CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

Yesterday the 4th round of the World Endurance Championship saw a 1-2 finish for Porsche in their home race in Germany.  This was the second 1-2 finish for the German manufacturer of the 2015 season - they won the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans in June - but it was the first victory for the no17 crew of Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard. As usual I was videoing the press conference on the Fujifilm X-T1 with the XF10-24mm f4 lens and I used the second X-T1 fitted with the XF56mm f1.2 to shoot some stills of the drivers during the press conference. Here is the video of the press conference following the 6 Hours of Nurburgring, round 4 of the World Endurance Championship . The images shot on the 56mm f1.2 were taken with the aperture at f2 or f1.2 at 1/125s to keep the ISO as low as possible (200 ISO) and the results were converted to black and white in Nik Silver Efex Pro2. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------...

As the Media Delegate of the World Endurance Championship I have the pleasure to work for some of the leading people in motorsport.   The CEO of the WEC is Gerard Neveu, who I first met when he was the Managing Director at the Circuit Paul Ricard, and, as the FIA Media Delegate, I also work on occasion with the President of the FIA Jean Todt when he attends the WEC events.   However as the WEC is a partnership between the FIA and ACO I also have the pleasure of working for the President of the Automobile Club de l'Ouest Pierre Fillon. M Fillon became the 8th President of the ACO on the 31 May 2012 and has been the driving force behind the WEC since its inception, working hard to grow the partnership with the FIA and keep endurance racing at the forefront of motorsport worldwide. Pierre Fillon is brother to former French Prime Minister François Fillon, who is also an accomplished racing driver.  The Fillon brothers were born in Le Mans an...

The Nürburg is a hilltop castle in the German Eifel Mountains near the village of Nürburg south of Adenau in the district of Ahrweiler in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate.  It can be seen from the Nürburgring Grand Prix circuit and it stands within the famous North Loop, or Nordschleife at a height of 678 metres on a volcanic cone. Some low cloud over the circuit yesterday evening had me reaching for the X-T1 and the 50-140mm f2.8 to get some shots of the castle on the hill to the east of the pitlane at the  Nürburgring. For more information on the Nurburg Castle 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. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------...

Today will go down as one of the highlights of 2015 for me after I was invited to join the Dunbar Lifeboat crew for a trip out around Bass Rock by Coxswain Gary Fairbairn and Station Asst Press Officer Gaz Crowe.  I gladly accepted the invitation and headed down to the harbour at 11h30 this morning to meet everyone. The trip began with a ride out to the mooring of the RNLB John Neville Taylor at Torness in the crew Land Rover before kitting up in a RNLI waterproof jacket and lifebelt, before being ferried across to the Trent Class lifeboat in the crew dingy. While the skies were blue and the sun was shining, there was a strong wind driving a strong sea towards the East Lothian coast.  As we headed past the breakwater at Torness out towards Bass Rock the swells began to hit the lifeboat and we made sure we were holding on to the guardrails for the crossing to The Bass.   While the Trent Class lifeboats have an impressive top speed of 25 knots, we made the cro...

When visiting big cities with iconic tourist attractions it is very tempting to go for the 'big shot' and record the standard postcard image that millions of tourist before have taken.  Now I am also one for getting the standard shot and it is something I advise all photographers to do.  This is the record image, the banker, the one that works and you'll keep in your files to remember your trip.   However it is then fun to try and do something different, to try an get a different angle or a different perspective.  It might not work but it is fun to try and if it does work, you have something to be proud of and something that is going to be worth sharing on social media. Now I have hundreds of images of the Eiffel Tower from my trips to Paris and so I decided to take images of the world famous landmark by either putting it in the background to something else I was shooting in Paris or take segments of the lattice structure.  The viewer can still recogni...

I have received the September issue of Scottish Field magazine and I pleased to say that I have my landscape work has been given a boost by 8 pages, including three double page spreads, in the Scotland Through A Lens feature. I am very happy to receive this as it gives my photography and the MacLean Photographic tours a big boost. Check out Scottish Field website HERE and the Facebook Page HERE If you don't live in Scotland you can access the edition on you Apple or Android device through the Scottish Field App.  Details on the Scottish Field website. 

Built in the 12th Century, Notre-Dame de Paris (Our Lady of Paris) is one of the highlights of any visit to the French capital city and draw for tourists from around the world.  I hadn't been to the cathedral since 2013 and so we took the opportunity to walk around the grounds during our visit to Paris at the end of July. Notre Dame is an impressive building, standing in a commanding position on the eastern end of the Ile de Cite on the banks of the River Seine.  It is very easy to be swept away by the grandeur of the architecture and miss the details that pervade every corner.  So I decided to take some detail shots of the building using the X-T1 and 90mm f2 lens. The western facade of Notre Dame, which is the main entrance to the cathedral, is full of details with figures carved into the arches and statues standing in rows.  Each figure is part of the bigger picture and each has a story to tell.  As we moved around the south side of the cat...