CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

In 2015 we took our first trip out to the Isle of May and what a wonderful experience that was, to be surrounded by so much life in the North Sea was amazing - CLICK HERE to view the 2015 blog.   The Isle of May is one of two islands we can see from our home in Dunbar, the other being Bass Rock and its colony of Northern Gannets.  So in 2016 we decided to book another Scottish Seabird Centre boat trip out to the island that is home to over 200,000 seabirds including the Atlantic Puffin, Arctic Tern and many others.  We also chose the right day as we sped across the Firth of Forth in the Seafari RIB towards the island on a flat, calm sea.  The weather was a very balmy 27 degrees Celsius, Summer had definitely arrived in our part of Scotland. The trip had two purposes.  The primary one was a family day out to the island and the secondary reason was to conduct some tests on the newly launched Fujifilm X-T2.  I posted a test of the Autofocus syste...

I have been nominated by friend and fellow photographer Tom Hodgetts of Skye Walks and Photography to take part in the 7 day nature photo challenge.  I will post one shot here from the MacLean Photographic archive every day for the next week.  Most will be from my trips here in East Lothian but I might throw in a couple from further afield. This is another shot of the Arctic Terns on the Isle of May which we visited at the end of June.  The terns were very vocal and were quite robust in defending their nest site, which were scattered all around us on the ground.  The best way to defend your head from getting pecked was to hold something above you as the birds always go for the highest point.  Most people used a leaflet or paper.  Is used my X-T1 and 10-24mm f4 wide angle zoom and took pictures of the bird up close. They were VERY close in this shot! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------...

Well worth the wait! That was the thought when we got off the RIB on the Isle of May.  We'd originally booked the Scottish Seabird Centre's Isle of May landing trip in May but it was cancelled the morning of the trip due to bad weather, so we had rebooked for the 28 June.  The weather forecast was looking decidedly 'iffy' but we arrived at the SSC's North Berwick Harbour office to find that the trip was on - phew. The skies were grey and overcast as we headed out into the Firth of Forth and our first stop was Bass Rock.   I'd done a landing trip on The Bass in June 2014 and this time we sailed slowly around the base of this monolith with 150000 Gannets covering every nook and cranny.  It is a spectacular sight and the smell of fish was quite pungent.    Our skipper Colin then gunned the engines and we off skipping across the waves towards the Isle of May. As we approached the island the weather had improved and blue skies wer...