Silhouette Photography
| Last Updated: October 28, 2014
Jayson Fong – Speed Photography
In this showcase series we feature the Goodwood Festival Of Speed photography of Jayson Fong.
Jayson spoke to Photophique:
Photography was never really something I was passionate about until I owned my first car. Before then, photography was always just a quick way to document quick moments or a foundation tool for me to create other work in the more traditional art mediums on paper or canvas.
However, when my car came along, what started as just snaps became a hobby and longing to make cars look as good as possible through the lens. This eventually led to some jobs in advertising and car editorials.
More recently I have decided to focus more on the motorsport side of automotive photography as I felt there was a need for me to create images that were harder to reproduce, unlike photography in a studio. I was very much drawn to the spontaneity of motorsport and the idea that each moment on the track can only be captured once. From an artistic point of view, this was a standout point for deciding to take the motorsport direction.
Can you tell us more about this series?
I’ve recently moved over to the UK from Australia to chase my dream of becoming a full time automotive photographer, and Goodwood has always been on my bucket list of places to visit since I was much younger.
What really stands out about events at Goodwood is the focus on historic and iconic cars from the past and present. With the forest and hay bales surrounding the hill climb course being the only thing between me and the cars, it really felt like I had been taken back to a time when race courses didn’t have shiny steel barriers or safety measure in any way.
Therefore, I thought I would approach the weekend from a more vintage 35mm camera perspective. Being at Goodwood in person and much earlier than I ever imagined was really special for me, so I wanted to capture the essence of the festival of speed to let viewers who have never experienced it be taken there when they saw an image.
A lot of motorsport photography is centered around news so (to an extent) there isn’t too much room for an artistic approach or behind the scenes feel to images. Because of this and my desire to create unique imagery I’ve always approached motorsport from the perspective of allowing viewer to see what I see (and generally what isn’t as commonly documented) during a motorsport weekend.
What equipment do you use for your this series?
Because I primarily focus on the motorsport side of things, I try to travel and move around with as little gear as possible. But in saying that, I need to ensure I have the correct gear to make the shots I’m after. Over the Goodwood weekend I used a Nikon D7000
and Nikon D300S
together with a Nikon 16-85mm f3.5-5.6 and Sigma 70-200mm f2.8 which allowed me to cover the wide angle while still having some reach.
Processing wise I primarily use Lightroom for colour correction, contrast, etc but occasionally use photoshop for more sophisticated images and composites.
Do you have any new series planned for the near future?
Yes and many! Because I am based in Europe, I feel that there are many more opportunities from an automotive photographer’s point of view to create work using the fantastic scenery and backgrounds the landscape has to offer. Together with the fact that there is some sort of event happening every weekend whether in the UK or in mainland Europe I plan to cover as many of them as possible. I’m especially excited for the start of the 2015 motorsport season.
You can see more Jayson’s work via formandfunctionintl.com, or connect with him via Facebook or Twitter.
Photophique has express permission to publish these images and Jayson Fong retains full copyright to all photographs featured in this showcase series.
