Celebrating milestones
This year has seen many motorsport celebrations: 100 years of Le Mans, 75 years of Porsche, Lotus and NASCAR, 60 years of McLaren, to name a few. It’s also a big year for Goodwood, who celebrate 75 years of motorsport at Goodwood Motor Circuit, 30 years since the Festival of Speed began and 25 years since the first Revival and the foundation of the Goodwood Road Racing Club (GRRC). The Duke of Richmond and his team had put in tremendous work to deliver what can only be described as a grand spectacle of motoring and motorsport.
Once again, Gerry Judah designed a spectacular central feature sculpture, celebrating Porsche’s 75th anniversary and the 60th anniversary of the 911. Featuring six Porsche cars, it’s the fourth time the manufacturer has graced the lawn outside Goodwood House, more than any other manufacturer.—illustrating the significance of Porsche in both motorsport and its consistent contribution to the world of road-going sportscars.
With all the celebrations, this may have been the busiest FoS. There were plenty of new car launches across the weekend and hundreds of independent exhibitors alongside the major manufacturers. Add to that all the cars, bikes, the hill climb, the off-road arena and the forest rally stage make for a huge event. FoS is too big to see everything in one day. To take in everything, you must make your visit a multi-day experience.
The weather didn’t stop play, for us
We heard that the Met Office had announced a yellow weather warning for Saturday as we left. They were predicting extreme rain and 50mph winds. By the time we’d made it back to Kent, we’d learnt that the organisers had wisely, in my view, decided not to open the venue on Saturday. Can you imagine those winds trashing the exhibitor’s displays, the temporary grandstands, not to mention the 30-metre-high central sculpture with millions of pounds of classic Porsches attached? Add a considerable crowd, and you end up with a very high-risk event. Yes, there were many disappointed people, but it was the right thing not to open the event. The organisers offered refunds or the option to rollover tickets to next year.
An air of change
Festival of Speed photography
Usually, I’ll carry my two trusty DSLRs to capture an event. This year, however, I decided to challenge myself and only take my Fuji Xpro3 rangefinder and one 23mm lens. I’ve tried this once at the 78th Members Meeting with mixed results. As with the previous experiment, I chose to stick to black and white, using a modified Kodak Tri-X 400 film recipe from FujiX Weekly. All the images in this post are straight out of camera JPGs no filters. Other than cropping the main image at the top of the page, I’ve made no adjustments. Reviewing what I captured, I believe some images, such as the central sculpture, would benefit from colour to show the beautiful coloured fireworks.
I hit a technical issue with my camera refusing to cooperate for a while. This may have been down to the weather, but more than likely, it was a user error. My good friend Mark had to witness me becoming very frustrated for a while. He politely suggested a complete reset. I wonder if he meant me or the camera. I tried a factory reset on the camera, after which everything started to work again. Looking back, I think I hit some button combinations that rendered some functionality unusable.
I’m reasonably happy with my choice to take my Fuji, which made me slow down and think about what I was shooting. While the images may not be the best I’ve captured, they give me something to work on. I will not be ditching my DSLRs soon, but I will use the rangefinder more often.
Final thoughts
A small ask from me
I hope you have enjoyed this article and my images. If you have, why not directly contribute to my artistic growth and encourage me to explore new creative avenues by clicking on the button and buying me a coffee?
Many thanks, Dereck
