CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

As Duart Castle is the home of the Clan MacLean I ask your indulgence as I post more images of this beautiful place on the Isle of Mull. In just over three weeks we will begin our annual trip to the Isle of Mull, one of the most beautiful places in the world.  One week of de-stressing, I am really looking forward to this holiday which will take place after the next two events at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium this weekend (3rd/4th May) for the FIA WEC and the ELMS event at Imola in Italy on 17th/18th May. Duart Castle is on my list of places to photograph when I am on the island and I have also been invited to give a talk to the Mull Through the Lens Camera Club about my travels with a camera. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ALL IMAGES ARE THE PROPERTY OF MACLEAN PHOTOGRAPHIC AND CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION If you like what you see on this blog pl...

In December 2011 the short 40-minute ferry crossing from Oban to Craignure on the Isle of Mull was a little 'choppy' as high winds has whipped up the seas in the Sound of Mull.  This is shown in these shots of the Lismore Lighthouse as the CalMac ferry "Isle of Mull" sailed by. Nikon D90 - Nikon 80-200mm f2.8 - 1/1000 @ f4 - ISO1600 Nikon D90 - Nikon 80-200mm f2.8 - 1/800 @ f4 - ISO1600 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ALL IMAGES ARE THE PROPERTY OF MACLEAN PHOTOGRAPHIC AND CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION If you like what you see on this blog please visit our  Facebook  page and click 'like' MORE IMAGES CAN BE VIEWED ON  FLICKR  AND ON OUR  WEBSITE

The Scott Monument is a Victorian Gothic memorial to the author Sir Walter Scott. It stands in Princes Street Gardens, near to Edinburgh Waverley Railway Station. The tower is 200 feet 6 inches (61.11 m) high, and has a series of viewing platforms reached by a series of narrow spiral staircases giving panoramic views of central Edinburgh and its surroundings. The highest platform is reached by a total of 287 steps. It is built from Binny sandstone quarried near Ecclesmachan in West Lothian.  Travel writer Bill Bryson has described it as looking like a "gothic rocket ship", which isn't far wrong. All images taken on a Fujifilm Finepix X100 and 23mm f2 Fujinon lens (with WCL-X100 fitted) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ALL IMAGES ARE THE PROPERTY OF MACLEAN PHOTOGRAPHIC AND CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION If you like what you s...

Situation 10 miles to the west of Dunbar, and 25 miles east of Edinburgh, is the seaside town of North Berwick.  We first visited the town in February (see previous blog HERE ) and decided to return again on the trip to Edinburgh.  North Berwick boasts two of the longest sandy beaches in Scotland, known as the East and West beaches, split by a strip of land where the harbour and the Scottish Sea Bird Centre is located. After a short walk on the East Beach we headed out onto the West Beach for a stroll round to view the town from a different perspective. We weren't disappointed with our second visit and we'll definitely be visiting again later this year. All images taken on a Fujifilm Finepix X100 and 23mm f2 Fujinon lens ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ALL IMAGES ARE THE PROPERTY OF MACLEAN PHOTOGRAPHIC AND CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION ...

The Royal Mile is the name given to a succession of streets forming the main thoroughfare of the Old Town of the city of Edinburgh in Scotland. The name was first used in W M Gilbert's Edinburgh in the Nineteenth Century (1901), and was further popularised as the title of a guidebook, published in 1920. The thoroughfare, as the name suggests, is approximately one mile long and runs downhill between two significant locations in the history of Scotland, namely Edinburgh Castle (See yesterday's blog ) and Holyrood Palace. The streets which make up the Royal Mile are (west to east) Castlehill, the Lawnmarket, the High Street, the Canongate and Abbey Strand. The Royal Mile is the busiest tourist street in the Old Town, rivalled only by Princes Street in the New Town. There is an excellent website that gives details of all the places that can seen on The Royal Mile HERE Statue of David Hume and St Giles Cathedral Deacon Brodies Tavern and St Giles Cathedral T...

Without doubt the most famous castle in Scotland, if not the world, Edinburgh Castle stands guard overlooking the Scottish capital. Edinburgh Castle is a fortress which dominates the skyline of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, from its position atop the volcanic Castle Rock. Human habitation of the site is dated back as far as the 9th century BC, although the nature of early settlement is unclear. There has been a royal castle here since at least the reign of David I in the 12th century, and the site continued to be a royal residence until the Union of the Crowns in 1603. From the 15th century the castle's residential role declined, and by the 17th century its principal role was as a military base with a large garrison. Its importance as a historic monument was recognised from the 19th century, and various restoration programmes have been carried out since. As one of the most important fortresses in the Kingdom of Scotland, Edinburgh Castle was involved in many historical co...

