CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

Just off the B9007 between Forres and Carrbridge in the Highlands of Scotland is the little known ruin of Lochindorb Castle.    Lochindorb means 'Loch of Trouble' and the 13th century castle was built by the Clan Cromyn on a man made island in the centre of the loch. On a recent visit to Forres I decided to stop off at Lochindorb to scout out the location for a future visit.  The wind had dropped completely and the loch was like a mirror, with the dark peaty water water perfectly reflecting the broken clouds above. I launched the DJI Mavic Pro to get some aerial footage around the castle as the only other way to approach the ruin is by boat.  The scene below the drone's camera was very etherial and I carried out a 15 minute flight to capture several angles and a few still images before landing the drone on the shore.  Being low down, and with only one angle from where I was flying the drone, I decided not to shoot still images with the Fujifilm X Series in my bag

Sunrise in the North Sea - Fujifilm X-H1 + XF10-24mm f4 After the first teaser video for the new series of features on the Rockhopper of Percuel, a fishing boat working out of Dunbar Harbour was posted last week, I have put the final touches to the first part of the series.  This is a three minute video entitled 'A Typical Day'. I went out on Friday with skipper Barry Brunton to film a typical day onboard the Rockhopper.  I was filming and photographing using two Fujifilm X-H1s and two GoPro Hero 5 cameras. The day started at 5:30am and we headed out just as the light was breaking on the horizon.  We are treated to a fabulous sunrise as Barry deployed the net for the first tow of the day. At 10am the net was brought back in but the tide and the wind had shifted meaning the sea had started to get a bit choppy.  Barry decided that it was a bit risky doing a second tow in the 32 foot Rockhopper and he decided to head back to Dunbar Harbour with a small catch of pr

I am working on a personal project with Barry Brunton, skipper of the Rockhopper of Percuel, a 32ft fishing boat that works out of Dunbar Harbour. The Brunton family have a long association with Dunbar stretching back to the 14th century with Barry's grandfather and great-grandfather fishing the North Sea and being the coxswain of the Dunbar Lifeboat.  Over the next few months I will be following Barry as he fishes the coastal waters around the South East of Scotland and I'll take everyone on a behind the scenes look at what it takes to be a fisherman in the 21st century. CLICK HERE to visit the Rockhopper of Percuel Facebook page ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts you are helping support this blog - thank you. -------------------------

I am pleased to reveal that I will be speaking at The Photography Show 2018 at the NEC in Birmingham on Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 March on the Fujifilm stand. My talk is called 'Fujifilm Shoots Sport' and will take place between 11h50 and 12h40 on both Saturday and Sunday.  The Fujifilm stand is D61 and all of the talks are free. I will be joining a line up of some of the best photographers in the UK including Paul Sanders, Kevin Mullins, Elli Cassidy, Ben Cherry, Chris Upton and Saraya Cortaville. For more information on the talks on the Fujifilm stand CLICK HERE   For more on The Photography Show 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. ---------------------------------------------------------

On the 15 February 2018 Fujifilm launched the new X-H1 compact system camera.  As an X Photographer I was asked to be part of the test team for the new camera and Fujifilm sent a film crew to Bahrain to film an interview with myself and fellow X Photographers John Rourke and Andrew Hall. Over the past few weeks Fujifilm have been posting a series of videos entitled 'Proud of... celebrating their X Photographers and the video featuring me has been published today (4 March 2018).   Here is that interview - My Fujifilm X Series journey began with the X100 in November 2012, with the X-Pro1 and four prime lenses traveling in my camera bag in 2013 alongside my Nikon gear.  In April 2014 I bought the X-T1 and my Nikon gear was sold the following July.   After following my journey online, Fujifilm invited me to become a Fujifilm X Photographer in May 2015 and since then I have been involved in the launches of the X-Pro2, X-T2 and now the X-H1 as well as the XF100-400mm, 9

It may be a bit of a photography cliche but I love Robins ( Erithacus rubecula)  foraging for food in the snow. It is the stuff of Christmas cards! We have a bird table in the garden which we have kept stock up with seed over the winter.  With the recent winter storms lashing the UK we have had plenty of our feathered friends in the garden looking for something to eat. I set up the camera in the house over looking the garden and waited for a Robin to appear in the right spot and I didn't have to wait for long.  I used the Fujifilm X-H1 fitted with the XF100-400mm f4.5/5.6 plus the 1.4x converter to give me some extra pulling power. For more information on the Robin  ( Erithacus rubecula)   CLICK HERE ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts you are helping support this bl

This was one of the images I took yesterday while getting some winter storm images in Dunbar.  This shot is in fact six images taken on the Fujifilm X-Pro2 and XF16mm f1.4 lens, taken in sequence and then stitched together using the 'photomerge' function in Photoshop CC to create a wider field of view. Once the images were stitched together I cropped it 3:2 to give it a standard size.  At 8121 x 5414 pixels the overall image was larger than the standard 6000 x 4000 I usual get from a straight image from the X-Trans III 24mp sensor on the X-Pro2. I then converted the image to mono using NIK Silver Efex Pro2 software, converting the image with one of the custom presets I have developed. I then did some dodging and burning to lighten and darken certain areas to increase the overall contrast of the image. Not long after I took this sequence of images the snow began to fall heavily again. -------------------------------------------------------------------------

For the past two days much of the UK has been gripped in a severe snow storm, including the South East of Scotland.  In fact the Met Office issued the first ever 'RED' weather warning for snow in the central belt of Scotland.  The high winds and low temperatures have produced blizzard conditions and dumped a fair amount of snow across the country.   While Dunbar hasn't been as severely hit as other parts further inland, the weather has forced the trains to be cancelled, the schools to be shut and made roads hazardous to drive on and even impassable for a while. Today I walked with my wife to the school where she works and then headed down to the harbour with the Fujifilm X-Pro2 and Xf16mm f1.4 lens to capture some images of the wintery conditions. I also took along my GoPro Hero5 Black and the Karma stabiliser grip to capture some video of the conditions.  I didn't fly the DJI Mavic Pro drone because the wind conditions were too strong to safely fly. Wi