CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

This shot was taken at the first corner at the Bahrain International Circuit earlier today.  This tight hairpin will see plenty of action during this weekend's 6 Hours of Bahrain, the final round of the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship. The corner has the magnificent backdrop of the Sakhir Tower.  The image was taken on a Fujifilm X-T1 and a Fujinon XF10-24mm f4 lens.

I arrived in the Kingdom of Bahrain for the penultimate round of the FIA World Endurance Championship at 2:30am this morning and after getting to my hotel for a few hours sleep I headed to the Bahrain International Circuit to begin the set up for this weekend's event. This is my third trip to Bahrain and the number of times that people have said to me 'be safe' or 'take care' as if Bahrain was a dangerous place to visit.  The reporting by the foreign media has not helped this perception and I know this small country has a few political issues but my only experience is the warm and friendly welcome we always get when we travel here. Today was the set up day and this gave me the opportunity to get out and take some images of this very photogenic circuit out in the desert. The images were taken on the X-T1 or the X100, which I have brought to Bahrain to do test later this week. --------------------------------------------------------...

While in Bahrain I also got to try out the new Fujinon 23mm f1.4 on the X-Pro1.  Because of my schedule during the FIA World Endurance Championship weekend in the Middle East I set myself a target of getting some test images using this lens in just 60 minutes, so I chose to use the 23mm during the Audi 'Meet the Team' media opportunity and around the paddock. A 60-minute test of the XF 23mm f1.4 around the paddock in Bahrain Out of the XF range of lenses this was the one that least interested me mainly because I have the 23mm 35mm equivalent) focal length on the Fujifilm X100 and my reasoning is I don't need two lenses the same.  The two main differences are the size of the XF lens, it is larger than the XF 14mm f2.8, and a maximum aperture of f1.4, compared to fixed f2 lens on the X100. The lens feels perfectly balanced on the X-Pro1 and the construction is of the same high quality as the other XF lens range....

This weekend in Bahrain I have the Fujifilm XF 55-200mm F3.5-4.8 R LM OIS telephoto zoom on test and I have been walking around the paddock taking some test shots for a review I am preparing to be published on this blog next week. As part of this review I headed out this evening to take some shots trackside as the sun was setting.  I have to say I am impressed how the camera and lens combination handled the difficult conditions.  The AF was snappy and, with the camera set to aperture priority, the exposures were excellent.  I had to push the ISO to 800 to get a fast enough shutter with the slower maximum aperture but the X-Pro1 handles this relatively low ISO extremely well. Here are four of the shots I took this evening. Images taken on a Fujifilm X-Pro1 and Fujifilm XF 55-200mm F3.5-4.8 R LM OIS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------...

Nothing says 'desert' more than palm trees and there are plenty here at the Bahrain International Circuit.  The paddock is lined with trees which have been strung with party lights and in the evening the whole area becomes a party area.  This evening we have our paddock welcome party for all the teams, drivers and officials and the trees will provide the perfect setting for the party in the dessert. All images takens on a Fujifilm X-Pro1 and Fujinon 14mm f2.8 lens ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY CLICKING THE GOOGLE ADVERTS It doesn't cost you anything to click on an advert but we get a small fee for every click thru from Google and this helps support this blog - thank you for helping ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ALL IMAGES ARE THE PROPERTY OF MACLEAN PHOTOGR...

I arrived in the Kingdom of Bahrain in the early hours of this morning and after a few hours sleep I went to the Bahrain International Circuit to sort out some things ahead of the FIA World Endurance Championship finale on Saturday.  One of my jobs as the Media Delegate is to have a look at the photographer positions around the track and while out and about I took the opportunity to grab some images for the official website and Facebook page. Here are some of the brightly coloured kerb stones here at the BIC ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY CLICKING THE GOOGLE ADVERTS It doesn't cost you anything to click on an advert but we get a small fee for every click thru from Google and this helps support this blog - thank you for helping ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ALL ...