Horse racing pictures with EOS R3

Sports photographer Morgan Treacy has been masking the Laytown Races for greater than 25 years. As Ireland’s solely horse racing occasion run on a seashore beneath the Rules of Racing, the annual meet gives placing photograph alternatives. Over time, he has developed a transparent sense of what makes a picture stand out – an intuition that knowledgeable each his profitable picture within the World Sports Photography Awards 2026 and his position as a choose for the Canon Emerging Talent Award.

It’s arduous to get a picture that hasn’t been captured earlier than, Morgan acknowledges, which is why he was significantly happy to discover a dramatic special approach on the occasion. His picture – Equine Reflection – went on to earn first place within the Equestrian class.

“That’s at the core of what sports photographers do,” he says. “If you’re trying to do it at a high level, you want to be going to an event you’ve covered before and come up with something new. And I did this time.”

That seek for originality was additionally one thing Morgan appreciated whereas judging the Canon Emerging Talent Award, the place many younger photographers embraced new approaches to sports activities pictures.

Morgan spent six races attempting totally different pictures initially level, “with varying levels of success”. He’d just about given up and was strolling again in the direction of the end to wire his footage when he observed a big puddle. “I saw that the horses were already off and thought there was possibly a direct side-on shot to be had, but as they got closer, I could see that they might come into a possible reflection in this puddle.”

He needed to shortly resolve on the lens. “I had everything with me – the RF 400mm F2.8L IS USM, RF 135mm F1.8L IS USM and RF 28-70mm F2L USM lenses – but looking back at the horses, I thought, this is a big picture. It’s a wide shot, not a tight one. So, I grabbed the 28-70mm and got down low on the sand.”