CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

As a landscape photographer I try to plan where I want to go, what I want to shoot, check the weather forecast and be in position at the right time and hope that all the elements come together for 'the' shot.  On Sunday when I went to Loch Tay for the sunrise this is exactly the type of planning that I followed but there is still a pinch of luck when it comes to Mother Nature. Now on Tuesday there was a lightship that was captured purely down to luck, pure and simple.  On the boat trip out to Bass Rock we travel west along the East Lothian coastline past Seacliff and Tantallon Castle.  I had the Fujifilm X-T2 and the XF100-400mm set ready to capture any wildlife that should appear, especially dolphins that do frequent these waters.  Sadly no dolphins were visible today. Now I was watching Tantallon Castle coming up just as the heavy sea mist that had been hugging the coast started to break up and just as we got close to the castle perched on the cliffs a shaf...

When the sea gets up off the East Lothian coast the waves can be pretty spectacular and this is why this part of Scotland is good for surfing. Last week while we were out at Brans Ness we stopped to take some shots of the waves with the tops being blown back in the high winds sweeping the beach. This shot was taken on the Fujifilm X-T1 and XF100-400mm f4.5/5.6.  The exposure was 1/4000  @f5.6 ISO200.

In September the first stage of the demolition of the decommissioned coal fired power station at Cockenzie along the coast in East Lothian took place. Today (17 December) the second and final stage of the demolition happened when the main building was taken down in a controlled explosion at 2pm. I went along to record the event that will transform this part of the coastline and set up my cameras in the same position as I shot on the 26 September. Here is the video from 17 December And here is the video from 26 September ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 CA...

Today thousands of people lined the coast here in East Lothian to watch a familiar landmark disappear as the twin chimneys at the Cockenzie Power Station were demolished.  The coal fired station was built in the 1960s and was decommissioned in 2013.  The twin chimneys have been a familiar sight on the East Lothian coast for 50 years but at 12 noon today they were no more. The video was shot on a Fujifilm X-T1 with a XF50-140mm f2.8.  The video was set to full 1080P HD at 60fps so I could slow the video down by 50 percent in post production.  The video show the demolition of the chimneys and the turbine hall in real time and then after 1 minute into the video the demolition is replayed in slow motion. The still images were shot on the second X-T1 at 8fps to capture the chimneys coming down and to also have a before and after shot of the skyline.   The main power station building will be dismantled over the coming months and then the skyli...

Sunrise is probably my favourite time of day for photography.  Under clear skies the light is amazing and can lead to some beautiful colours and strong contrasts.  Yesterday I posted some images of the sunlight hitting the water coming onto the beach ( CLICK HERE ) and those shots perfectly illustrate the reasons why I choose to haul myself out of bed at 4:30am on a summer morning. The colours before the sun gets above the horizon can be quite vibrant, as demonstrated in the image at the top of the page.  As the sun climbs into the sky the colours shifts towards the blue end of the spectrum but the light is still warm and still very contrasty. Barns Ness is a good place to capture great sunrise shots as the sun rises just beyond the lighthouse, which is a great manmade focal point for coastal images. These images were all shot on the Fujifilm X-T1 using the 50-140mm f2.8 for the first two images and the 16mm f1.4 for the third shot. -----------------...

For me landscape photography is so much more than capturing a chocolate box images of beautiful sunsets and sweeping sun kissed beaches.   Living next to the Scottish coast we get to experience many types of weather, usually all in the space of a few hours.  I have a healthy respect for the sea and tides and I am in awe of the power of the water crashing on the shoreline when the weather does turn stormy. This shot is one of my favourites showing the waves crashing against the rocks with the dark clouds forming on the horizon ahead of a heavy rain storm.

I discovered a new beach here in East Lothian yesterday evening as I went for a walk near Billsdean Creek (that's the name on the OS map) to try and find the natural arch that a fellow photographer had posted on Facebook.   With the High Tide approaching I decided to abandon the walk around the headland to the arch as I didn't want to be the cause of a Dunbar Lifeboat callout, so I settled for taking some images in around the shoreline as the sun set behind Torness Point.  I have several images to process from this short foray along the East Lothian coast but this picture of a large rock sat at the edge of the shoreline caught my eye.  The golden light from the setting sun to the left and the reflection in the water makes this, for me, a standout picture when viewed in Lightroom. The shot was taken on a Fujifilm X-T1 and a XF18mm f2 lens.  The camera was handheld so I could get the low angle close to the water and is gives the rock, which was about 3 feet /...

