05/09/2026
I was 5 years ago that I sat in a chair at a jackpot in Washington, before I moved to Texas, taking pictures of every rider that ran. I had a Nikon D2300 with a manual lens, and beyond making sure my shots were in focus I had zero idea what I was doing.
I didn’t know about my fstop.
I didn’t know what my ISO being as high as it could go would do to my image.
I had no idea what the ‘fuzz’ on my images was.
I didn’t know what my shutter speed was.
I just put it in auto and tried my hardest with the focus. I always say that camera was a saint because it did a lot of work for what it was designed to do.
Photographing races isn’t my main focus, but when I do get the opportunity it really is something I love. I love watching people ride, I love watching the horses work, and I love getting to study riders. It’s one of the many reasons I wanted to do photos at races all those years ago. I didn’t have many, if any, resources to learn at that point in my life and I loved being able to pick up on things from everyone.
Even today, it’s one of my favorite things about getting to video. I have a lot to learn as a jockey myself and I want to be the best I can, so much of the time I study while editing videos. There’s so much to learn. From everyone.
Today I get to enjoy what started it all way back when. I’m so thankful. There have been a lot of moments recently where I stop and think about how things have changed, but this was always the path I was on 🫶🏼🥹
Thank you all for allowing me the opportunity to be here and doing things like this.
(I will have a link up tonight to view images from Arrow CS Productions Ride For The Mind Race)