CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

Fujifilm X-T4 + XF10-24mm f4 - 1/60 @ f20 ISO400 - Haida CPL + 0.9 ND soft grad One of the things I like doing when working at a race circuit is to go out for a walk in the evening to check out where the best spots are to shoot from and also confirm that the red zones (no go areas) are all marked for when the track goes live. It is also an opportunity to get some shots of the circuit from the drivers point of view, something you can't do when the cars are actually on track.   At the last event for the European Le Mans Series at the Circuit Paul Ricard I took part in the evening track walk and with the setting sun I was able to capture some interesting shots of the kerbs and the run off areas around the circuit.  Paul Ricard is famous for its red, white and blue stripes in the run off areas which have replaced gravel traps for slowing cars that have spun off the circuit. Fujifilm X-T4 + XF200mm f2 - 1/4000 @ f2 ISO160 I suppose it is my fine art or land...

Fujifilm X-T4 + XF10-24mm f4 - Haida M10 1.8 ND + Red Diamond 0.9 ND Grad 1 second @ f11 ISO80 Last week I ran my first Black and White Landscape workshop of the year.  Like many businesses the Covid19 pandemic caused me a bit of a headache and I had to put my photo workshops on hold for three months.  The clients who had already booked workshops were offered a refund but I was happy when they said they would be OK to postpone and wait until I could rearrange the bookings with them.  The first workshop was a 1-2-1 with a client who was returning for her second one day MacLean Photographic workshop.  Fujifilm X-T4 + XF50-140mm f2.8 - Haida M10 1.8 ND 1/6s @ f8 ISO250 The workshop was held at Barns Ness and Tyningham, demonstrating the techniques on how to 'see' a landscape in black and white and expose the image accordingly.  This something I have learnt from experience and I now endeavour to teach my clients during the one day workshop. The...

My favourite time of the day to shoot landscapes is dawn, I just love being out in the fresh air and watching the sun rise above the horizon.  At this time of year in Scotland sunrise is round 4:25am, which means a very early start to get in position. Luckily, I have plenty of beautiful locations to visit here in my home town of Dunbar and Barns Ness Lighthouse, which is only five miles from my front door, ranks as one of the very best. So I checked the weather forecast, set my alarm for 3am and packed my camera gear ready for a very early start. Luckily the forecast was correct with high clouds and the potential for a fiery sunrise so I got in the car and head out to Barns Ness to set up. I was trying out a brand new tripod on this photoshoot, a recently purchased 3 Legged Thing Punks Billy carbon fibre tripod.  This was replacing my sturdy, but weighty, Manfrotto 055 aluminium tripod, with an option ball grip head.  The 'Billy' was almost the same height...

As a landscape photographer a good set of quality filters is just as important as a solid tripod to get a high quality image in camera.  I always have a circular polariser, at least one neutral density filter and a set of neutral density graduated filters in the camera bag everytime I go out on assignment or just for pleasure. When I became a professional photographer I was an early convert to the Lee filter system but then bought into the Formatt Hitech Firecrest system two years ago.  The Firecrest system offers me great quality colour neutral filters but I do find the filter holder a little fiddly and getting the polariser on and off is, quite frankly, a pain.    A couple of weeks ago I was approached by Haida, a filter manufacturer based in the city of Ningbo, 200km south of Shanghai, to see if I would be interested in reviewing their M10 and Red Diamond filter system.   I have to admit that, while I heard of the company...