CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

The Kingdom of Bahrain is starting to attract more tourists and one of the attractions on the island is the Tree of Life. The Tree of Life (Shajarat-al-Hayaf) is a 400-year-old 10 metre / 35 ft high tree that is growing out in the desert.  It is the only large tree in the area and there are no water sources nearby and with little to no rain throughout the year the Tree of Life attracts a lot of attention, including tourists with 50,000 people traveling to the site on the south side of the island. The trip down from Manama takes you through the gas and oil fields, with workers campsites all around the site of the Tree of Life.   We decided to travel down at sunset before heading back to Manama to catch our flights back to Europe after the 6 Hours of Bahrain weekend. I captured these images on the Fujifilm X-T2 as the sun went down behind the tree.  Sunsets in the Middle East are pretty quick, lasting several minutes at best.   -...

2016 FIA World Endurance Championship - 6 Hours of Bahrain Fujifilm X-T2 + XF100-400mm f4.5/5.6 - 1/4000 @f4.5 ISO400 The 6 Hours of Bahrain is now over, bringing to a close the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship.  The race saw the no8 Audi of Lucas Di Grassi, Loic Duval and Oliver Jarvis take an emotional victory for Audi in the manufacturers last endurance race after 18 years at the top of the sport. The race was also the last for Mark Webber who finished third on the podium alongside teammates Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley in the no1 Porsche while they handed over their 2015 FIA World Endurance Drivers' Championship title to teh teammates in the no2 Porsche Neel Jani, Romain Dumas and Marc Lieb. Lucas Di Grassi, Oliver Jarvis, Loic Duval - no8 Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R18 Fujifilm X-Pro2 + XF50-140mm f2.8 - 1/100 @f2.8 ISO1000 While out shooting during the first couple of hours of the 6 Hours of Bahrain I decided to shoot several images...

The FIA World Endurance Championship is run by a dedicated team of officials and one of the key people at each event is the FIA Race Director.  Portugal’s Eduardo Freitas has been the Race Director for the FIA WEC since the first race in March 2012 and is often heard on the radio and on the TV giving instructions, which has led to him being called ‘The Voice’.  He has built a strong relationship with the rest of the organisation and describes himself as the conductor of the orchestra. As the FIA Media Delegate I conducted an interview with Eduardo Freitas in Shanghai to ask him about his job and his role in running each of the nine races that make up a season in the FIA World Endurance Championship. The video was shot entirely on the Fujifilm X-T2 with either the 16-55mm f2.8 or 10-24mm f4 Fujinon lenses. The video and interview was published on the FIA website HERE   ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------...

The 6 Hours of Bahrain is one of three races on the FIA World Endurance Championship calendar that are run at night.  The other races are the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 6 Hours of Circuit of the Americas in Texas. Shooting at night provides some unique challenges but some of these issues are negated as the circuit has a massive floodlight system that provides light all around the track. Yesterday I went out and shot some images during the first Free Practice session which finished 20 minutes before sunset.  The low sun provided some deep shadows and also some amazing light on track as sunset approached. The second 90-minute Free Practice session was run under the floodlights which meant I had to push the ISO up a few notches to 1600 on the X-Pro2 and X-T2. The moon had risen just above the horizon and I was able to get a few shots with the exposure balanced enough to get both the car and the moon in the shot. I also took a few shots ...

SMP Racing - Fujifilm X-T2 + XF100-400mm At each of the nine FIA World Endurance Championship events the drivers and their engineers take part in the track walk.  This is their opportunity to get a close look at the circuit, see if there have been any changes from the previous years and also see where their car might be able to gain an advantage. Here in Bahrain the track walk took place late in the afternoon just before sunset and it was a hot walk in the desert for the drivers and their teams as they completed one lap on foot of the 5.4km Bahrain International Circuit. I took the X-T2 fitted with the XF100-400mm to the final corner to get some images of the drivers walking down the long final straight and also the X-Pro2 fitted with the XF90mm f2. Here are some of the images from the track walk - no6 Toyota Gazoo Racing crew - Fujifilm X-T2 + XF100-400mm SMP Racing - Fujifilm X-Pro2 + XF90mm f2 Ford GT - Harry Tincknell and Andy Priaulx (secon...