[00:00:12] Speaker A: Hello, I'm Rick Marshall of the Daily Gazette, and this is the Marshall Arts podcast in which I talk to artists around New York's capital region about their work, their inspiration, and the experiences that connect us all, regardless of where we call home.
In the last episode, I spoke to video game art director and concept artist Ben Green of Gearbox Software. For this episode, I sat down with local photographer Erica Miller, who spent several decades as both a full time and freelance photographer for the Daily Gazette and other outlets around the capital region. She spent quite a bit of that time photographing the horses races and happenings around Saratoga racecourse, capturing some of the most memorable moments from the racetrack's recent history along the way. With the racing season now underway in Saratoga, it seemed like the perfect time to talk to Erica about the art of photography and her experiences at the racetrack.
[00:01:15] Speaker B: Erica, before I get into the questions I have for you, I do want to share why I'm excited to chat with you here. I confess I am not a frequent visitor to the racetrack. I don't have a lot of experience with the racing scene in Saratoga, so I was a bit out of my element when the gazette sent me to the Belmont Stakes to produce some digital video features earlier this year. I'd heard a lot about you, though, and we hadn't met yet, so I went looking for you there, and the next thing I know, you took me on this whirlwind tour of the racetrack and the surrounding areas and all these lesser known shortcuts from here to there and secret places to go around the facilities. And everywhere we went, people were stopping us to say hello to you, and it felt like everyone knew you there, and I was walking around with a celebrity. It was the best tour a person could ask for. I knew that when the regular season kicked off in Saratoga, I had to get you on the podcast here. So with that introduction out of the way, how long have you been a professional photographer? What got you started in photography?
[00:02:12] Speaker C: I have been professional photographer since about 2008. That's when I really started working for the Saratogian in Saratoga.
I started in college, though. I worked. I went to SUNY Plattsburgh and started with cardinal points, and I started that in my first year in college, which was actually pretty early to start that. So up there, I interned at the press Republican, and I interned down in Albany, but the newspapers where I kind of fell in love. And then once I graduated and took a little bit, but I got my shoe into the Saratogian and that's where it all kicked off.
[00:02:47] Speaker B: So a little revelation. I am also a SUNY Plattsburgh grad, so making connections. Go Berg, go cardinals. What's your history with horses and horse racing photography? How did you get started in that particular area after all of this?
[00:03:02] Speaker C: Yeah, so it was assignments. Of course, it wasn't by choice of I want to go do this, but I fell in love with it as soon as it was introduced. I remember Rick Gargiulio brought me into it and was like, this is what you need to know. This is who's, who's. And then he introduced me to skip Dickstein. He was the tu photographer for years, also works for the blood horse, and he was really my mentor throughout the track. And he kind of swooped me up and was like, don't do this, don't do this, do this, do that. There's so many rules in photography for the horse racing that you don't know, and they're not going to tell you, and it's not written down. You just learn as you go.
[00:03:40] Speaker B: Not going to tell you until you break one of them.
[00:03:42] Speaker C: Yes. So that's why we always try to help other photographers for sure, when we're at the race course, because you don't know what's going to happen next if someone's wearing the wrong thing or on their knees or around a tree. So you have to really be careful.
[00:03:57] Speaker B: I remember you giving me tips as we were walking around there. You were like, okay, so don't take photos of the bedding area, of people placing bets, and don't take photos of this.
Don't wander too close to the horses from this angle if you're going to be taking, you know, any video or photos or things like that.
[00:04:15] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:04:15] Speaker B: And I felt like you may have saved my life on several occasions.
[00:04:18] Speaker C: Yeah, you always, the track is, I mean, everyone is always in their zone when they walk, but when you are at the race course, you really have to be careful, especially around horses, majority of the time. But you have to make sure of your surroundings because you don't know, some of those horses are pretty quiet. And then if you are a little bit too close, you're 2 seconds away from getting kicked in the back, you know, so you have to. Not that I have, not that I've seen people, but you always want to have that fear of potentially.
[00:04:47] Speaker B: It's a healthy fear.
[00:04:48] Speaker C: Yeah, it's a healthy fear of being cautious.
[00:04:51] Speaker B: Well, I know that many photographers have specific sets of gear for different subjects. What's your typical camera and gear loadout, and how does it differ when, you know, you're photographing horses and horse racing.
[00:05:02] Speaker C: It'S all pretty much the same. So, you know, I shoot with Nikon Z nine s. I have the regular wide lens, telephoto lens, and then I shoot 300 for most of my racing stuff, just like football, so.
[00:05:16] Speaker B: Wow, horse racing and football.