We spotted this jewelry and gift shop in Edinburgh last Sunday and the name had us heading for the door.  When our daughter Kate was young we nicknamed her Katie Cupcake for reasons I cant remember and now that she is nearly 15 years old this name has stopped being used. However as parents you have to embarrass your children once in a while and so we introduced Kate to the owner of the shop after purchasing a gift.   This beautiful shop is located in Cockburn Street, just off the Royal Mile in Edinburgh.  For more information visit the Facebook Page  or the website   ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ALL IMAGES ARE THE PROPERTY OF MACLEAN PHOTOGRAPHIC AND CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION If you like what you see on this blog please visit our  Facebook  page and click 'like' MORE IMAGES CAN BE VIEWED ON  FLICKR ...

John Muir (21 April 1838 – 24 December 1914) was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, have been read by millions. His activism helped to preserve the Yosemite Valley, Sequoia National Park and other wilderness areas. The Sierra Club, which he founded, is now one of the most important conservation organizations in the United States. One of the most well-known hiking trails in the U.S., the 211-mile (340 km) John Muir Trail, was named in his honour. Other places named in his honour are Muir Woods National Monument, Muir Beach, John Muir College, Mount Muir, Camp Muir and Muir Glacier. In his later life, Muir devoted most of his time to the preservation of the Western forests. He petitioned the U.S. Congress for the National Park bill that was passed in 1890, establishing both Y...

We were once again spending some much needed family time in the Scottish borders in Dunbar and North Berwick before travelling to the World Diving Series event at the Edinburgh Commonwealth Pool - more on that in a later post.   First stop was Dunbar to have a good look at this fishing town on the north east coast 30-miles from Scotland's capital city.  First stop was the harbour and it's old stone walls.  It is s very pretty harbour and apparently is the scene for many festivals and events throughout the year.  We then headed off in search of the sandy beach and were presented with a glorious sight as this golden strip headed east along the front of Dunbar into the distance. All images taken on a Fujifilm Finepix X100 with either a 23mm or 19mm f2 lens ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ALL IMAGES ARE THE PROPERTY OF MACLEAN PHOTOGRAPHIC AND CANNOT BE U...

We stopped at a small hill top town in Tuscany near where we were staying called  Colle di Val d'Elsa and spent a couple of hours exploring the medieval streets. Colle di Val d'Elsa is a town and commune in Tuscany, Italy, in the province of Siena.  It has a population of around 20,000. Its name means "Hill of Elsa Valley", where "Elsa" is the name of the river which crosses it. Today, Colle di Val d'Elsa is internationally renowned for the production of crystal glassware and art (15% of world production), largely produced in the industrial lower town. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ALL IMAGES ARE THE PROPERTY OF MACLEAN PHOTOGRAPHIC AND CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION If you like what you see on this blog please visit our  Facebook  page and click 'like' MORE IMAGES CAN BE VIEWED ON  FLICKR  AND ON OUR ...

While at the recent official test for the FIA World Endurance Championship I received an invitation from Porsche AG to join their communications team and some key German journalists for dinner at a restaurant in La Cadière-d'Azur  about 20 minutes from the circuit Paul Ricard.  The village features lots of old narrow streets and tall stone buildings. I stopped to take some shots on the Fuji X100 with the ISO cranked up to 3200 to give me just enough of a shutter speed to record the dimly lit streets. Fuji X100 - 23mm f2 - 1/25 @ f2 - ISO3200 The village is on a hill top that overlooks a lot of the Bandol vineyards.The back of St-Andre Church built onto the cliff face The village still has 3 remaining medieval Gate Doors, which are the porte St-Jehan (built in January 1561), porte de la Colle and the porte Mazrin, in the ancient medieval walls. Two other older medieval buildings of the village are the Tour de l'Horloge with a 16th-century campanile and the...

