CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

The final day of activity at an FIA World Endurance Championship race weekend includes all of the cars taking part in the event undergoing the mandatory technical checks to make sure they are in compliance with the regulations for the championship. The pitlane in Shanghai was a flurry of activity as the teams prepared their cars ahead of the 6 Hours of Shanghai on Sunday.  The teams took it in turns to push their cars to the scrutineering bay and this shot was taken of the Porsche GT Team pushing the no91 Porsche 911 RSR down to the technical area. The image was taken on the Fujifilm X-T2 and XF50-140mm f2.8 lens.  The camera was set on the floor as the car was pushed towards me and I used the articlated screen to make sure the framing was correct.  The camera was set to AF-C to allow the camera's autofocus to track the car as it was push down the pitlane. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------...

no2 Porsche Team Porsche 919 Hybrid (LMP1) - 1/60 @ f13 100ISO It now 12 months since I first used a prototype of the XF100-400mm f4.5/5.6 and just over 6 months since I received a prototype Fujifilm X-T2 and I have been happily shooting motorsport with this combination.  The X-T2 has proven to be a great track camera and combined with the long reach of the XF100-400mm I have been able to take shots of moving cars with ease. no95 Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Vantage V8 (LMGTE PRO) - 1/450 @ f5.6 200ISO Last weekend I used the X-T2 and XF100-400mm to capture these images (and others) of the track action at the Shanghai International Circuit in China where I was working on the FIA World Endurance Championship. The autofocus on the X-T2 is more than capable of tracking a fast moving race car and the 11 frames per second drive means I rarely miss the decisive moment.  The 100-400mm is a great lens, brilliantly sharp and easy to use despite its size. ...

Anyone who has traveled to China and tried to access their normal social media feeds will know it can be a nightmare.  I've been in Shanghai for the past six days working on the latest round of the FIA World Endurance Championship and I have had to put updating this blog because of the internet issues faced behind the Great Firewall of China. I am now back in Europe and I have taken the opportunity to update the blog with some of the black and white images I took during the event.  There will be more features coming in the next few days before I head to Bahrain for the season finale next week. Images were shot on the Fujifilm X-T2 or X100T and then converted to black and white using NIK Silver EFEX Pro2.   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts you are helping ...

While visiting the Town God Temple in Zhujiajiao I spotted this wooden rack in one of the corners of the temple with lots of red ribbon prayers or wishes tied to it.  The sunlight was filtering between the building and catching the red ribbons highlighting one prayer. I have no idea what the prayer says but perhaps the fact it was hit by the sunlight means that it will be granted by the Chinese gods.  A nice thought! The image was taken on a Fujifilm X-T1 and a XF16-55mm f2.8 lens ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 PR...

Another stop on our tour of Zhujiajiao was the Town God Temple, which is a Daoist temple on Caohe Street opposite the Qijin Bridge, dedicated to Guanjin, the goddess of mercy.  This was immediately in front of the quay where our boat ride finished. The temple isn't large but tries to explain the Daoist gods, including the eight year cycle that dictate which sign you were born under.  I was was born in 1964 and is the year of the snake and my daughter Kate was born in 1998, so is the year of the tiger.  The others are the rat, ox, dragon, rabbit, horse and goat, which is 2015. We spent 45 minutes looking at the various parts of the temple, which I photographed on the X-T1 and the XF16-55mm f2.8 and 50-140mm f2.8 lenses. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on th...

At the northern edge of the old district, on Xijing Street, is  Kezhi Yuan (Kezhi Gardens) . This was our second stop on the tour of Zhujiajiao.  The name Kezhi is made up of the characters 课 (kè) which means "to learn" and 植 (zhí) which means "to plant". It consists of three parts - the main hall, the garden and an artificial hill area. The most iconic landmark of the gardens is a five story building with a pavilion on its roof - the tallest structure in old Zhujiajiao.  T he history of this garden dates back to 1912, when Ma Wenqing built it, drawing inspiration from a mixture of Chinese and European influences. The construction took 15 years and 300 000 silver taels, equivalent to 12000 kg of silver.  The wars and revolutions of the following half century brought much destruction to the garden and its buildings, and in 1956 additional old structures where torn down to make room for teaching buildings of the Zhujiajiao Middle School that had come to...