CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

This is a picture from Tyningham beach on the western side of Belhaven Bay looking eastwards towards Dunbar.  The rain was falling on the horizon while dark, foreboding clouds scooted over Dunbar Castle in the distance. The image was taken on the Fujifilm X-T2 with the XF100-400mm f4.5/5.6 fitted with the zoom set to 100mm.  The camera was set to Aperture Priority and the exposure was 1/500s @ f4.5 ISO200.

On the second day of visiting Nikko National Park in Japan the morning started off very misty and grey ( see Misty Pier image on Thursday's blog ).  We moved along the north shore of Lake Chuzenji and we suddenly saw some breaks in the clouds covering the lake.  We came across a beach with a car park so pulled over quickly and unpacked the camera gear. I noticed the clouds hugging the tree line on the mountains on the opposite shore so set the X-T2 up to record a timelapse video of the scene.  I used the XF50-140mm f2.8 or the XF100-400mm f4.5/5.6 telephoto zoom Fujinon lenses. Using the Interval Timer Shooting function I set the camera to record one JPEG (Fine) image every 3 seconds and took a sequence of approximately 200 images before recomposing the image.  The result was a set of images that I could use to show the movement of the clouds in a timelapse video. The individual images were combined with the frame rate of 10 frames per second in Windows Mov...

Today is the last day of my latest trip to Japan and once again it has been an absolute pleasure to visit the Land of the Rising Sun for the sixth time.  I never get tired of discovering new things in this country whose people are welcoming and the culture ancient and respectful.   Of all the places I have visited, Japan has to be second only to Scotland on my list of favourite countries. On this trip we visited Nikko National Park before heading to Fuji Speedway for the seventh round of the FIA World Endurance Championship and I have a lot of images for several features which I will be posting over the next few weeks. This is the shot of the sunrise yesterday morning over Mount Fuji.  I watched as the sun hit the clouds and then lit up the top of Japan's sacred mountain (Fuji San).   I was going to get some more shots of Fuji San this morning before I headed back to Tokyo but the beautiful weather that we have enjoyed for the past five days has gone an...

Most of the time as a landscape photographer I have to plan my trips carefully, always keeping one eye on the weather forecast to try and optimise my chances of coming back with a few 'keepers'.  Other times I can just get lucky and these images are one of those occasions. The shots were actually taken last September when I was testing the 1.4x converter for Fujifilm along with fellow X Photographer Dirk Bogaerts from Belgium, who was doing a round Scotland trip in his MGB for his new magazine Carburettor .   I had taken a series of shots for the test and these were taken just as the clouds parted to produce this stunning light display over Edinburgh Castle.  I filed the images for processing later and completely forgot about them until yesterday due to other work commitments.  As I said the images were shot on the XF50-140mm f2.8 fitted with the 1.4x converter fitted to the X-T1.  We were standing on Calton Hill looking west towards the castle when t...

After several long haul trips to Japan, China and Bahrain, with shorter flights to France and Portugal over the past couple of months, the racing season is drawing to a close. I have travelled to some wonderful places and have shared some of my exploits on this blog, but it has left me little time to get out and about with the camera closer to home in Scotland.  I intend to remedy this situation and this morning I made a start by heading out to Barns Ness.   Watching the weather forecast on the BBC last night there were fronts moving across the country which meant there was a good possibility of a nice sunrise.  So I packed the camera bag and headed out to Barns Ness just before dawn.  The cloud formations above the Lammermuirs boded well and as the sun came up the clouds were lit with a red glow that slowly turned golden. I set one camera on the tripod to capture some long exposures and the other was fitted with either the 16-55mm f2.8 or the 50-140mm f2...

The Kingdom of Bahrain is a desert state and it comes as no surprise that the sun tends to shine.  So you would expect some great sunsets but the best late evening, or early morning, displays happen when there are some clouds in the sky to bounce the light around.   The shot below was taken on Monday evening and there wasn't a cloud in the sky.  The resulting sunset was 'OK' but nothing to get excited about. However this evening's sunset was a good one as there was some cloud cover as can be seen in the shot at the top of the page.  The result was a beautiful sunburst through the clouds. Both images were taken on the Fujifilm X-T1 and the Fujinon XF50-140mm 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. ------------------...

