CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

Yesterday afternoon I had a very long trip to the airport for my flight home from Brazil as the notorious Sao Paulo traffic became its usual gridlock.  A city of over 20 million people and everyone seems to own a car and they all use them at the same time.  The result is no one is going anywhere fast. However this was taken into account for our trip out to the airport and what would normally be a 30 minute trip of the roads were clear turned into a two hour slog. I always like to think that there is usually a silver lining to most clouds and on this trip I soon spotted this particular one.  In an attempt to avoid some of the traffic jams, our driver took us through the centre of Sao Paulo.  This meant we got to see some new things on the journey and so to pass the time I got the X-T1 and the 56mm f1.2 out of the bag and took a few images of the streets as we slowly made progress through the heavy traffic. Shooting out of a bus window is not ideal but l...

Brazilians do a lot of things well but two of the best are samba and partying!  Last night we held the FIA World Endurance Championship Awards Ceremony at Casa Fasano in Sao Paulo and it was a celebration of the 2014 season that ended on Sunday. The speeches were kept to a minimum with several people given special awards on the night (news here).  This left more time for the party and one of the highlights of the evening were the samba dancers and the drummers.  The whole place rocked and there were plenty of people queuing up to have a dance with the beautiful samba dancers. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts you are helping support this blog - thank you. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------...

Today is the day after the final FIA WEC race of the season and we are preparing for the Awards Gala in downtown São Paulo this evening.   This is the view from the terrace at our hotel in Morumbi, taken on the Fujifilm X-Pro1 and 18mm f2 lens using the panoramic mode.   This mode is a bit 'hit-and-miss' because the camera doesn't always align the separate images correctly. However this shot is definitely a 'hit'. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts you are helping support this blog - thank you. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ALL IMAGES ARE THE PROPERTY OF MACLEAN PHOTOGRAPHIC AND CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION If you like what you see on this blog please visit ou...

On the grid for the final time in 2014 at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace in Sao Paulo.  The cars and drivers are lining up for the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo in front of three packed grandstands along the main straight of the historic circuit in Brazil. The shot at the top of the page was taken on the Fujifilm X-T1 with the XF55-200mm f3.5/f4.8 lens.  The second images of the grid was taken on the Fujifilm X-Pro1 fitted with the XF10-24mm f4. The third and fourth shots were taken on the Fujifilm X-T1 with the XF56mm f1.2, with the final shot showing the media scrum around Emerson Fittipaldi, who is driving in the race this weekend. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts you are helping support this blog - thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------...

An team dinner at the Fogu de Chao in Sao Paulo was topped off with a generous supply of Caipirinha. Caipirinha is Brazil's national cocktail, made with cachaça, sugar and fruit, most commonly lime. Cachaça is Brazil's most common distilled alcoholic beverage (also known as Pinga or Caninha). Both rum and cachaça are made from sugarcane-derived products. Specifically with cachaça, the alcohol results from the fermentation of sugarcane juice that is afterwards distilled. CLICK HERE for more information on Caipirinha ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts you are helping support this blog - thank you. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ALL IMAGES ARE THE PROPERTY OF MACLEAN PHOTOGRAPHIC AND CANNOT BE USE...

Today the track action begins for the final round of the FIA World Endurance Championship in Sao Paulo and all of the teams and drivers are prepared for the first free practice session that begins at 13:00 (local) / 15:00 GMT this afternoon. Yesterday I went down to the scrutineering bay to get some shots of the GT cars going through their technical checks and also conducting some pitstop practice in the pitlane. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts you are helping support this blog - thank you. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ALL IMAGES ARE THE PROPERTY OF MACLEAN PHOTOGRAPHIC AND CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION If you like what you see on this blog please visit our  Face...

For the eighth and final time in 2014 the teams are setting up their garages and preparing their cars for a 6 hour race in the FIA World Endurance Championship. This time we are in Sao Paulo in Brazil for the deciding round for four of the titles, including the World Endurance Manufacturers' Championship and the World Cup for GT Manufacturers which are currently led by Toyota and Ferrari respectively. I arrived in Sao Paulo last night and arrived at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace this morning bright and early.  I decided to get some images of the set up in the garages for the official website and Facebook pages using the XF56mm f1.2 on the Fujifilm X-T1 and the XF18mm f2 on the Fujifilm X-Pro1. Here are some of the images - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts you ...

Travelling north from Sao Paulo on the flight back to London we passed over the Amazon river with the evening sun reflecting off the water.  I was able to capture the scene from 30,000 feet on the Fuji X100 out of the cabin window on the top deck of a Boeing 747. The second image is after the sun has disappeared over the horizon with reds, yellows and oranges contrasting with the blue and black of the night sky. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 PHOTOGRAPHIC AND CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY PURPOSE WITH...

Today is my last day in Brazil and will be flying back to the UK this evening after six days in Sao Paulo.  Yesterdays FIA World Endurance Championship race at Interlagos was a thriller from start to finish, especially in the two GTE classes that was incident packed and produced wins for Ferrari (LMGTE Pro) and Aston Martin (LMGTE Am). As with all WEC races I am too busy writing and managing the media centre in my role as the FIA Media Delegate but I did manage to grab this shot on the D800 and 50mm f1.4 of the two GTE Am class Aston Martins at Turn 2.  This shot works for me because I got the WEC flag into the shot, which is perfect for marketing brochures etc. I hope we return to Sao Paulo in 2014 for another race at this fantastic circuit, we will know in a few weeks time when the calendar for next year will be announced.  Next up is the European Le Mans Series race in Budapest in less than two weeks and a week later we head to Texas for the next W...

Today is the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo, round 4 of the FIA World Endurance Championship.  As the FIA Media Delegate it is my job to be on the grid to make sure the photographers and TV crews get the access they need and it also gives me the opportunity to get some images for the official website and Facebook feed.  Here are some of the shots I captured this morning ahead of the race which is still going on as I type this. Live streaming of the race is available at www.fiawec.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 PRO...