CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

After our visit to Anstruther we stopped off just down the Fife coast in the smaller fishing port of Pittenweem for a short visit before heading back over the Forth Road Bridge.   Pittenweem is mainly a working fishing port with the fleet moored up when we visited on Sunday afternoon.  Along the front is a line of brightly coloured houses with craft and art studios as well as cafes and an ice cream palour come sweet shop. Using the Fujifilm X-T1 and 18mm f2 or the 56mm f1.2 prime lenses I wandered around the harbour area to get some images. For more information on Pittenweem  CLICK HERE ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts you are helping support this blog - thank you. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Everyday when we walk to the end of our road we look across the Firth of Forth and can usually (when it isn't foggy or chucking it down with rain) see on the far side the shoreline of the Kingdom of Fife.  On Sunday we finally decided to visit the coastal town of Anstruther, which is almost directly opposite Dunbar.  The journey by road across the Forth Road Bridge is 82 miles, the journey straight across the water is just 16 miles. After a couple of hours in the car we arrived in Anstruther and explored the small coastal town lined with colourful houses and a beautiful harbour full of working boats and pleasure craft. We stayed for a few hours; had some 'award winning' chips from the local chippie, walked the narrow streets and along the harbour wall and generally took in the atmosphere of the place.   We could see the East Lothian coast but it was covered in shadow and mist and we couldn't make out Dunbar.  However we could see the

On Saturday afternoon a sailing ship called the Flying Dutchman moored off the harbour entrance in Dunbar.  The 111 year old ship was built in 1903 as a herring drifter and 100 years of service was converted by her owner into a luxury schooner for hire. CLICK HERE  for more information on the  Flying Dutchman SCHOONER A schooner is a type of sailing vessel with fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts, the foremast being no taller than the rear mast(s). Such vessels were first used by the Dutch in the 16th or 17th century. The most common type of schooners, with two masts, were popular in trades that required speed and windward ability, such as slaving, privateering, and blockade running. They were also traditional fishing boats. Schooners were popular on both sides of the Atlantic in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but in Europe they gradually gave way to the cutter. CLICK HERE for more information on Schooners Images taken on a Fujifilm X-T1 +

Earlier this year Fujifilm announced that they had developed a tele conversion lens for the X100 / X100S that would turn the Fujinon 23mm f2 lens into a 33mm (50mm equivalent) by multiplying the focal length by 1.4x.  I already own the wide angle converter (WCL-X100) that converts the focal length to 19mm (27mm equivalent) and the addition of the TCL-X100 completes, what is for me,  the perfect lightweight travel camera kit.  I decided  to take the X100 and the converters down to Dunbar Harbour to demonstrate the differences between the three focal lengths now available on the X100. 19mm - WCL-X100 23mm - no converter 33mm - TCL-X100 As can be seen from the images above, the difference is not dramatic but then this it is not meant to be.   X100 with TCL-X100 Tele Conversion Lens fitted When using the X100 I tend to choose the focal length I will be using and then leave that lens on the camera for the duration mainly because the method for changing the lens

A one lens challenge is a good way to get the creative juices flowing and this is something I have done many times myself.  Last week I received the new Fujinon 56mm f1.2 lens, which is a very fast, short telephoto (85mm equivalent) prime lens and a lens I have already have used at the recent FIA World Endurance Championship race in Texas.  Yesterday lunchtime I went for a walk around Dunbar Harbour, which gave me plenty of photographic opportunities to test out the 56mm on the Fuji X-T1. The biggest issue is the fact that with a lowest setting of ISO200 to capture RAW files and a fastest shutter speed of 1/4000s, it isn't possible to shoot this lens wide open  in bright sunshine   and I had to resort to f2 or f2.8.  When the sun went behind the clouds, or I was shooting in the shade, I was able to set f1.2 or f1.4, but most of these shots were taken between f2 and f5.6 depending on the subject.   The firmware upgrade coming in December will give the X-T1 a maximum shu