Fujifilm Finepix X100 - 19mm f2 (WCL-X100 fitted) - 1/750 @ f2.8 - ISO200 Most of us drive to our place of work but when Allan McNish climbs aboard the Audi R18 e-tron quattro in the FIA World Endurance Championship he is at work and the cockpit of the car is his office. This was taken on the grid for the opening round of the FIA WEC at Silverstone last Sunday, a race that he and teammates, Tom Kristensen and Loic Duval won putting them at the top of the leader board for the 2013 world title.  The next round will take place on the 4 May at the awesome Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium, the last test before the 'big one', the 24 Hours of Le Mans on 22/23 June. I took this shot as I made my way off the grid on my trusty Fuji X100 with the WCL-X100 wide angle converter lens fitted to the camera.  The shot was then converted to mono in Silver Efex Pro 2 with some dodging and burning in Photoshop Elements 11. ---------------------------------------------...

Nikon D300S - Sigma 18-50 f2.8 - 1/250 @ f7.1 - ISO200 The is a shot of Duart Castle on the Isle of Mull taken from the Oban to Craignure ferry. Duart Castle is a significant place for me as it is the home of the Clan MacLean and was rebuilt in 1911 to its former glory as one of the greatest Highland fortresses when the Lords of the Isles reigned supreme in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Duart stands guard at the Eastern end of the Sound of Mull and stands proud on top of a rocky outcrop.  I look forward to seeing Duart once again at the end of May.  Here is a blog I did on Duart Castle last year. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ALL IMAGES ARE THE PROPERTY OF MACLEAN PHOTOGRAPHIC AND CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION If you like what you see on this blog please visit our  Facebook  page and click 'like' MORE IMAGES CAN BE VIE...

This shot was my favourite from the group of images we did of the FIA WEC cars at Paul Ricard official test last month.  I couldn't post it until now because it was used in the official programme at Silverstone, round 1 of the championship that took place last Sunday. This image of the two LMP1 cars from Strakka Racing and Rebellion Racing was set up after all of the other cars were removed from the group image.  I purposely set the two cars each side of the painted line on the apron of the track.  Taken on the Nikon D800 with a Nikon 17-35mm f2.8 AF-S the line leads the viewers eye to the car. The shot in the programme was used in colour but I decided to experiment with a mono conversion and the resulting image is far more striking than the colour in my opinion.  You may disagree? Nikon D800 - Nikon 17-35mm f2.8 AF-S - 1/60 @ f16 - ISO 400 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------...

The Tourist Trophy on the grid before the start of the race at Silverstone - Fuji X100 At the end of the opening round of the FIA World Endurance Championship at Silverstone on Sunday Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen, Loic Duval and Audi became the latest names to be added to the Royal Automobile Club Tourist Trophy roll of honour that stretches back to the first race on the Isle of Man in 1905. It was with a sense of pride that I watched the Tourist Trophy being held aloft by three FIA WEC drivers as I was involved in the negotiations with the Royal Automobile Club to bring the Tourist Trophy to the WEC.  This was through my links with the Club when working for them as the press officer for the Tourist Trophy and the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run. The first panel of winners from 1905 to 1933 and there are three more panels like this. HISTORY The 108-year-old Tourist Trophy is one of the most significant prizes in International motorsport. It was the first fo...

Continuing to look forward to our next trip to the Isle of Mull in less than six weeks time I went through the images from our previous five trips to Mull and discovered this shot from the early morning excursion in December 2011 down to the harbour in Tobermory. Nikon D90 - Sigma 10-20mm - 1/8s @ f8 - ISO100 - Tripod I converted the image using Silver Efex Pro2 and completed the transformation with a bit of dodging and burning on the key points of the picture.  I'm very happy with the result. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ALL IMAGES ARE THE PROPERTY OF MACLEAN PHOTOGRAPHIC AND CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION If you like what you see on this blog please visit our  Facebook  page and click 'like' MORE IMAGES CAN BE VIEWED ON  FLICKR  AND ON OUR  WEBSITE 

The last week has been spent at Silverstone for the opening round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.  At these events we have a hospitality area that is known as the  Le Mans Spirit Club and today I went there to take some shots for some brochures and for the website. Also on display was the 24 Hours of Le Mans trophy that is presented to the winner of the most famous race in the world.  The 24 Hours of Le Mans is also the third round of the FIA WEC. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ALL IMAGES ARE THE PROPERTY OF MACLEAN PHOTOGRAPHIC AND CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION If you like what you see on this blog please visit our  Facebook  page and click 'like' MORE IMAGES CAN BE VIEWED ON  FLICKR  AND ON OUR  WEBSITE