CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

This weekend is the final race of the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship and for the third time in five years the season finale will be held in the desert kingdom of  Bahrain. Today is set up day and the teams are busily preparing their cars, taking them through the pre event technical checks (scrutineering) and practicing their pitstops. I took the opportunity to take a walk down the pitlane in the sunshine and capture a few images using the Fujifilm X-T2 and XF90mm f2 lens.  I fitted a 3 stop ND filter to the lens so I could shoot all the images at f2 to give a shallow depth of field to the images.   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts you are helping support this blog - thank you. ------------------------------------------------...

The 24 Hours of Le Mans, the greatest motorsport event in the world and a race that I am very proud to be involved at the FIA Media Delegate.  It is ten days of intense preparation and action and this is one of the reasons I have not posted on the MacLean Photographic blog for a while. I am still sorting through my images from Le Mans for various projects I am working on but here is a selection of different pictures taken on the Fujifilm X-Pro2 or X-T1 from trackside or in the pitlane that I have cropped into a 12:5 panoramic format in post production. I didn't necessarily take these images with a panoramic crop in mind but when viewed on the computer screen I immediately saw the potential of a 12:5 ratio image in each one. The images were taken on a variety of Fujinon lenses - XF10-24mm f4, XF16-55mm f2.8, XF50-140mm f2.8, XF100-400mm f4.5/5.6, XF90mm f2 - and a Samyang 8mm fisheye. ----------------------------------...

I've just arrived back from Le Mans.  It was a great event, if a little tiring, but congratulations to the nr1 Audi R18 of Benoit Treluyer, Marcel Fassler and Andre Lotterer on their second consecutive victory.  Also congratulations to the other class winners, Starworks Motorsport (LMP2), AF Corse (LMGTE Pro) and Labre Competition (LMGTE Am). I'm off for a long sleep  to try and catch up on what I missed over the weekend (I'm not as young as I used to be) but I thought I would post a couple of my favourite 'arty' shots from the event. Hitting the Apex The first is a shot I saw while working trackside and instead of focusing on the car as it approached the corner I focused on the kerb, which is where the drivers look.  I then had to wait until a car positioned itself in the frame perfectly, as the nr99 Aston Martin Racing Vantage V8 did in this shot. Corvette Flash The second shot is a very slow shutter speed shot taken at the Dunlop curve using the N...

After a classic race at Le Mans it was an Audi 1-2-3 on the podium with Andre Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassler retaining their Le Mans crown and making history for scoring the first win for a hybrid LMP1 car at Le Mans.  The weather stayed dry for the entire 24 hour race.  These shots were taken during the overall podium celebrations and the press conferences. Audi Sport boss Dr Wolfgang Ullrich, Andre Lotterer and Benoit Treluyer   Andre Lotterer Marcel Fassler Olly Jarvis (3rd) LMP2 Winners - Starworks Motorsport Tom Kimber-Smith LMGTE Pro Winner - Toni Vilander (AF Corse) LMGTE Am Winner - Pedro Lamy (Larbre Competition) ALL IMAGES ARE THE PROPERTY OF MACLEAN PHOTOGRAPHIC AND CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION. MORE IMAGES CAN BE VIEWED ON   FLICKR  AND ON OUR  WEBSITE  

Today is the day of the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans.  The build up for this event has been fantastic but nothing compares to the atmosphere in the hours leading up to the start, it is electric. The warm up was followed by two support races before the drivers gathered on the grid for the traditional group photograph. Meanwhile the cars are placed on the grid in 'Le Mans Style' start formation before all the countries represented on the grid have their national anthems played.  With all the patriotic fans in the grandstands plenty of singing and cheering are heard during this part of the build up. With the grid cleared the race procedure can begin in earnest.  First the drivers take part in a dummy Le Mans start and they come back round the 14km circuit to form up on the grid in 2x2 formation.  They then head off on their formation lap and as the Rolex clock hits 3pm the race begins to the roar of 56 engines and the thousands of people watching in the packed grandsta...

Friday at Le Mans and it is now less than 24 Hours to the start of the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans.  Today was a quiet day with no track action.  The drivers had autograph sessions in the pitlane before heading off the Le Mans city centre for the drivers parade, but I decided to give it a miss due to commitments at the track. I only took one shot today for the website and this was of a Michelin tyre for an article on Michelin.  The shot was taken on the D300s and 50mm f1.4 lens and the shot clearly demonstrates what a stunning lens the 50mm is.    Tomorrow is race day and it begins early with a photo briefing at 8:30am, warm up at 9am and then the race itself gets underway at 3pm. ALL IMAGES ARE THE PROPERTY OF MACLEAN PHOTOGRAPHIC AND CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION. MORE IMAGES CAN BE VIEWED ON   FLICKR  AND ON OUR  WEBSITE