CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

The Kingdom of Bahrain is starting to attract more tourists and one of the attractions on the island is the Tree of Life. The Tree of Life (Shajarat-al-Hayaf) is a 400-year-old 10 metre / 35 ft high tree that is growing out in the desert.  It is the only large tree in the area and there are no water sources nearby and with little to no rain throughout the year the Tree of Life attracts a lot of attention, including tourists with 50,000 people traveling to the site on the south side of the island. The trip down from Manama takes you through the gas and oil fields, with workers campsites all around the site of the Tree of Life.   We decided to travel down at sunset before heading back to Manama to catch our flights back to Europe after the 6 Hours of Bahrain weekend. I captured these images on the Fujifilm X-T2 as the sun went down behind the tree.  Sunsets in the Middle East are pretty quick, lasting several minutes at best.   -...

A couple of weeks ago, on Friday 4 December, I attended the 2015 FIA Awards Gala at Le Lido in Paris in my capacity as the FIA Media Delegate of the World Endurance Championship.  This is the end of year show where all of the world champions receive their trophies in front of the great and the good of motorsport. I wasn't attending as a photographer but as a guest but I decided to take the X-T1 and 16-55mm f2.8 to get some shots of the WEC drivers receiving their trophies and also some of the show. Our table was on the upper tier but it wasn't a bad position to capture some images of the evening, though the occasional head would bob up into the shot. The stage show was from  "Paris Merveilles"  and  was typical Parisian Cabaret, very colourful and flamboyant.  The different acts took place in between the different awards and certainly made for a spectacular evening, with live swans and a water fountain on stage during the performances....

Yesterday as part of the race build up for the 6 Hours of Circuit of the Americas, Round 5 of the World Endurance Championship, there was a special performance of KOOZA by Cirque du Soleil.   Cirque du Soleil are in Austin with the 'Big Top' at the Circuit of the Americas and we had the privilege of seeing the show on Tuesday evening last week.  It was amazing and it was my first experience of a Cirque du Soleil performance.  The costumes, the performances by the artists and the stage sets were mouth droppingly good.   Obviously we were not allowed to take pictures on Tuesday but yesterday no such restrictions were placed on us so the press photographers headed to the top of the grid to watch the special performance before the US National Anthem was sung by one of the performers. I captured this set of images on the X-T1 and XF50-140mm f2.8 and XF10-24mm f4. About KOOZA KOOZA tells the story of The Innocent, a melancholy loner in search of his place ...

Over the past few months I have been putting the Fujinon XF50-140mm f2.8R OIS WR through its paces and this lens has become my new best friend of the Fujinon range.  My favourite Nikon lens was my Nikkor 80-200mm f2.8 and so it is no surprise that I the 50-140mm (76mm-213mm equivalent) found its way into my camera bag in June. Physically there is no denying that the 50-140mm f2.8 is a big lens but it is smaller than the equivalent Nikon or Canon lens and on the price front it beats the other two Japanese manufacturers as well. The build quality of the product is what we have come to expect from an X-Series lens, superbly screwed together - it feels like a professional lens and has the new red XF badge on the lens barrel denoting its status. However it is the results that are the most important and this lens does not disappoint.  In fact I would go so far as saying the 50-140mm f2.8 is the best XF lens so far. The AF is snappy and the OIS system works so well that yo...

On the grid for the final time in 2014 at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace in Sao Paulo.  The cars and drivers are lining up for the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo in front of three packed grandstands along the main straight of the historic circuit in Brazil. The shot at the top of the page was taken on the Fujifilm X-T1 with the XF55-200mm f3.5/f4.8 lens.  The second images of the grid was taken on the Fujifilm X-Pro1 fitted with the XF10-24mm f4. The third and fourth shots were taken on the Fujifilm X-T1 with the XF56mm f1.2, with the final shot showing the media scrum around Emerson Fittipaldi, who is driving in the race this weekend. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts you are helping support this blog - thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------...

For the eighth and final time in 2014 the teams are setting up their garages and preparing their cars for a 6 hour race in the FIA World Endurance Championship. This time we are in Sao Paulo in Brazil for the deciding round for four of the titles, including the World Endurance Manufacturers' Championship and the World Cup for GT Manufacturers which are currently led by Toyota and Ferrari respectively. I arrived in Sao Paulo last night and arrived at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace this morning bright and early.  I decided to get some images of the set up in the garages for the official website and Facebook pages using the XF56mm f1.2 on the Fujifilm X-T1 and the XF18mm f2 on the Fujifilm X-Pro1. Here are some of the images - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts you ...