Last Sunday I went to St Helen's Chapel which is situated on the cliff top along the coast near Pease Bay in the Scottish Borders, about 8 miles from Dunbar.  This is the second time I had visited the ruins of the 12th Century chapel that was abandoned in the 18th Century. There are a few gravestones still lying around in the grass and the whole site is very poignent and make for great mono images, especially with a Lee Big Stopper fitted to get some movement in the clouds that were scudding across the sky in the high winds.  After taking several shots I moved along the coastal path the take some images of the path and also the view along the coast towards the power station at Torness. The weather was extremely changeable and the rain clouds eventually reached us and we headed back to the car as the rain swept in from the south east.  The rain can be seen on the horizon in the shot below along the coast. CLICK HERE for more information on St Hel...

2014 was the first full year we have lived and worked in East Lothian and I have put together a video slide show with some the photographic highlights from this part of Scotland.  Some of the images, like this shot of the Dunbar Lifeboat, are previously unpublished. The video lasts 7 minutes and I have used three tracks featuring guitar solos by artists Jason Shaw and Gillicuddy which area available to download on the Free Music Archive website. Here is the video and we hope you enjoy this photographic tour of East Lothian.   Don't forget you can book a Photography Workshop or Tour in East Lothian with MacLean Photographic HERE

This is the third timelapse video of the project I am working on in and around my home in Dunbar.  This is East Beach, the main beach in the town.  The video was taken from three locations around the bay, capturing 100 images at 5 second intervals from each of the three areas.  The 300+ images were then put together using Windows Live Movie Maker to produce the finished video. The images were loaded into Movie Maker and each image was given a display time of just 0.1 seconds, giving a frame rate of 10 frames per second.   The music is rights free and was downloaded from  www.freemusicarchive.org .  The track is  Cylinder 5  by Chris Zabriskie, the same composer I used for the Belhaven Bridge Timelapse Video HERE .  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the ...

On Thursday I went for a walk along the coastal path near Cockburnspath to find the ruins of St Helen's Church which is marked on the OS Explorer map of the area (OS map no 346). The ruins date from the 12th century and the church was heavily rebuilt in the 14th and 15th centuries before being abandoned in the 18th when the parish of Aldcambus was united with Cockburnspath.  The church was dedicated to St Helen and is also known as  St Helen's Kirk, St Helen's On The Lea and St Helena's Chapel. Access is via the coastal path that runs along the dry stone wall and the ruins can also be seen from the road.  The church yard is set apart from the surrounding fields by a stone wall enclosure and a few head stones and grave markers can be seen close to the ruins of the church.  Only three headstones are still standing and one is set apart from the others, that are grouped together closer in.  Markings are still visible on several of the graveston...

It's been a beautiful spring like day here in the South East of Scotland, too good to be sat at the computer, so I decided to 'down tools' and go for a walk along the coastal path near Cockburnspath to take some pictures of the remains of St Helen's Church above the cliffs - I will post shots from here in the next couple of days.  Walking along the coastal path I stopped to take in this scene looking back towards Torness Point.  I decided to get the Nikon D800 and take a long exposure (4 minutes) to get some movement in the clouds and the sea. Regular visitors to my blog may have noticed that I have been favouring my pair of Fuji cameras over the bigger and more cumbersome Nikon D800.  This is because the images quality and the size of the Fujifilm X-Pro1 and X100 are superb and ideal when out walking.  However today I decided to load up my Lowepro backpack and take the D800 along as well and I'm certainly glad I did.   The 36mp full frame sensor on t...

The cliff top walk around the Winterfield Golf Club has become a regular place for us to go for a walk to blow away the cobwebs.  Unless the weather is VERY inclement, we head off for a walk down to Belhaven Bay and if the tide is in, meaning the bridge to the beach is cut off, we'll head up the coastal path alongside the golf course. This shot is taken from the cliff top looking east towards Dunbar Castle and the North Sea was reminding us of its power with plenty of breakers and white horses all along the coast.  Wonderful!   The shot was taken on the Fujifilm X-Pro1 and Fujinon 35mm f1.4R.  The image was converted to mono in Silver Efex Pro2. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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...