CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

In September I posted a feature on the rig shot conducted by fellow X Photographer John Rourke with the two Proton Competition Porsche 911s at Spa-Francorchamps ( CLICK HERE ).  I ended the feature by saying the next rig shot was going to be with the Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TS050 Hybrid Le Mans Prototype (LMP1) at its home track at Fuji Speedway in Japan. This shoot was arranged for Thursday morning before the car was due to go through scrutinising (pre event technical checks) so we had just 45 minutes to complete this shoot. John, along with his photographers Ade Holbrook and Gabi Tomescu, worked swiftly to set up the carbon fibre rig and get the shots taken on the Fujifilm X-T2 and XF10-24mm f4 lens. I shot it all on video for the FIA World Endurance Championship website and social media feeds using my X-T2 and 10-24mm f4 zoom lens.    Here is the video - And here is the final image shot by John - The image above is the property of John R...

People watching at Fuji Speedway is a great past time and the majority of the Japanese fans love to have their photograph taken if you ask.   I spent the pitwalk using the X-T2 with the XF100-400mm taking pictures of people enjoying the sunshine and collecting autographs and selfies with their favourite drivers.  With a few thousand people in the pitlane it gave me an opportunity to further test the X-T2s AF-C custom function, selecting set 2 (ignore obstacles and continue to track subject).  Once the X-T2 had locked on to the selected person I was able to continue to track them despite people walking between them and the camera. Here is a selection of images that were converted to black and white in post production using the NIK Silver EFEX.   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS...

While we were in Japan for the FIA World Endurance Championship four Fujifilm X-Photographers met up at Fujifilm HQ in Tokyo for a meeting about a video shoot that the company wanted to take during the event at Fuji Speedway on how we photographers use our X-Series equipment.  The four photographers were Dirk Bogaerts from Belgium, Andrew Hall from Australia, John Rourke and myself from the UK. Dirk and Andrew did their interviews at the circuit as they had to fly back home early the day after the race, however John and I travelled back to Tokyo on Monday to complete our videos in the studio before heading to the airport. We each took it in turns to face the cameras, with me going first to answer questions about me as a photographer, why I chose to use Fujifilm and my work in general.   Once John took the 'hot seat' I was able to shoot some behind the scenes shots using the X-T1 and the 16-55mm f2.8 with the camera set to electronic shutter so there would be no...

The sixth round of the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship in Japan was one of the most dramatic of the season so far thanks in part to the wet conditions that transpired on race day.   This proved to be challenging for the teams and drivers as well as for the photographers and cameramen.  It was certainly a good test of the weather proofing of the Fujifilm X-T1s and Fujinon lenses and I am happy to report that I experienced no issues despite the fact that both X-T1s got wet. Thousands of enthusiastic Japanese fans turned out to witness the race and were treated to a great day out.  I set about getting a flavour of the event using the X-T1s fitted with the XF16-55mm f2.8 and the XF50-140mm f2.8 lenses and here are some of the results. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE ...

Kazuki Nakajima, Toyota Racing As usual during the first day of track action of a FIA World Endurance Championship event we held the pre event press conference with six of the drivers taking part in the 6 hours race.  For here in Japan we chose Kauki Nakajima from Toyota, Andre Lotterer from Audi, Mark Webber from Porsche, Alex Imperatori from Rebellion Racing, Darren Turner from Aston Martin Racing and Andrea Bertolini from SMP Racing. I set up one of the X-T1s on a tripod to video the press conference for streaming on the official FIA WEC website and on social media and used a Nikon ME1 external micrrophone to record the sound. For this press conference I used the XF16-55mm f2.8 lens.  The second X-T1 was fitted with the XF50-140mm f2.8 to take pictures of the drivers so I have a set of still images to accompany the video. Mark Webber sharing a joke with Andre Lotterer Mark Webber, Porsche Team Alex Imperatorii, Rebellion Racing Darren Turner, As...

Last weekend at the Fuji International Speedway, where I was working on the Japanese round of the FIA World Endurance Championship, I had the opportunity to see the new Fujinon  XF50-140mmF2.8 R LM OIS WR lens ahead of its release in the UK this November.  My thanks to the guys from Fujifilm Japan, who brought one along to the race.   Because it was race day I was unable to go out and shoot with the lens, hopefully I will be able to remedy this later this year, but here are my first impressions of this new fast telephoto lens. During my 18 years shooting with Nikon, my favourite lens was the Nikkor 80-200mm f2.8 AF-D that I bought new in 1996. I kept this lens for the entire time I used Nikon both as an enthusiast and professional photographer and I sold it, reluctantly, in May of this year. It is probably the one lens that I miss the most,  so when Fujifilm announced a constant f2.8 mid range zoom (76mm-213mm equivalent) I was eager to get my hands on a copy...