Happy New Year

-


As 2015 draws to a close I have had time to think back on what has been an eventful 365 days.  

This year I have travelled near and far thanks mainly to my work for the FIA World Endurance Championship and the European Le Mans Series.  2015 has seen several trips to France as well as to Belgium, Italy, Germany, Austria, Portugal, USA, Japan, China and Bahrain.  

I got to tick a few items off my bucket list in 2015.  I took a day out after the race in Texas last September to travel down to San Antonio to visit The Alamo.  I also took a day to see some of the old parts of Shanghai with a trip out to Zhujiajiao and the Seven Treasure water towns.  I also finally got to visit the Grand Mosque in Manama during my trip to Bahrain.

Paris remains my favourite international city on the planet, with several trips to the French capital in 2015, including a family holiday in the summer.  The terrible events in November with the terrorist attacks claiming so many lives have only made me more determined to visit and photograph the 'City of Light' as much as possible in 2016.

Edinburgh is in top spot as my city of choice.  The Scottish capital is just 25 miles away or a short 20-minute train ride, and this year we have taken the opportunity to take in all four seasons and soak up the atmosphere during the Edinburgh Festival.

As well as my role as the Media Delegate for the WEC and ELMS, I have been expanding my photographic work.  

The big news of 2015 was my appointment as a Fujifilm X-Photographer in the summer and the subsequent work on helping to develop new Firmware for the X-T1 and also feedback on the 1.4x converter, 90mm and 50-140mm lenses.  

I am currently working on a couple more projects for the Japanese manufacturer and there will be more news on this in the coming weeks.  I have also recently been included in the 100 X-Photographer exhibition which will be unveiled in Tokyo on the 15 January.

I also launched the MacLean Photographic Workshop and Tours and the 2016 dates will be announced on 8 January.  As well as workshops in East Lothian we will be expanding to include other areas of Scotland and Northern England.

The MacLean Photographic blog continues to go from strength to strength.  In 2015 we received a total of 385,750 views, which is a monthly average of 32146 or 1056 per day.  It also represents an annual increase of over 80000 on 2014, up 26% year on year.  To put it into perspective the MacLean Photographic blog receives more visitors on average in 2 days than it did in the whole of the first year in 2011.  

In total the blog has received over 858,000 views and is on target to reach the 1 million views milestone in the spring of 2016. Thank you to everyone who takes the time to read this blog.


I’d like to wish all our readers and supporters a very happy 2016 and hopefully I will get to meet some of you in person.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

REVIEW: The New Fujinon 2x Converter

-
Image
Yesterday Fujifilm launched the latest edition to the Fujinon XF lens line up, the XF 2X TC WR teleconverter for use with the XF50-140mm f2.8 and XF100-400mm f4.5/5.6 zoom lenses.  In April I was invited by Fujifilm to test the new converter and here are my thoughts on this new lens. Before I go into details I need to be upfront about something.  I've never been a fan of 2x converters because the optical quality of the lens is usually affected to a large degree.   I did have a 1.4x and 2x converter for my lenses when I was shooting with Nikon. While the 1.4x converter was regularly attached to my long f2.8 lenses, the 2x converter was probably used about three times in the 18 years I used Nikkor lenses.  I didn't like the results when using the converter so tended to not use it. Anyway back to the X-Series!  The 1.4x Fujinon converter was launched in 2015 and I have been a fan of this diminutive lens attachment on both the 50-140mm and 100-400mm....
Read more

Review: Little and Large - Using a Fujifilm X-T20 for Sport

-
Image
In July 2015 I posted a review of the Fujifilm X-T10 which I tested alongside my X-T1 as a lightweight alternative to the larger and more expensive camera.  So when Fujifilm announced the launch of the X-T20 I was keen to put one to the test.   I took an X-T20 along with me to the FIA World Endurance Championship event at Spa-Francorchamps and also shot the TCR International Series race during the European Le Mans Series event in Monza.  I also took a few shots with it during the recent Water Ski event at Hazelwood Ski Centre last month and these three events really put the X-T20 through its paces. Like the X-T10, the T20 is tiny compared to it's bigger brother.  Even with the battery grip removed from the T2,  the picture above shows the larger camera dwarfing the X-T20.   Now this can be seen as a good thing if you are traveling and need a lightweight camera with a big punch but when using it with long lenses such as the 50-140mm or 100-400m...
Read more

REVIEW: Using Nikon Lenses on a Fuji X Camera

-
Image
I've been using the Fujifilm X-Pro1 for the past month and I haven't enjoyed my photography so much since I bought the Fuji X100 12 months earlier.  The only issue I have with the X-Pro1 is the lack of a long telephoto lens.  The longest lens I have is the 60mm f2.4, which is the equivalent of a 90mm telephoto; it's a great lens but I sometimes wish my Fuji system had a bit more pulling power.   Fuji have provided the X system with a telephoto zoom, the 55-200mm f3.5 / f4.8 R LM OIS and I will be testing this lens next week for three days. I will be showing the results on this blog. However my Nikon kit has one of the best short telephoto zooms in the world, the Nikkor 80-200mm f2.8 AF-D.  I bought this lens brand new in 1996 for £1600.00 and it has been a faithful companion ever since. I've bought and sold plenty of SLRs / DSLRs in the past 18 years but I've never felt the need to upgrade the 80-200mm because it is still optically the best lens I own and it ha...
Read more