CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

Merry Christmas to everyone.  I hope 2012 will be enjoyable and successful for each of you.  Thank you for reading my blog this year and there will be more to come in 2012 and also from our trip to Mull next week.

One of my favourite images from 2010 showing Nigel Mansell's famous helmet colours alongside the variations on a theme adopted by Leo and Greg.  This was taken during the first test of the Beechdean Mansell Motorsport Ginetta Zytek in Portugal. ALL IMAGES ARE THE PROPERTY OF MACLEAN PHOTOGRAPHIC AND CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION. MORE IMAGES CAN BE VIEWED ON   FLICKR

This is the time of year we all look back and take stock of what we have done.  My overriding memory of 2011 was the different places I got to visit thanks, in the main, to my job in motorsport but also for family time when I was at home. When working I did manage to squeeze in some time to take photographs as well.   In 2011 I visited - United Arab Emirates, Belgium, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Spain, France, Slovakia, The Netherlands, China, Argentina, South Africa, Scotland and, of course, new places in England.  There is still one more trip to make in 2011 and that is back to the Isle of Mull on the 26th December for the New Year celebrations. Here are some of my photographic highlights of the year - Monza, Italy Navarra, Spain Sound of Mull, Scotland Cape Town, South Africa Southern Right Whales, Hermanus, South Africa The Forbidden City, Beijing, China Grid Girl in Mongolian National Dress, Ordos, China The Great Wall of China ...

Last April we visited York for the first time in many years.  A trip to York Minster is a must and these two mono architectural shots of the West Front and Main Entrance show the details of this magnificent building. The Rose Window and Main Entrance, taken from Minster Gates West Front of York Minster The York Minster website can be found HERE ALL IMAGES ARE THE PROPERTY OF MACLEAN PHOTOGRAPHIC AND CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION. MORE IMAGES CAN BE VIEWED ON   FLICKR

Black & White photography is a bit like Marmite, you either love it or you hate it.  However in some pictures the colours are a distraction and as a mono image it becomes something more dramatic and interesting. I've always been a fan of the Black & White image and when I am out and about I always look for pictures that will look good without colour.  Having said that I have learnt to take the picture in colour and convert it to mono in Photoshop rather than switch the camera to mono mode (which in RAW keeps the colour data anyway). As someone who worked in a darkroom, 'dodging' and 'burning' to produce the perfect B&W image, altering images in Photoshop is much easier and any mistakes are easily rectified. Here are a selection of mono images, with the original colour files, that were taken specifically with the final image as a B&W in mind - ALL IMAGES ARE THE PROPERTY OF MACLEAN PHOTOGRAPHIC AND CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHOUT P...

A shot from the archive from a visit to Pompeii in 2007.  A truly awe inspiring place and it's almost as if you have stepped back in time. The pictures on the walls, the shop counters, the mosaic floors, all are still visible and just as they were when they were buried under lava and ash in 79AD when Mount Vesuvius erupted.    This shot shows some of the stones used to line the streets and you can see the grooves that were left by the cart wheels that ran up and down this road 2000 years ago. In the background you can see Mount Vesuvius. ALL IMAGES ARE THE PROPERTY OF MACLEAN PHOTOGRAPHIC AND CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION. MORE IMAGES CAN BE VIEWED ON   FLICKR

Confession time now.  I've lived in Lincolnshire since moving here from the North of Scotland in 1990 and I have to admit that, photographically, I find the county very uninspiring.  I like mountains,lochs and dramatic bays nestling amongst the cliffs.  Lincolnshire has none of these things; it is flat and the landscape seems to go on forever. In my quest to stop putting areas into photographic pigeon holes, we decided to visit the Saltfleetby-Theddlethorpe Dunes nature reserve on our way back from photographing the seals at Donna Nook.  Saltfleetby is another Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust reserve and covers a total of 1377 acres.  This important reserve contains tidal sand and mudflats, salt and freshwater marshes and sand dunes. On the foreshore, accreting mud and silt flats and saltmarsh in the north give way to a narrower sandy beach at the southern end.  We decided to head out and see what we could see.  It was very flat but there was an ...

An early start in Cape Town and a shot taken across the bay with the mist still on the water and the hills beyond. ALL IMAGES ARE THE PROPERTY OF MACLEAN PHOTOGRAPHIC AND CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION. MORE IMAGES CAN BE VIEWED ON   FLICKR

In February I wrote about not ignoring opportunities on your own doorstep and while the North Lincolnshire coast can't really be classed as the doorstep to Grantham (75 miles / 120km) it is a part of the same county I've lived in for 21 years that I've never photographed before. I had the opportunity to visit the Grey Seal colony at Donna Nook (Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust) near Louth and along with John Rourke ( http://www.johnrourke.net/ ) set off from Grantham at 7am.  Following the Sat/Nav north we arrived in the well marked car park next to the beach, which only had 12 cars parked up, but that didn't last long. Suited and booted against the elements we set off and were amazed to find that just beyond the car park was a fenced off public viewing area and in front of this were seals of all shapes and sizes as far as the eye could see.  There are over 2000 seals, including over 800 seal pups, on the beach.    A mother and pup were just beyond the fence, ...

This is a wild Grey Seal pup, taken today at the Donna Nook seal colony on the North Lincolnshire coast. ALL IMAGES ARE THE PROPERTY OF MACLEAN PHOTOGRAPHIC AND CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION. MORE IMAGES CAN BE VIEWED ON   FLICKR

What is it about water that attracts photographers?  Whether it is streams, rivers, lakes or the sea, water features a lot in my images.  Is it a very British thing as we are essentially islanders and are never far from water or is this the same for photographers the world over? I love to feature shorelines and running water as the major part of my pictures whenever I can and here are a few examples - Malcesine, Lake Garda, Italy Loch Tulla, Rannoch Moor Ashness Bridge, Lake District Tobermory Harbour, Isle of Mull ALL IMAGES ARE THE PROPERTY OF MACLEAN PHOTOGRAPHIC AND CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION. MORE IMAGES CAN BE VIEWED ON   FLICKR