Last Saturday in Estoril Portugal the sun came up over the town bathing the Portuguese coast in a warm glow.  However on the horizon storm clouds were gathering and by mid morning the winds were howling and the rain was lashing down, which brought a halt to first Free Practice session of the 4 Hours of Estoril (see blog HERE ).  The weather was so bad that a container ship was driven onto the rocks not far from our hotel and had to be towed off by tugs. All landscape photographers know that the light just ahead of a storm front can be quite dramatic as the sun can light objects against a very dark sky. These images were taken at sunrise from the hotel balcony in Estoril using the Fujifilm X-T1 and the 50-140mm fitted with the 1.4x converter. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts y...

Yesterday was the first opportunity for over a month to grab a sunset shot here in Dunbar.  I have been in Austria, France, Germany and on the West Coast of Scotland and when I have been home the weather has not been kind. As the clock was approaching 45 minutes before sunset I grabbed the camera bag and tripod and headed out to the beach below Winterfield Golf Club.  With the tide out the rock pools left at the edge of shore line provided a perfect mirror for the fiery sky as the sun sank lower in the west out of sight behind North Berwick Law. I set one of my Fujifilm X-T1s on the Manfrotto tripod with the Fujinon 10-24mm f4 fitted to it.  I fitted the XF50-140mm f2.8 to the other X-T1 to capture some long telephoto shots of the clouds and the fiery seascape. Here are the results from last nights sunset over Belhaven Bay in East Lothian. All images taken on the Fujifilm X-T1 + XF50-140mm f2.8 or X10-24mm f4 lenses ----------------...

When out shooting landscapes on a cloudy day I always keep one eye on the sky to see if the sun will break through to create some interesting light on the landscape.  I have got very good at anticipating changes in the light over the years and it is a skill that all landscape photographers acquire over time. On the west coast of Scotland the weather can change very quickly.  Just when it looks like it is time to pack the cameras away and head back home, the clouds can suddenly part or the rain can stop and the scene that 10 minutes earlier was grey and overcast is suddenly transformed. Take these two shots looking out from the northern coast of the Isle of Skye out towards Harris and Lewis.  The wind was blowing the clouds across the scene at a fair rate of knots and the moving clouds would suddenly open up to allow the sunlight through to illuminate part of the seascape. They say 'patience is a virtue', and for landscape photographers this is very true.  S...

We took a trip out to Seacliffe beach on Tuesday evening and while sitting on the sand watching the scene before us we spotted two fishing boats heading across the bay towards North Berwick. The two trawlers looked so small against Bass Rock and the Isle of May and the low cloud cover added a sense of drama to the scene.  The gannets circling above The Bass can be clearly seen on the image above. The last shot was taken on our return to Dunbar.  We spotted a square rigged vessel moored just off cliffs at Winterfield, with one of the big tankers, that has been moored off Dunbar for three weeks, in the background with a small fishing boat weaving its way between the two larger vessels. All images taken on a Fujifilm X-T1 plus XF50-140mm f2.8 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the advert...

I arrived home from Bahrain on Sunday afternoon and have a few days in Scotland before I head off again for two weeks in Brazil, Qatar and London before the end of the FIA World Endurance Championship season finally comes to a close. Yesterday evening the promise of a nice sunset had me shutting down the computer for an hour, grabbing the camera bag and tripod and walking across the road to the headland over looking Belhaven Bay.  I wasn't disappointed as the sun dipped behind the Lammermuir hills and Traprain Law on the horizon. Once again the Fujifilm X-T1 was pressed into service with long exposures using the 14mm f2.8 and 56mm f1.2 lenses, while the X-Pro1 was fitted with the 55-200mm to take telephoto shots of the scene before me. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts you are h...