CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

One of the software programmes I use in conjunction with Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop is Nik suite of filters which includes Color Efex, Silver Efex and Analog Efex. The later give the images an old school film finish and I use this very sparingly as it can be overdone.  However in high contrast light with the right subject the finish can transform an image.   Cars in the pitlane is one subject I tend to run through the Analog Efex filters and this is what I've done with some of the shots I took today during the set up for the 6 Hours of Bahrain this weekend. I have produced and saved several custom filters based on the Classic Camera 4 preset that comes with the programme.  I will tweak my own custom settings to get the effect that suits the subject.  It is very similar to Classic Chrome that comes with the Fujifilm X-T1, X100T etc but I found that Analog Efex gives me more control.  So I tend to set up the shot from the RAW file in Lightroom and then...

With a population of 60,000 Zhujiajiao is a water town on the outskirts of Shanghai, and was established about 1,700 years ago. Archaeological findings dating back 5,000 years have also been found. 36 stone bridges and numerous rivers line Zhujiajiao, and many ancient buildings still line the riverbanks today. The village prospered through clothing and rice businesses. Today, old historical buildings such as rice shops, banks, spice stores and even a Qing dynasty post office can still be found. Zhujiajiao has many sights of historic interest, such as Fangsheng Bridge, and Kezhi Garden and the  Chenghuangmiao /Town God Temple  and I will be doing separate blogs on some of these areas of Zhujiajiao. The most iconic of the 36 bridges in Zhujiajiao is the 70-meter long Fangsheng bridge. Resting on 5 symmetric arches, the height of the bridge peaks at 5.8 meters. It was originally built by the monk Xingchao of Cimen Temple in 1571, and then rebuilt in 1812. The ce...

Today I fulfilled another one of my 'bucket list' ambitions and that was to visit The Alamo in San Antonio, the site of the famous battle in March 1836 that eventually lead to the independence of Texas from Mexico.  Texas became an independent country for 9 years before becoming part of the United States of America. The story of the heroic defence of The Alamo that saw the slaughter of the 189 defenders by the 3000 strong Mexican Army of General Santa Anna after a short siege in well known around the world, so, as a follower of history, it was a 'must do' while I was in Austin after working at the Circuit of The Americas. While the names of Jim Bowie, Davy Crockett and William Travis echo through the halls of history, what isn't as well known is that amongst the American defenders were Scots, English, Welsh and Irish; something I discovered when I saw the Saltire, the flag of St George, the Welsh Dragon and the Irish Tricolor lined along the wall inside...