HORSE RACING & SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHER featuring On-Line Racehorse Picture Library
We provide high quality imagery to the horse racing & general sports industry including worldwide corporate and commercial clients and numerous global media outlets. We are members of The HWPA (Horse Race Writers & Photographers Association) and The Sports Journalists Association. We regularly contribute images to the Godolphin, Al Shaqab Racing and Ballydoyle operations and proud to have supplied the Late HM The Queen and the Royal Household on numerous occasions when the Royal Colours and their horses have been victorious. Our work is often featured in various Horse Racing Journals, Sales Books and other publications. Please see below for further racing testimonials.
Our archives from Race Meetings are available to view on this site from 2013 onwards but our extensive stock library, including jockey, trainer and owner portrait collaboration dates from 2010. To browse thousands of images from the numerous Meetings attended, click on "Photo Gallery" and choose your subject or venue, or complete the PICTURE SEARCH facility at the bottom of the main menu.We have covered famous and historic wins by Golden Horn, Mishriff, Stradivarius, Enable, Logician, Meccas Angel, Desert Crown, Honeysuckle, Noble Yeats, A Plus Tard and many, many more besides. Racegoers favourites include Tiger Roll and Top Notch Tonto. The site is being updated all the time.
THERE ARE 10,000 IMAGES AVAILABLE TO VIEW ON THE SITE & OVER 960,000 IMAGES IN STOCK - PLEASE EMAIL (mickatkinsphotos@gmail.com ) OR RING ( 07764 160600 ) IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A PARTICULAR HORSE.
THE FLAT RACE :-
The average duration of an 8 furlong (one mile) flat race is a mere 96 seconds.....
Short enough that you could hold your breath from start to finish - and of course, many often do !
96 tiny seconds that can make history or break a record.....make dreams come true or break a heart ?
The average speed of my camera's shutter when capturing a single frame during a race is 1/1000th of a single second.....
Short enough that I can hold my breath from start to finish - and of course I often do !
1/1000th of a single second.....sufficient time, providing the Gods of The Lens are smiling fair
To capture and record in eternity some of the most dramatic and thrilling tableaux in all sport.
The images on this website are tiny fragments of time.....moments captured in much less than the blink of an eye.....
Meagre threads in a tapestry of coloured silks and Carnival, which has enshrouded the Globe for centuries.....0.0010 seconds at a time
THE STEEPLE CHASE :-
Ireland, 1772, on a damp spring day where Cornelius O'Callaghan and Edmund Blake settled a wager - the first to cover 4 miles between two churches being declared the winner. They could never imagined that on that very morning, they were sowing the seeds for what would thereafter become known as The Sport of Kings.
A beautiful synergy concocted from the raw power and speed of the flat race and blended with the deft grace and timing of the cross-country which, when executed perfectly, is akin, put quite simply, to a rider having wings !
Imagine for a second, jockeying your way through a bustling crowd, along a rush hour pavement.....the switch step, side winding dance we all do from day to day.....imagine how often we bump shoulders or have to yield to on coming foot traffic in order just to remain upright and on the right track.....all at around 2.5 miles per hour !
Now imagine doing the same dance at 30 miles per hour, whilst balancing 6 feet in the air on the balls of your feet and taking off every 30 or so strides to soar more than 12 feet from the ground for a distance of 18 feet before landing at the same 30 miles per hour - without ever breaking your stride.....such is the life of the jump jockey !
Mick Atkins (copyright 2022)
All rights reserved. Copyright @ Mick Atkins Photography