[00:05:18] Speaker C: Well, most sports, I mean, football's the next sport, so I kind of just lined up to the next. But, yeah, majority of sport photography, I shoot with the 300 just because that's what I like. It's heavy on you. It wears on your shoulders.
[00:05:31] Speaker B: Yeah, that's for sure. It's a workout.
[00:05:33] Speaker C: The track is a workout. I remember my Fitbit used to tell me how many flights I would go. And the office that we use at the track is on the third floor, so it's on the rooftop. And it would tell me, you know, like, you've done 50 flights today, just going up and down and up and down.
[00:05:50] Speaker B: And I remember when you showed me that when I met you in the press box there, and then you were showing me around how to get out.
[00:05:57] Speaker A: Of the press box and get to.
[00:05:58] Speaker B: Certain areas, I felt like I was a character in clue because I'm, like, taking these secret passageways to get to different parts of the facilities, and you're just like, yeah, so, you know, you push open this door here, and then you go through here, and there's gonna be somebody over here, and you walk by, you just let them know where you came through there. And at one point, I ended up on the roof, on, like, a gangplank of the roof of the place.
[00:06:18] Speaker C: It's cool. It has so many different little hidden charms in there that you don't know. And I haven't gone to other tracks, so I can't really speak of others. But I just love Saratoga race course because of the history and the uniqueness that it has in certain areas. And I really think that speaks to the summer in general of Saratoga that I love is like, you know, you have the horse track race, so it's a historic horse track. And then you have spac, which has New York City ballet, who's been coming there for years on years, and you have the orchestra and then the concerts, and it's just. Just a whirlwind of stuff. And we used to do galas a lot back in the day, and it was just so fun to just be a part of that, even though I was showing up in, like, shorts or, like, my dirty track jeans, because I just came straight from the track and had to go to a gala and it's like they didn't care. They were just happy to get their picture taken, you know, and it just. I don't know, it just gave you, like the whole circle of life, saratoga, summer, that it just. I don't know. The summers are just. They're exhausting, but it's just a whirlwind of stuff, you know, sights and sounds.
[00:07:24] Speaker B: Yeah, well, how has photographing horses and horse racing sort of shaped the way you approach photography?
[00:07:32] Speaker C: I think you're always, anytime that you're shooting the horses, you are trying to get certain things of when they're coming back. And I love anything to do with water, so anytime they're getting the water splash on them, but you're always kind of approaching it as like, how can I get something a little bit different than the person next to me or such? And, you know, so you're trying to make it as creative as you can each time. Sometimes it's repetitive, a lot of the times it's repetitive, but, you know, you try to do it differently. I don't know how it necessarily plays out. I think that plays out with anything that you're shooting because everything's repetitive in this business, you know?
[00:08:09] Speaker B: Well, what's the ideal horse shot for you? Racing shot for you?
[00:08:13] Speaker C: So I shoot from the inner side of the track. So I always like to show them coming down the stretch and the people in the background. So showing some of the crowd, I try to avoid the ambulance just because it's in the background, but it's not always in the background. So you try to show them, but you also want to get the face on the jockey of, like, here I am, full stride, like, going at it with the people in the background and then kind of show the atmosphere. Like, are they really close to other horses? Are they not? But you also have to train, because when you're looking at somebody, if you're looking and you, you've got ten horses coming at you, you don't really know. I mean, like, you know, number two is coming in the lead, but, like, number eight comes out of nowhere, you know? And sometimes horses come. So while you're shooting, you have to, like, in your peripheral look at the camera or sometimes just stop and just keep looking at the tv screens to be like, is the other one neck and neck with him? So if you have to, you can veer over left and right to change.
[00:09:20] Speaker B: Focus and that sort of thing on the fly?
[00:09:22] Speaker C: Well, yeah, because sometimes, let's say number eight will come up from the side and you don't know that he's coming out of nowhere. But everyone on the grandstand can see, like, number eight's coming up. Sometimes you can hear the guy announcing it, but you don't always know. So you really have to pay attention to them coming at you, who's actually coming at you, what's going on with all that situation. And sometimes if I know their neck and neck, I'll like get to get, get to in, like go back and forth just to make sure that in the end, if it's so close in the finish and I'm like too tight with my lens, that I know I at least got, got them.
[00:10:00] Speaker A: At least you got something from each of them.
[00:10:02] Speaker C: From each of them. Yeah.
[00:10:10] Speaker A: Hi, it's Rick again. I just want to make sure you know about the Daily Gazette's other podcast, parting shots. Sports editor Ken Schott has been highlighting the latest and greatest news from the sports world for nearly 400 episodes now interviewing coaches, players and broadcasters from around the industry.
