CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

Samyang 8mm f2.8 Fisheye At the moment I have a choice of two ultra wide angle lenses in my Fujifilm armoury.  The XF10-24mm f4 has been my wide angle of choice since I bought it in 2014 and this year I added the manual focus Samyang 8mm f2.8 fisheye which adds a further, almost 3D, dimension to my photography. In the pitlane and on the grid both lenses come into their own and at the Circuit Paul Ricard during the European Le Mans Series event I was able to get shots on both lenses. Samyang 8mm f2.8 Fisheye Fujinon XF10-24mm f4 Fujinon XF10-24mm f4

Yesterday during the second Free Practice for the Michelin GT3 Le Mans Cup I decided to try some panning shots from my office window in the main pit building with the Fujifilm X-T2 and the XF56mm f1.2 lens. Because of the obstructions on the pitwall and the fenceline I wanted to use a longer than usual shutter speed to blur the objects and colours around the cars as they traveled at speed down the main start finish straight at the Circuit Paul Ricard. Choosing a shutter speed of 1/4s I captured a set of images that really portray a sense of speed.  In each of the images not all of the car is sharp, but that doesn't matter, it is all about the sense of speed. I then tried the same technique but using the XF100-400mm f4.5/5.6 lens on the X-T2, shooting at 1/6s @f20 ISO100 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS

The first day of the European Le Mans Series at the Circuit Paul Ricard was sunny and very warm.  At the end of the day the sun started to set behind the mountains and I went up to the top of the pit building to capture the scene on the Fujifilm X-T2 and the XF100-400mm lens. The sun went down very quickly and the sky was a fiery red that faded to blue and then black. The weather forecast for the next three days is more of the same so we will make the most of this fine weather before heading across the Atlantic on Monday for the FIA World Endurance Championship race in Mexico City. The shot below was captured on the X-Pro2 + XF35mm f1.4. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts you are helping support this blog - thank you. ------------------------------------

The Apple iPhone 6S Plus continues to impress and I have added a set of Polaroid lenses to enable me to get a video variety of images with the camera phone.  The Polaroid lens set clips onto the camera lens and gives me three options - wide angle, macro and fisheye. The seashell shot above was taken using the macro adapter and the image below was taken with the standard iPhone lens at the closest point it would focus.  As you can see the macro lens allows you to focus a lot closer and the detail is excellent for a phone camera. The images were shot on Belhaven beach near our home in Dunbar using the iPhone's SQUARE format mode. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts you are helping support this blog - thank you. ------------------------------------------

Long exposures can transform a landscape image containing water and / or clouds.  The length of the shutter speed can determine the amount of blur that will be produced.  These two images shot at Allt à Chobnair demonstrate the difference between using a very long shutter speed and a relatively short one. The image at the top of the page was shot using a Lee 10x ND 'Big Stopper' to give me a 367 second (6 minutes 7 seconds) exposure that has the effect of rendering the water and the clouds into a beautiful sheen thanks to the diffused light filtering through the fast moving clouds. The second image below was taken at 1/4 second which has given me some movement in the fast moving water as it tumbles over the rocks but the slower moving clouds above the mountain tops have been frozen. Both images were taken on a Fujifilm X-T2 and a Fujinon 10-24mm f4 lens fitted to a Manfrotto MT190X tripod. The images were converted to monochrome with NIK Silver EFEX Pro2.

On last month's visit to the Highlands after we had captured the early morning light at Loch Tay, we headed back to Killin and then up Glen Lochay.  The weather had changed from the beautiful morning light we had experienced at Loch Tay but, as always, we had to adapt our shoot plan accordingly. Traveling up the single track road, past lots of people wild camping in the glen, we eventually came to part of the river that was free flowing over several small falls.  After a short rain burst the clouds had started to break up so we grabbed our gear and headed down to the rocks next to the river. This images was shot on the Fujifilm X-T2 and Fujinon 10-24mm f4 lens with a 30 second exposure at f8 (ISO 800).  The camera was fitted with a Lee 0.9 ND soft grad and a 10x ND 'Big Stopper'.  The Manfrotto tripod was set low in the water to get the flowing river and the rocks as close to the camera as possible. The image was converted to monochrome with NIK Silver EFEX Pro2.

If you are shooting landscapes up in the Highlands of Scotland you will eventually come across a herd of Highland Cows.  I love photographing these shaggy beasts and, for me, they rank up there with Edinburgh Castle, whisky and haggis as an iconic part of Scotland. On the last trip north we were shooting in Glen Lochay when we came across some Highland Cows the other  side of a dry stone wall with a beautiful view up the glen as the clouds started to break. I decided to fit the XF100-400mm to the X-T2 to capture some shots of the cows as they munched on some tough grass, keeping one eye on the rain that was approaching fast across the mountains. The images were captured in colour and converted to mono in NIK Silver Efex Pro2. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts you

Yesterday I attended the second edition of the Dunbar Street Art Trail, which MacLean Photographic had been invited to display - CLICK HERE . The west end of Dunbar High Street was closed to traffic and turned over to artists, jugglers and musicians and boards where visitors were invited to get creative and also chalk to decorate the street. I was only able to attend in the morning before catching train to Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival but I was able to capture some of the flavour of the 2016 Dunbar Street Art Trail. All the images were captured on the Fujifilm X-Pro2 with either the Fujinon XF90mm f2 or the Samyang 8mm f2.8 lenses. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts y