CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

UPDATE 22 January 2016: When I wrote this blog I had been testing the new X-Pro2 since the end of November 2015.  I stand by my arguments in this article that newer doesn't always mean better.  Yes the X-Pro2 is a step up from the X-Pro1 in almost every department but this doesn't make the X-Pro1 obsolete or second best, it remains a great photographic tool and one well worth having. I have been watching with interest the internet photography forums all talking about the rumours surrounding the specifications of the new camera and lenses that Fujifilm are going to be announcing.  As an X-Photographer any new piece of kit from Fujifilm is of immense interest to me.   It is actually quite entertaining reading some of the wishes and wants and some of the responses, with  the chatter on the forums usually about AF speeds, sensors megapixels and weather proofing - i.e. what's bigger and better than the previous incarnation or what the rivals are doing. ...

While Paris is my favourite overseas destination, no8 on my Top 10 list is closer to home and this is the Lighthouse at Barns Ness. The iconic coastal shape of the lighthouse is universal around the world and we have plenty of examples along the East Lothian shoreline.  The lighthouse at Barns Ness is just east of Dunbar and is just 5-miles from my front door, making this very accessible for a spur of the moment shot. This image was taken in early March at sunset and the long exposure has made the very calm sea a blank canvas.  I placed the lighthouse on its outcrop of land in the top third of the image to give it a standard 'rule of thirds' landscape composition. The low sun has given the image a warm glow and this, coupled with the long exposure. gives a calm and peaceful feel to the composition, which is very different to the 'wild and windy' images I usual come back with from this part of the Scottish coast. This is why I have chosen this image to be no8...

Anyone who is a regular visitor to this blog will know that I love photographing I Paris.  I am lucky that I travel to Paris for business several times a year and this gives me the opportunity to explore around the famous and not so famous parts of the City of Light. The Eiffel Tower is one of my favourite places to photograph and the 1000 foot high structure dominates the skyline of Paris, in fact the Eiffel Tower is the symbol of Paris.  I have plenty of shots of the Tower and I now try to find as many different angles as possible. This shot was taken from the Paris office of the World Endurance Championship last February and while the Eiffel Tower is situated in a park on the bank of River Seine, this image taken using a telephoto lens, has compressed the perspective so it appears the Tower is in a densely built up area.  Also being such a large structure I like to zoom in and parts of the Eiffel Tower but ensuring that the image is still easily recognisable ...

Over the next few days as 2015 draws to a close I will be posting 10 of my favourite images from the last 12 months and sharing the reasons why that particular image has made it into my top 10 of the year. Let's start with a shot I took back in January on a very snowy Rannoch Moor.  We arrived before dawn and the snow was very deep.  Keeping one eye on the clouds and the horizon in the east I waited for the light to change as the sun appeared above the horizon.  With high winds and fast moving clouds there was no guarantee that the sun would actually appear above the horizon but with all landscape photography you need to be patient and also have a little bit of luck. On this particular morning Lady Luck was on my side as the sun did appear and the light struck the tops of the mountains.  I had the X-Pro1 and Fujinon XF55-200mm ready and captured the fast changing scene as the light changed.  In fact the light only last 30 seconds but I had managed to ca...

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...

Yesterday we took a Scottish Seabird Centre boat trip out to the Isle of May in the Firth of Forth to photograph some of the 200,000 seabirds that live on the island, including some of the many thousands of Puffins that breed on the Isle of May each year. Today Fujifilm launch Firmware Version 4 for the Fujifilm X-T1 and I have been testing a beta version of the new software for Fujifilm that significantly improves the autofocus on the Japanese manufacturers flagship Compact System Camera (CSC).   The trip to the Isle of May gave me another opportunity to test the Zone and Wide Tracking Focus on the updated software and photograph these small birds in flight with the XF50-140mm f2.8. Atlantic Puffins  ( Fratercula arctica ) are only 32cm (13 inches) long and fly low with their wings beating at 400 times per minute.  They are very difficult to track with the camera because they fly so quickly but there are so many of them on the Isle of May I had plen...

We live in Kirk Park in Dunbar and a Kirk is another name for a Church in Scotland.  Belhaven Parish church is at the end of our road, literally just 30 metres from our house. When walking back to the house earlier in the week, the sun was shining off the sandstone steeple and with  the grey tiles, the green leaves and the blue sky, it made for an image full of colour and textures.

On the headland at Skateraw Harbour is a stone cairn topped with a wooden cross which is a memorial to the six members of the St Giles' (Canongate) Boys' Club who used to camp at Skateraw but lost their lives during the Second World War. The memorial was re-erected in 1980 and it was dedicated by the Very Reverend Dr. Ronald Selby Wright, the Founder Warden of the Club.  The inscription on the slightly faded stone tablet reads 1939-1945  To the Glory of God. In memory of  David Adams RAF aged 21  William Brown Lt BY aged 23  Jack Cooper RAOC aged 22  Jimmie Dalgleish MM RHA aged 23  Jim Stewart RAF aged 19  Jim Stobbie RN aged 19  Who loved to camp here and gave their lives that others too might love it.  "When the morning was come Jesus stood on the shore"  Click HERE and  HERE for more information on the memorial at Skateraw Images taken...

Yesterday evening the wind and the rain disappeared and so I gathered my camera bag up and headed out to Skateraw which is near Torness Point.  I wanted to capture the colours and the textures of the shoreline on this part of the East Lothian coast.  Skateraw has a natural labour with a beautiful sandy beach.  Around the point the shoreline is a flat rocky surface with lots of grooves and cracks that look like crazy paving and is home to rock pools, seaweed and other flora and fauna. When I arrived the tide was on the turn and waders were out in abundance feeding off the creatures that had been left exposed by the retreating sea water. The seaweed that was piled up on the tide line had started to dry out and the red and brown colours were quite vivid.  The growth that was still in water or was covered by water when the tide was in was still green and with the low angle of light coming from the sun the greens and browns where highlighted against...