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 Serie...

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. ...

It has been a busy few weeks here at MacLean Photographic getting the new website built and ready for public viewing.   I have also been out with the DJI Mavic Pro drone shooting a series of videos to show the locations that we will visit on the MacLean Photographic workshops.  This has also proven to be problematic due to the almost constant windy weather since December, so the windows of opportunity to get out and fly have been limited. The above video was shot last week at one of my favourite locations at Fast Castle along the coast in the Scottish Borders. The folded rock formations are really dramatic and the aerial view point from out at sea really captures the nature of the geology in this part of the world. When I have completed my visits to all of the locations that feature on the MacLean Photographic workshops I will be editing a video that includes a selection of locations.  That will be coming soon. The image at the top of the page was taken on...

The X100 line of cameras has a special place in my heart as it was the original X100 that I bought in 2012 that started me on my Fujifilm journey.  I currently shoot with the third generation of the camera, an X100T, which compliments my X-T2 and X-Pro2 perfectly.   When Fujifilm announced the new X100F (F for fourth apparently - T is for third) I was interested to see what improvements Fujifilm could make to this already superb camera. Fujifilm decided to leave a few things alone and quite rightly in my book.  The Fujinon 23mm f2 lens is the same as the previous three generations of the X100, with its built in leaf shutter for silent operation and flash sync at all shutter speed.  The hybrid viewfinder, which was a unique feature at the launch of the original camera, also remains largely unchanged but with a much better EVF.   The overall size of the camera stays pretty much the same as the 'T' despite accommodating the larger WP-126 battery inst...

I had another opportunity to visit one of my favourite locations here on the East Lothian coast and that is the small sandy beach at Seacliff. The beach is reached via a private road (there is a £3 charge to access the road)  and it leads down to the car park behind the cove.  As you look out in front Bass Rock is right in front, to the left is the Gegan and the tiny harbour and to the right is St Baldred's Cross, which is the outer marker for the Firth of Forth. Once you get onto the beach you can look across and see the ruins of Tantallon Castle on the cliff top. The reason for the visit was to allow a fellow photographer the opportunity test the X-T2 and XF100-400mm on his favourite genre - wildlife.  So we headed to the cliffs by the Gegan to take some shots of the Fulmars that are starting to set up home in the cliffs. All images shot on the Fujifilm X-Pro2 with a XF10-24mm f4 or Fujifilm X-T2 with a XF100-400mm f4.5/5.6 ...

Living on the Scottish coast provides a great variety in the weather. This evening the clouds were gathering to the south west as a new weather front came across East Lothian with the forecast predicting high winds and heavy rain.   However this evening, just before sunset, the seas were relatively calm.  I took the Fujifilm X100T along with the Manfrotto Pixi Evo mini tripod and a cable release down to the rocks below Dunbar Castle to capture a few long exposures as the light faded. Two of the fishing boats returned to Dunbar Harbour as I was sitting enjoying the view, so I managed to grab a few images as the boats passed in front of me before entering the harbour. All of these images were taken on the Fujifilm X100T using the cameras fixed 23mm f2 lens. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By cl...