1000-Step Challenge Poppy Fields Forever
Shot on Fujifilm X-T3 with 55-200mm f/3.5-4.8 lens at ISO 80, f/9, 134mm and 1/80 sec.
These past couple of months have been a bit peculiar to say the least, including in terms of individual liberties and freedom to walk around. French people were finally allowed to go outside on May 11th, although only within a hundred-kilometer radius from their homes. This law also impacts photographers as it pushes them to renegotiate spaces where they can perform their art. At the time of writing this article, I am unable to completely go anywhere I want, but forcing myself to find interest and beauty nearby certainly is an instructive exercise. That is also why British photographer Thomas Heaton’s Youtube video from May 13th struck a chord in me.
In his video, he took part in the #1000stepchallenge and had to abide by five rules:
- Walk a thousand steps from your home to find a spot of interest to take a landscape photo.
- Set up your tripod within three minutes once you have made the thousand steps.
- A one-meter radius is allowed to move your tripod to find a good composition.
- Only one shot is allowed to be taken.
- No drone shot.
Living in the suburbs of Paris as someone who is more and more into landscape photography can seem like a bit of a contradiction, as I would often rather find myself in wide spaces than in the streets, but living close to the woods of Vincennes in the outskirts of Paris helps me get my share of green landscapes.
Spring is also an ideal time of the year to shoot fauna and growing flora. This is why I decided to focus on poppies, which you would not necessarily expect to grow in the city. I also intended on taking advantage of this particular exercise to get up with the sun and leave the house while most people are still fast asleep, something I never do unless I work early.
My photo was taken with the Fujifilm X-T3 with the Fujinon 55-200mm f/3.5-4.8, which is ideal for subject isolation, for perspective compression but also to have blurry foreground and background. I set up my camera on my Peak Design Travel Tripod and used a 2-second timer to make sure that there was no unwanted camera shake, especially as I only had one try. I sometimes forget to add the timer when my camera is on a tripod, but I find it interesting that taking this one and only picture forced me to be more focused and intentional with the photo I took.
In terms of photo edits, I mostly just increased the temperature of the picture and pushed the greens towards the yellows and the yellow a bit towards the orange as the grass was not golden enough for an early morning to my taste. But apart from that, a slight reframe, and some tone curve adjustment, I did not do much.
I tend to think of myself as a bit of an introvert, and although I am not really used to seeing myself on camera, I thought of the idea of filming myself while going a thousand steps from my apartment and taking a single landscape photo as an additional challenge, and as a way to connect in a more tangible way with people on Instagram. While the opening and closing sequences were filmed on my Fujifilm X-T3 with the 35mm f/1.4 and the Rode VideoMicro, the whole walk was shot on the DJI Osmo Pocket, a surprisingly high-quality stabilized pocket camera, attached to my Joby GorillaPod. The whole video was then created via DaVinci Resolve 16, a free video-editing software that I’ve been playing with since the beginning of lockdown. While it still feels like I know next to nothing about video editing, it definitely was a fun exercise!
(The video above is in French but has English subtitles available)
I don’t know how often I will film myself in the future, but it definitely was a fun experience, and I will try to think of creative ways to do so if I decide to get back in front of the camera. And even though waking up at 6AM was quite exhausting, It felt like a privilege being outside all alone and having the city all for myself. I guess doing the same thing in the wild must be an even greater experience, and it’s something I will definitely try to experience down the road.
Would you be willing to try the #1000stepchallenge? If so, feel free to tag me on Instagram (@robinooode)! And should I publish more videos of this type, and if so, on which topics?