Skating at The Forks in 360° | Capturing the Magic with Insta360 X4
- gear4greatness
- Feb 23, 2025
- 4 min read
Updated: Nov 17, 2025
By Gear for Greatness
⛸️ Skating at The Forks in 360° | Capturing the Magic with Insta360 X4
There’s something about winter at The Forks that hits me the moment I step onto the ice — that mix of crisp air, soft light, and the distant echo of blades carving through frozen water. ❄️✨ Every winter, without fail, this place transforms into one of the most magical corners of Winnipeg. And this time, instead of skating through it with just my own eyes, I brought along the Insta360 X4 — a camera that lets you see everything happening around you, in every direction, all at once. There’s a creative rush that comes with 360 filming, this feeling that you’re capturing the world exactly as it unfolds, not as a narrow rectangle decides to show it. And on a winter day at The Forks, surrounded by lights, voices, and motion, I felt that rush from the moment I hit record.
The trail opened up around me as I glided forward, the skyline rising behind skaters who drifted across the ice with that smooth, effortless confidence you only see here. The X4 sat at the end of the invisible selfie stick, floating beside me like a tiny winter drone, turning every movement into a full panoramic moment. What I love about 360 filming is that I don’t have to aim — and that changes the entire experience. Instead of thinking about framing, I just move. I skate. I breathe in the cold. I let the camera see everything: the bridges, the warm golden glow bouncing off the historic buildings, the fast skaters slicing past, the kids learning to balance, the lanterns flickering in the winter breeze. It all goes into the shot, like a living memory wrapped in 8K clarity.
Every time I turned, the camera captured the world bending beautifully around me, and FlowState Stabilization kept every glide perfectly smooth. Even when the ice got uneven — that familiar rippled texture from skate traffic — the footage stayed locked in like a gimbal was doing the work for me. There’s something surreal about watching skaters drift around you in 360°, especially when you slow everything down in post. Shooting with 4K 120fps gave me these buttery slow-motion clips where every spin, turn, and snowy spray stretched out like a cinematic breath. It’s strange how normal movements become art when time slows down just enough for you to notice the details.
The moment I switched to Tiny Planet mode, it felt like I was creating my own little frozen universe. 🌍✨ The ice rink curled up into this miniature world beneath me, the lights orbited like stars, and the skaters moved around the planet as if gravity had loosened its grip. Seeing The Forks shrink into a glowing snow globe felt oddly emotional — like I was holding a whole winter scene in the palm of my hand. And the wide-open layout of The Forks made the effect even stronger, letting the skyline, the river, and the trails loop into this perfect circular world. I couldn’t stop spinning the shot around, zooming in, zooming out, reframing moments in ways no traditional camera could ever deliver.
What struck me most was how easily the X4 blended into the moment. I didn’t feel like a filmmaker trying to force a shot — I felt like a skater drifting through winter with a camera that understood how I wanted the day to feel. The trails were busy, but in the footage it all looked calm, connected, and beautifully choreographed. The blue shadows stretching across the ice, the pink glow of sunset hugging the horizon, and that sense of community that always fills the winter air at The Forks — all of it lives inside the footage now, preserved in every direction.
By the time I finished the shoot, the lights had gotten brighter, the day had gotten quieter, and the temperature dipped just enough to make the air sparkle a little more. I walked off the trail with cold hands, warm breath, and that satisfying feeling you get when what you captured actually matches how the moment felt. That’s the power of 360 — it doesn’t take you out of the experience. It lets you relive it.
Skating at The Forks in 360° | Capturing the Magic with Insta360 X4
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🌄 FINAL THOUGHTS
There’s a strange beauty in filming winter scenes in 360°, especially at a place like The Forks where movement, light, and sound swirl together so naturally. Watching the footage back, I felt that same sense of calm I get when I’m skating there — that slow winter rhythm, the soft glow on the river, and the silhouettes of skaters drifting like shadows over a frozen canvas. The Insta360 X4 captured that feeling exactly, not by isolating moments but by holding the entire environment in one immersive frame. It made the day feel whole again.
What this shoot reminded me is that sometimes the best filmmaking happens when you stop worrying about perfection and simply experience the moment. The X4 gave me the freedom to skate without thinking about where the camera was pointing. It taught me again that creativity feels best when it’s lived, not forced. When I looked through the footage later, I could see moments I didn’t even notice while filming — the warmth of a lantern reflecting off the ice, a skater’s trail cutting a perfect arc, the city skyline softening into the evening air. That’s the gift of 360 cameras: they capture the things we’re too busy — or too in awe — to see in real time.
On a deeper level, filming The Forks this way felt symbolic. It felt like holding a moment from every angle, a reminder that experiences aren’t linear — they’re layered. They’re sound and motion and cold air and light all wrapped together. Tiny Planet mode especially brought out that metaphor, turning the wide winter world into its own small universe, reminding me how much magic fits into a single scene when you zoom out far enough to see it.
If I had to put the whole experience into one line, I’d say this:Winter feels different when you capture not just the trail in front of you, but the entire world moving with you.
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