People Watching at Cheltenham Races with my Fuji X70

16 Mar

Earlier in the week, I mentioned how my X70 has had a bit of a bump and that I'm hankering after an X80 (come of Fujifilm, we are waiting....).

As I mentioned in that post, the camera is aesthetically wrecked but functionally still OK. Just about.

Each year, I take a trip with some good friends to the Cheltenham Festival.

Whilst we partake a little in the festivities of the day, the real charm of it for me is the people.

I love to wander around the enclosure photographing the people and when I'm shooting with something as tiny as the X70 I can do this practically invisibly - especially when the racing is going on.

This year, I decided to shoot something a little more than just random stills and went out with the intention of making a little fun Photo Film.

It's a little like the film I made for my son's birthday last Summer - 1,000 frames with the X100F.

The film is below. It's best with sound, and remember it's not art, it's just a little fun.

In fact, if you stop the sequence at any point you'll likely fall on a benign image, but I think together it works well.

The most important thing with these types of collections, I think, is that it keeps the photography fun and fresh for me as the photographer.

I hope you like it:

I've had quite a few questions on my YouTube Channel about how I make these little photo films and over the next few weeks I'll create a proper tutorial there, but in a nutshell:

The camera is set to Continuous focus
Central focal point
High Speed (CH)
Spot Metered
Half Depress to activate the shooting then full depress to shoot the burst
Try and shoot a few frames before and after the moment you are trying to capture
Throw them all into Premiere Pro
Find a decent audio track (I'm using Epidemic Sound right now)

That's basically it.

I absolutely love shooting with the Fuji X70. It really is tiny and discreet and for me, it's the perfect camera for this kind of environment.

You can see just how close I can get, shooting from waist level, and really, people are totally oblivious.

These images were shot in RAW and I've very quickly processed them for the Photo Film.

There are 976 images in the film.

I've selected a few of my favourites and edited them in Alien Skin Exposure - which is getting better and better with each release. The newest version, by the way, has a set of Fujifilm film simulation profiles similar to those found in the calibration panel in Lightroom.

As I said, for me, the reason for shooting these is because I love photographing people being people and I think there is a great paradox across many of these images.

My favourite has to be the last one. The excitement of a win coupled with the depression of a loss during the closing stages of the final race.

By the way, if you are in Birmingham this weekend (18th/19th March 2018), I'll be talking at The Photography Show. I'll be on the Behind the Lens Stage as well as a couple of sessions on the Fujifilm Booth. Details can be found here.

Happy Snapping.