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[00:11:06] Speaker B: What have been some of the big moments for you in photographing horses and horse races over the years? Because with the amount of time you've been covering Saratoga and the amount of big races that have been there, I feel like you've been on site and been there for some big moments.
[00:11:17] Speaker C: Yeah, I definitely would say that probably one of the top, and I think a lot of horse people will say the same, is when Rachel Alexander was there. That was, that was just, it was a long time ago, but that was just cool. It was amazing on a Sunday, out of all the days that, like, is normally the quieter day, and that was back when they only had Tuesdays off. And it was just so cool to hear the crowd and the amount of people just for a horse, just for one horse. And then every morning that you went to go see it, it's like there is security for the horse, just like this extra aura and like, aw of like, that's history, you know? And so it was cool to see that. And every year it's pretty neat to be shooting, like, the triple crown horses. Like, this year. We've already shot all the triple crown horses just for Belmont, and it was. It's just cool to be like, they come to us, you know?
[00:12:11] Speaker B: How would you say. Maybe your photography has evolved over the years? Is there something that you know now, maybe that you wish you knew back when you started?
[00:12:19] Speaker C: I mean, everything, you know, everything. I think you learned something new every year of what to do different and how to do something better or what not to do. I think every year is a learning curve just because technology and. But I'd say the overall is, like, waking up early is hard. Okay, so you've got to get up at, like, four something in the morning, because you have to be there at, like, 515, because your first horse comes out in the morning at 530. And so waking up at 415 or four or whatever time you wake up, you know, Mac probably wakes up even earlier because he's got to drive longer than me. But you're like, do I have to go? Do I need to go?
And then you question yourself. You're like, is it gonna be a good sunrise? I don't know if it'll be a good sunrise. And then I always get mad at myself if I convince myself no. So I always have to say, like, you woke up, just go. Go do it. You have to do it. It's worth it. And you know what? Every time, it's worth it. Even if you don't get exactly what you want. Like, there was mornings that McAdam and I went for, like, Belmont prep. They were like, all right, we're going to get x, Y, and z, and then we get there, and we're like, well, x went out at 530. We weren't there, but we can do this and this instead. Or we'll just go by the barn, and then sometimes they'll be out grazing, and we just get lucky. Like, seize the gray. We, you know, we went and he's out grazing.
So you have to take those chances and just put in the extra work and put in the extra steps, and it's worth it in the end, where before I was, like, I questioned myself, like, is it worth it to walk all the way over there and, like, do this? Because, you know, you're carrying a lot of stuff, but it's worth it. It's worth it. It always seems like it's worth it, even if it's not. You're at least making that face to face connection with those people, even if it's not a trainer, and it's just, it's the groom or the foreman or, you know, you're making those connections.
[00:14:31] Speaker B: You certainly are. From my small experience of walking around the track with you, you've made plenty of connections.
[00:14:37] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. It's a high school reunion, for sure. It's these people that you've been doing these summers with for, what, almost 20 years? You've been doing the summers with that. You might not talk at all in the winter or spring or your only interaction is on social media, but you get back together and you're like, hey, so what are you doing tomorrow? And it's just back to, we saw each other yesterday, and it's cool.
It's a different kind of fun.
[00:15:08] Speaker B: One of the things I found hilarious while I was there, and I was there one of the days just doing photos and video of people's fashion at Belmont, which was also a whole new experience for me, I kept getting asked, so you've been here all day. You report on the track. Do you have any tips for us? Do you find that after having photographed horses as long as you have and been around this scene as much as you have, do you find yourself able to sort of read into, like, horses or jockeys?
[00:15:41] Speaker C: I know nothing about betting. I know absolutely nothing about betting. I will ask Mac all the time about that kind of stuff, but I. I mean, to be honest, it's like, I wasn't making that much money anyways. Why am I gonna bet on the small amount of money they're making? But I just. I don't know. I never did it, and I never will. I mean, sometimes I'll be like, oh, that's like, I've been following that horse that looks like he's been training well and, like, from what I hear and read and stuff, but I don't do the whole betting, but people do ask me all the time, or they'll be like, can you bet on this horse for me? I think there are apps for that. Do it yourself.
[00:16:15] Speaker B: Yeah. People were kept asking me this as I'm taking photos of their fashion. They'd be like, so, do you got any tips for me? Like, I'm taking photos and video of people's outfits, and then I'm going home. I don't know anything about that.
