Race Day

WHAT
Table decorations, wine glass, sweepstakes ticket and a betting receipt on a table at a Melbourne Cup luncheon. The 'Melbourne Cup' is perhaps Australia's best known horse race and is billed as 'The race that stops the nation.' The race is held annually on the first Tuesday of November and is widely celebrated at racecourses, pubs, clubs, schools and workplaces around the nation.

WHY
I took my camera along to this luncheon intending to get some action shots of the crowd as they watched the race being broadcast on the big screen. However, because we were indoors in a dimly lit location, the photos I'd taken of the people were quite dark, even with the ISO cranked up and shutter speed slowed down.

Therefore in order to remember this day, I tried a different tactic:
I've always liked photographs taken at table height of glasswhere, confetti, cutlery etc so I constructed my own scene to commemorate my Melbourne Cup lunch. In my opinion, when people attend family celebrations such as birthdays, weddings (or a luncheon such as this) they forget to take photos of the details. By that I mean the little things that make the day what it is.

As if to demonstrate my point, I remember hearing my sister-in-law commenting as I was taking this shot "I wouldn't even think to take a photo of that!"

HOW
I selected a few items that, to me, are intrinsically 'Melbourne Cup' - a betting slip, a wine glass, and a sweepstakes ticket. I played around with the positioning of these items until I was happy with the composition of the scene. The miniature 'confetti horses' were a nice touch placed on each table by the establishment hosting the lunch. .

Due to the low lighting, I increased the ISO to 800 in order to provide a bright enough image. In manual mode, I used f/6.3 and shutter speed 1/5s.

POST PRODUCTION
In photoshop, I increased the clarity and vibrance slightly.