the camera is always the preferred choice, but only if you survive the experience. I think I'll continue to use the remote for racing, as taking pictures while four feet from galloping horses doesn't sound like a risk worth taking!