Photographing Blackpool

This week, I headed over to Blackpool and met up with a friend for some photography. The weather looked very promising. I love the idea of photographing old seaside towns out of season, so this looked ideal.

We met up around midday and grabbed some fish and chips for lunch (when we found a chippy that was open). Fully refuelled, we headed off with our cameras to shoot the streets of Blackpool.

The idea was to shoot street photography whilst waiting for the weather to improve. Although the forecast on our phones said it was currently sunny with a blue sky, it was grey and overcast. This was perfect for hunting out run-down areas of the town. It was also perfect for trying out the new Film Recipes I’d loaded onto my Fuji XT5.

Here are three shots that I quite like, and the Fuji Film Recipes give them more of a run-down feel.

All these shots were captured using my Fuji XT5 handheld and the Fuji 16-80 lens. This isn’t my ideal setup for street work, as the equipment is too bulky. I much prefer my little Fuji XE3 with a few prime lenses, but I was here to shoot the sunset.

Despite the gloomy sky, this was good fun, and the weather finally improved. That’s when we made our way down to the beach to look for a suitable sunset composition. After some head-scratching and looking at different compositions, I settled on the area below the Central Pier. It was quite a challenge to work with, but I was able to capture the following image.

This was taken using the Fuji XT5 with a 10-24mm lens at 10mm. I had the camera mounted on a tripod for a 1/15 second exposure at f/7.1 and ISO125. I then processed the RAW file using DxO PhotoLab 7 and made further adjustments using the Nik Collection in Photoshop.

What I find amazing about this photo is how much camera technology and software have improved. This is a single exposure on the XT5, and I didn’t use any lens filters. I’m probably at the limit of what the camera can capture, but I am pleased with the result.

I hope you like the image and have a great weekend.