[00:16:28] Speaker C: I always say bet on the name, and the. I mean, the jockey and the trainer, of course, are obvious things, but I bet on the name. That's the fun part. And it's, you know, it's funny to see, like, the kids and the people screaming and stuff. Sometimes it's a little aggressive, but it's fun to hear that roar of it was. We were talking about COVID how.
How different it was at the racetrack. And I remember one time I was shooting at the final turn and I almost missed the horses because you didn't hear that roar. You didn't hear the crowd going. So you never, you didn't know. I mean, you still hear the gallop, but, like, you didn't hear that. So it was kind of like, oh, yeah, oh, yeah, horses are coming.
[00:17:13] Speaker B: That must have been a fascinating experience.
[00:17:15] Speaker C: It was interesting, yeah, for sure.
[00:17:18] Speaker B: Are you able to sort of. It sounds like you are, but you're able to sort of separate the. The act of the horses racing and the horses themselves and sort of the beauty of these animals from the other stuff going on there, the betting, the gambling.
[00:17:33] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, you're my goal. My goal when I'm there is to get the horse, the finish line, the people that go with the horse, all those things. But you have to keep, you know, you have to pay attention to. Okay, who just won. Alright, cis trainer. Okay. Look at who the owners are. Oh, I know some of those people with the owners. All right, well, now I'm gonna look in the clubhouse, gonna see who's coming down the photo on yesterday's front page. You know, I, for some reason, had to shoot that race for something else. And I was like, wow, these guys are so excited. Coming down from the clubhouse. I'm gonna take a picture of it. Lo and behold, it was the photo of the guy that we needed that we were hunting for the whole day. And I was like, let me just look back on my photos that I shot earlier. Maybe I got that guy. I mean, that'd be luck.
It was him.
[00:18:21] Speaker B: It's not just luck.
[00:18:22] Speaker A: It was her instincts.
[00:18:23] Speaker C: It was the Boston Bruins goalie Jeremy swamon. So I was like, whew, saved ourselves.
[00:18:31] Speaker B: Well, you know what? I'm going to move on even from horse racing here, because I know horse racing isn't your sole focus. What else do you enjoy about photography? What else do you enjoy photographing?
[00:18:41] Speaker C: I love all of it, honestly. I mean, I really have grown my passion for sports photography that I never had been. I mean, in college, I always liked hockey for some reason.
[00:18:55] Speaker B: But you went to Plattsburgh. I know that you're surrounded by that.
[00:18:58] Speaker C: Kind of, you know. Yeah, we were going to those championships for sure, but.
But then it mostly evolved. Evolved here. Like, Mike Kelly was sending me to everything with Sienna and Ualbany, and it's just my passion for it definitely, definitely heightened. But I do. I mean, I enjoy the ballet. The ballet is just so beautiful. And I don't know, it's a huge variety of things.
[00:19:26] Speaker B: Well, in addition to your work for the Daily Gazette here, where else can people find your photography or more information about your work and find your photos?
[00:19:34] Speaker C: My Instagram's Erika photog 518 and then my Twitter handle or my ex handle is Erika photog.
[00:19:44] Speaker B: Fantastic. Well, Erika, thank you so much for joining me for this chat.
[00:19:48] Speaker A: I have learned a lot about photography.
[00:19:50] Speaker B: And about horse racing and about horses and a lot about you. I didn't realize that we went to the same school, so there you go.
[00:19:56] Speaker C: Yeah. But tip is, if you're ever gonna go the track and you wanna experience one thing, go in the mornings. The mornings, to me, are the most beautiful. It's my favorite time. And Mac and I just love, you know, tag teaming everything and trying to figure everything out. It's chaos of fun and it's just beautiful. Everyone's the kindest, the sweetest, and. And people don't realize that horse racing, it's like, it's literally from 530 sunrise to sunset. I mean, you know, sometimes you're leaving there, especially on traverse day, and there is no sun left.
[00:20:32] Speaker B: Well, thank you so much, Erika.
[00:20:33] Speaker C: You're welcome. Thanks for having me.
[00:20:46] Speaker A: This has been the martial arts podcast with guest, Saratoga Springs based photographer Erica Miller. You can find Erika on Instagram as erikaphotog 518, where you can see some of the photos we discussed during this interview. Thanks for listening to this episode of Martial Arts. If you like what you heard and want to hear more, make sure to subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts. And for more coverage of the regions, arts and entertainment scene, head to DailyGazette.com and Nippertown. This episode was produced by me, Rick Marshall for the Daily Gazette. If there's a local art story or artist you'd like to hear more about on this podcast, you can contact
[email protected] or via social media.
