CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

Image taken on X-T4 with XF35mm f1.4 and a 16mm Extension Tube Macro photography is a fascinating subject but cost wise the equipment needed can be eye watering, but it doesn't need to be.  There are several options to produce a macro image. A dedicated macro lens Adding extension tubes to decrease the minimum focusing distance and increase magnification. Using close up filters MACRO LENSES Fujiflm make two lenses that are labelled as 'macro'.   The first is the XF60mm f2.4 R, one of the three original X series prime lenses launched in 2013 and the newer XF80mm f2.8 R LM OIS WR macro.  The 60mm is not a true macro lens as it doesn't reproduced images at a ratio of 1:1, it is a 1:2 (half size) lens, where as the 80mm is a true 1:1 macro lens. I bought a 60mm in 2013 alongside the 18mm f2, 35mm f1.4 and 14mm f2.8 primes when I bought the X-Pro1.  It was an excellent short telephoto lens.  It was a bit slow in the auto focus department but optical...

When out shooting landscapes on a cloudy day I always keep one eye on the sky to see if the sun will break through to create some interesting light on the landscape.  I have got very good at anticipating changes in the light over the years and it is a skill that all landscape photographers acquire over time. On the west coast of Scotland the weather can change very quickly.  Just when it looks like it is time to pack the cameras away and head back home, the clouds can suddenly part or the rain can stop and the scene that 10 minutes earlier was grey and overcast is suddenly transformed. Take these two shots looking out from the northern coast of the Isle of Skye out towards Harris and Lewis.  The wind was blowing the clouds across the scene at a fair rate of knots and the moving clouds would suddenly open up to allow the sunlight through to illuminate part of the seascape. They say 'patience is a virtue', and for landscape photographers this is very true.  S...

A couple of weeks ago I posted some pictures of some sea glass that we had picked up on some of our beach combing trips on the beaches near to our home in Dunbar.  There are plenty of other interesting things that we have found - shells, driftwood and some old iron items that have come from boats or from the many World War II installations that are on this coast. During the Second World War the threat of invasion was felt all around the UK, including the North Sea coast of Scotland.  With the naval base at Rosyth up the coast near Edinburgh, installations were built all along the East Lothian and Fife coasts, many of which are still visible today.   These macro photographs are of a piece of old iron that is probably the top of a metal post that was used to hold rolls of barbed wire.  It is corroded pretty badly but this makes it more interesting to photograph, which I did using the Fuji X-T1 and the XF60mm f2.4 macro.   Lighting was provided by the Niss...

One of the pleasures of living by the sea is beach combing. We will go for walks on the beaches near our home in Dunbar and pick up interesting items such as driftwood, rocks, shells and sea glass.   If you don't know what sea glass is, they are pieces of glass that have been physically and chemically weathered by salt water and the action of the tides. These weathering processes produce natural frosted glass and the beaches of East Lothian are a great place to find excellent examples.  In fact one of the best beaches for collecting sea glass is less than one kilometre from our front door. Over the past year we have collected quite a few pieces of sea glass and I decided to set up a table top studio to photograph the colours, shapes and textures of some of the best bits. Using the glass from an old picture frame as a table which I raised up on some books so I could put a light underneath to shine through the pieces of sea glass I placed on the picture frame glass to...

During these short, stormy, winter days, when it is difficult to find the time to get out with the camera or the weather - like today - is not conducive to good landscape photography I find myself going back through my image archive to see if I can find some images that I might have missed the first time round.  Some hidden gems that can be unearthed in the 'MacLean Photographic Undergrowth' so to speak. Well I came across these shots from the trip out to Innerwick Castle last August. The sun was shining through the foliage of the trees, highlighting leaves and berries at ground level, providing great subjects for wide apertures, giving a wonderful shallow depth of field to the images. It certainly has me looking forward to a time when we can get out early to capture the sunrise and be back in time for breakfast before the days starts rather than these dark mornings that don't see the sunrise until after 8:45am.  Winter is a great time for photography but it is als...

Is this possibly the most beautiful sign in the whole of Scotland.  This sign is on one of the estates up in the Lammermuir Hills to the south of Dunbar in East Lothian.  It is a large wooden sign carved out of a tree trunk and covered in different lichens and mosses, which almost cover up the letters, which spell 'JOHNSCLEUCH' . The various natural growths on the sign made the perfect subject for a bit of macro photography and also enabled me to put the Nissin i40 flash on the extension cable to get some direct light by holding the flash in my left hand above the moss or lichen I was photographing. The final image is a panoramic shot on the X-T1 using the panoramic mode. On the left you can see the sign on the roadside. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts you are helping ...

Photographically speaking autumn is probably my favourite time of year.  The colours of the leaves and vegetation are vibrant, the sun, when it appears, is low in the sky producing a nicer light later into the day and, of course, sunrise is later so there is no need to be up and about at 3am, it is more like 6am at this time of year.  I'd like to say I traveled a long way to get these shots of the autumn leaves but I wouldn't be telling the truth.  These shots were actually taken in my back garden and with the sunlight hitting the leaves through the trees at the back of the house I grabbed the X-T1 and 60mm f2.4 macro to take a few images before the light faded. Sometimes you just don't need to travel far to get interesting shots, you just need to keep your eyes peeled and camera at the ready. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING ...

I love photographing details on old buildings, especially those with wonderful colours and textures.   The old harbour buildings at Cove are two such buildings, with the red sandstone walls worn away by the weather and the door to the store having seen better days.   The old wood has been worn smooth by the wind and the rain and the paintwork that still remains is cracked and flaking away. This provided me with some great textures to point the X-Pro1 and 60mm f2.4 macro at while I was taking long exposure shots of the harbour on the X-T1. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 M...

Last month I added the superb Fujinon XF56mm f1.2R lens to my camera bag, which is the seventh Fujinon lens I have bought for my X-Series kit.  It is also the third lens that covers the short telephoto range, the others being the XF55-200mm f3.5/4.8 zoom and the XF60mm f2.4R macro.  This had me wondering if I could sell off one of the lenses or did each lens offer something that meant I could justify hanging on to all three? Well for starters we can ignore the 55-200mm zoom as this lens offers the long telephoto reach I need for my landscapes and wildlife.  It is an excellent all round zoom lens that has a place in my camera bag.  So that leaves the two prime lenses. The 60mm is the older of the two, being one of the original trio of lens launched in 2012 with the X-Pro1.  The auto focus has been improved with firmware updates but it is no where near as 'snappy' as the newer 56mm.  The obvious difference between the two lenses is the faster maxim...