CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

This afternoon we took a trip out to Hailes Castle to see the display of snowdrops that surround the ruins on the bank of the River Tyne. Snowdrops are a wild woodland flower than comes into bloom at the end of winter.  With the mild weather of late, the carpet of snowdrops at Hailes Castle is earlier this year. Galanthus (snowdrop; Greek gála "milk", ánthos "flower") is a small genus of about 20 species of bulbous perennial herbaceous plants in the family Amaryllidaceae. The plants have two linear leaves and a single small white drooping bell shaped flower with six petal-like (petaloid) tepals in two circles (whorls). The smaller inner petals have green markings.   Snowdrops have been known since the earliest times under various names but were named Galanthus in 1753.  Here are some of the shots I took this morning on the Fujifilm X-T2 with either the XF35mm f1.4, with extension rings fitted to enable closer focusing, or the XF10-24mm f4 wide angl...

During our walk along the John Muir Way near East Linton yesterday we came across a small patch of bluebells growing alongside the path.  The overhanging trees created pools of sunlight amongst the flowers which provided some great contrasty light with which to shoot. Using the X-T1 and the 56mm f1.2 lens I took these three images of the bluebells.  Selecting a wide aperture of f4 I was able to throw the background out of focus while the flower I was concentrating on was perfectly sharp.

This afternoon we decided to go for walk in the sunshine along the John Muir Way near East Linton.  The John Muir Way stretched from Dunbar all the way to Helensburgh on the west coast of Scotland, 134 miles / 215km in total and was opened to celebrate the founding father of the national parks in the USA who was born in Dunbar.   John Muir was an explorer, mountaineer, conservationist, botanist, amateur geologist and writer of distinction.   The John Muir Way near East Linton runs alongside the River Tyne and Preston Mill, which is a National Trust for Scotland property.   Preston Mill, with its distinctive Dutch style conical-roof, was East Lothian’s last working water mill. The 2.5 mile stretch of the John Muir way crosses the river at three times, with two fords in the river for farm traffic.  The crossings allow walkers to take in the river and the scenery as it meanders its way through the East Lothian countryside on its way to the sea at ...

Hailes Castle is one of my favourite locations for photographic expeditions.  Situated just a few miles from Dunbar this ruined castle is steeped in history and is located in the perfect location on the banks of the River Tyne.  In the winter Hailes looks forlorn and bleak but when spring comes along the wild flowers provide a carpet of colour.  There are also walks on both sides of the river and plenty of things to photograph in and about the castle grounds. Last Wednesday I spent an hour photographing the snowdrops and also the castle itself in the beautiful spring sunshine. History Hidden away in the pretty valley of the River Tyne stands the remarkable castle of Hailes. It is one of Scotland’s oldest stone castles, dating from the first half of the 1200s. Hailes Castle served as a fortified noble residence for over 300 years. The puzzle is its location, for the castle is overlooked at close quarters by high ground, making it very difficult to defend. T...

This avenue of trees is near the town of East Linton in East Lothian, about 5 miles from Dunbar.  I spotted the potential of this long track in the winter but waited until the summer when the trees would be covered in leaves.  The sunlight filtering through the canopy has provided the dappled lighting. The image was shot on the Fujifilm X-T1 and the Fujinon 55-200mm f3.5/4.8 telephoto zoom, which was used to compress the perspective.  The picture was then converted to black and white using NIK Silver Efex Pro2 software. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ...

Last week, before I went to Italy, I took an early morning walk up by Hailes Castle in the glorious spring sunshine.  I had been up to Hailes on one previous occasion just after we moved to East Lothian but I hadn't been back since. The ruins of Hailes Castle sits on the edge of the River Tyne near East Linton and there is a really nice walk near the river with lots of wild flowers at the this time of year ( CLICK HERE for the blog on this walk), I had decided to revisit the castle to take more shots of the ruins and also see if I could come up with a better view of the ruins as it is difficult to get a good composition due to its proximity to the river.  However on this morning I think I have found a better view for a morning visit. Here are some of the shots from the latest visit to Hailes Castle CLICK HERE for the previous blog on Hailes Castle (21 August 2013), which includes the dramatic history of this ruin. ...