CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

2016 was certainly a great year to be a Fujifilm X-Photographer.  I was involved in two major camera launches for the Japanese camera manufacturer, including being invited to be part of the press conference in Tokyo for the 5th Anniversary celebrations and the launch of some new products including the X-Pro2 and XF100-400mm which I been involved in testing. The second launch was in July for the Fujifilm X-T2 and while fellow X-Photographer John Rourke was invited to to do a Q&A in the Paris press conference, I was involved in organising the second day of the event at the Le Mans Classic, writing a handy guide for Fujifilm to give out their guests from the media and from the retailers. I have tested the following cameras and lenses in 2016 Fujinon XF100-400mm f4.5/5.6R LM OIS WR Fujifilm X-Pro2 Fujinon 2x teleconverter Fujifilm X-T2 Fujinon XF23mm f2R WR Here is a round up of my reviews - Fujinon XF100-400mm f4.5/5.6R LM OIS WR This is the lens that fina...

A Christmas shopping trip to Edinburgh gave me the opportunity to grab a few night shots on the Fujifilm X100T of Edinburgh Castle. I usually have the X100T in my coat pocket when I am walking about and with it's wonderful 16mp X-Trans II sensor mated to the Fujinon 23mm f2 lens I am always ready to grab a picture should the occasion arise. The images of Edinburgh Castle meant the ISO was set at 3200 to keep the shutter speed high enough to allow me to handhold the camera without fear of camera shake ruining the final image, but I know from experience that the X100T is quite capable of getting relatively clean images at 3200ISO, as the three images here prove. The three pictures were shot in RAW and JPEG (Velvia film simulation) and these images were taken from the JPEGs with small tweeks in Photoshop in post production. The second and third images were cropped to a 12:5 panoramic format because I felt the images suited the crop.   ------------------...

There is an old photographic adage that says the best camera to won is the one you have on you when there is a picture to be taken.  This was certainly the case yesterday evening when we were sitting on a bench at Newhaven Harbour in Edinburgh.   The light from the low sun was providing the perfect light for a picture of the boats and lighthouse and all I had to do was reach into my pocket for the Fujifilm X100 I usually keep there for spontaneous images when they present themselves. The image was taken on the X100 with the standard fixed 23mm f2 Fujinon lens.  The exposure was 1/320s @ f8 ISO200. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts you are helping support this blog - thank you. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------...

With the weather here in the South East of Scotland being unkind for landscape photography in recent days I have set about doing some administration on the MacLean Photographic archives.   While sorting through the images from September I came across four images taken on the Fujifilm X100 of Dunbar Castle during an extreme low tide that I had meant to put together in a panoramic image but hadn't. Here is the finished image and converted to black and white in NIK Silver EFEX Pro 2. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts you are helping support this blog - thank you. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ALL IMAGES ARE THE PROPERTY OF MACLEAN PHOTOGRAPHIC AND CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY PURPOSE ...

I had one day in Tokyo before heading to Fuji Speedway for the next round of the World Endurance Championship and it was spent at Fujifilm's headquarters to meet and discuss the X-Series camera and lens line up with the people that design this superb camera range. Afterwards we had an hour to wander around Roppongi before we headed to dinner.  Tokyo at night is bustling and vibrant city with bright lights and heavy traffic.   This shot of a brightly coloured taxi was taken at an intersection where the neon lights from the buildings provided a multi coloured background to this long exposure shot. The image was taken on the Fujifilm X100 with an exposure of 1/9s @f8 1600iso.

A quick trip into Edinburgh on the train yesterday evening gave me the opportunity for a quick walk around Princes Street Gardens with Fujifilm X100 in the fading light to capture some images of Auld Edinburgh. Arriving at Edinburgh Waverley station I saw the sunlight coming through the glass roof of the station and the wonderful clouds over the city.  I quickly headed out of the station and across the road to Princes Street Gardens with the view across to Edinburgh Castle which sits proud above the city. Behind the Scottish National Gallery is a set of old fashioned street laps with big glass domes which caught the sunlight as it went behind the trees, which I managed to capture in the few seconds before the light disappeared. All images were taken on a Fujifilm Finepix X100 with the fixed Fujinon 23mm f2 lens ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISIT...

Three years ago I bought a Fujifilm Finepix X100 black limited edition and this proved to be a turning point for my photography as this small but finely tuned fixed lens camera put the joy back into image making for me.  Here was a camera that would fit into my pocket but take images that could rival my Nikon DSLRs and pro lenses. In 2014 I sold all my Nikon gear to move completely to the X-Series and despite testing the X100S and X100T the original X-Series camera remains in my camera bag alongside the two X-T1s and myriad of Fujinon glass. Yesterday evening we went for a stroll down to Winterfield beach and back along the cliff top walk towards Dunbar Castle.  It was a beautiful evening and the X100 was the perfect photographic companion to capture the scene in the warm September sunshine. The X100 might be the oldest X-Series camera but it still produces the goods and its 12mp Bayer (non X-Trans) sensor produce images with a slight different look to t...

Edinburgh is a very interesting city and with it being just a short 25-minute train journey from our home in Dunbar we do spend a lot of time exploring Scotland's capital.   On of my favourite spots is the Old Calton Burying Ground at the foot of Calton Hill.  Many of Scotland's leading citizens of the 18th and 19th centuries are buried here and the brooding sandstone and granite structures make for great photographic subject. I was in Edinburgh yesterday evening and had 30 minutes to spare while waiting at Waverley Train Station, so I walked to the cemetery, which is just 5-minutes from the station.  The weather was typically Scottish - overcast and slight drizzle which later turned to rain.  However the diffused light was almost perfect for the type of mono images I wanted to capture. The graves and mausoleums are in some state of disrepair and the 'well worn look of decay' was exactly the feeling I wanted to portray in the set of images I capture...