History comes in many forms. The decisive moment is history. A singular moment in time. Then there is the collective history. The continuing history. History that doesn't stop but is created daily by those that capture the decisive moments. On June 6 2015 American Pharoah made history at Belmont by becoming the 12th horse in history to win the Triple Crown. I was present with Nikon Professional Services supporting pro's at the event when the opportunity to put three of the men covering the race for Sports Illustrated in front of my lens. The three men have pedigrees that don't need explaining. A quick google search of their names will give you more history than i can give. 

Two Nikon Ambassadors and a legend. Andrew Hancock, Bill Frakes, Heinz Kluetmeier. 

It was one of those moments when I wished I'd had more time, more gear, more planning but I also knew that if I didn't act quickly there wouldn't be an opportunity. Later in the day would be chaos. Doubly so if American Pharoah made history. I grabbed my friends from the NPS depot and led the way to the winner's circle. I figured that if i was going to get a chance to shoot three men that were amongst the greatest living sports photographers at a horse race then I was putting them in the winners circle. I only had two speedlights on hand. SB-910's and I wish I could have set up with a few more behind with at least two behind but it wasn't an option. These three were not models at my leisure. They were working the event and doing everything in their power to capture the history that was about to be made. The winners circle was live. There were other races going on. This would have to be fast. I asked Andy and Mel to hold the SB-910's a little above their heads and aimed 45 down. I zoomed each head to 50 mm since there was no point wasting light on a background that was being lit by the sun. I took one quick test shot to get the exposure for the background. I asked the flashes to be a little straighter on than i would for a fashion shoot since all three men were wearing hats and I didn't want to add more shadow - I wanted to lesson it. I underexposed the background a stop to make the yellow and green bibs pop out.  I popped up the flash on the D810 to work as a master for the two remotes and voilá Heinz was off looking for mischief a moment later and my shoot of three of the best to ever take a picture of a short guy on the back of a big animal was over. History. 

 -  The history of Sports Illustrated horse racing 1969 - present Captured with a Nikon D810, Nikkor 20 1.8 and two SB-910 speedlights photographers Andrew Hancock, Bill Frakes, and Heinz Kluetmeier pose in the winners circle before the 147th Belmont Stakes two hours before American Pharoah made history by becoming the 12th horse in history to win the Triple Crown