CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

  It's been a busy few weeks and I must apologise for not writing a feature last week. This weekend I was in Switzerland for the Alpine Challenge, which was the final of the 2020 FIA Trophy for Historic Regularity Rallies.  This is the first time I have worked on a regularity rally and it is very different from the other type of rallies I have worked on.   In the FIA European Historic Sporting Rally Championship the cars compete against the clock, trying to be the fastest through a stage, with the fastest over the two or three days of stages being declared the winner.   In regularity the cars have to complete a stage in a set time, to the nearest minute. They mustn't be quicker or slower or they receive penalty points.  The further away they are from the set time, the more penalty points they receive.  The crew with the least number of points at the end of the rally are declared the winners. The events are held on public roads, with the average speed being ...

I was able to borrow a pre production sample of the Fujinon XF50mm f1 telephoto prime lens for the 2020 24 Hours of Le Mans for a quick review of Fujifilm's fastest prime lens. I am going to be honest but for the way I work in the pitlane I find the 50mm focal length a bit short, I much prefer the 90mm f2 or 200mm f2, if using a prime, or the 50-140mm f2.8 if I need a bit of flexibility.  With a 50mm you need to get in close and this can cause problems with the pit crews, you don't want to get in their way, or if the subject is at the back of the garage, we've not allowed to cross into the garage due to the Covid-19 protocols - breaking a bubble is the technical term! With that said I wanted to give it go as I was intrigued to see how the 50mm f1 operated, how shallow the depth of field was and how fast the AF was on the X-T4.  I did have a 56mm f1.2 but sold it for the reasons stated above but also because the AF was a bit slow - admittedly this was when I had an X-T2. I f...

On the 15 February 2018 Fujifilm launched the new X-H1 compact system camera.  As an X Photographer I was asked to be part of the test team for the new camera and Fujifilm sent a film crew to Bahrain to film an interview with myself and fellow X Photographers John Rourke and Andrew Hall. Over the past few weeks Fujifilm have been posting a series of videos entitled 'Proud of... celebrating their X Photographers and the video featuring me has been published today (4 March 2018).   Here is that interview - My Fujifilm X Series journey began with the X100 in November 2012, with the X-Pro1 and four prime lenses traveling in my camera bag in 2013 alongside my Nikon gear.  In April 2014 I bought the X-T1 and my Nikon gear was sold the following July.   After following my journey online, Fujifilm invited me to become a Fujifilm X Photographer in May 2015 and since then I have been involved in the launches of the X-Pro2, X-T2 and now the X-H1 as well as the...

This weekend I am in Germany for Round 4 of the FIA World Endurance Championship and after the thrills and spills of Le Mans, the WEC returns to the 6-hour format at the Nurburgring. I went trackside during the first two Free Practice sessions yesterday in my capacity as the FIA Media Delegate to shoot some images from various locations around the circuit to check that the access was OK for the other photographers.  I also had to get some images for FIA.com, the official website for the world governing body of motor sport, who I work for on the WEC. I decided that some of the images would look better in black and white so I convert them in NIK Silver Efex Pro2 in post production. All images were taken on a pair of Fujifilm X-T2 using various lenses. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS P...

Today I fly home to Scotland after a busy week at the home of Italian motorsport, the Autodromo Nazionale Monza near Milan.   The week started with the two day Official Test for the European Le Mans Series and concluded yesterday evening after two days testing for the FIA World Endurance Championship. I was able to get trackside for a couple of hours in each of the tests and here is a selection of my favourite action images shot on the Fujifilm X-T2 or X-Pro2. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts you are helping support this blog - thank you. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ...