CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

On Wednesday this week it will be four years since we moved into our current home in Dunbar on  Scotland's east coast and we are still discovering new places to visit locally.  Today was another first as we went for a walk in Pressmennan Wood, a Woodland Trust Scotland reserve near Stenton just outside Dunbar. While there has been plenty of snow in the Highlands and further south, East Lothian has not seen any of the white stuff, but it has been VERY cold, with the car showing minus 3 degrees as we headed into the hills outside Dunbar. The sun was low in the sky, as it always is at this time of year, which cast long shadows through the trees. Using the Fujifilm X-E3 I have on test until Tuesday I captured some images along our walk around the frozen lake.  The ice was very thin, you certainly couldn't stand on it, but it did make for some really nice images. I used the 23mm f2, 18mm f2 or the 90mm f2 prime lenses for the images on this page. CLICK HERE ...

One of my favourite spots to visit in and around Dunbar is Doon Hill with its sweeping views of the East Lothian countryside and coastline. We made the trip up to the hill earlier today, dodging the bands of heavy rain sweeping across the coast from the west.  The fields at the top of the hill are filled with barley, which is nearly time for harvesting. As we walked up the sunlight hitting the golden crop contrasted nicely with the dark skies as the next rain front moved in. I captured a nice set of images before the rain came down using the X-T2 fitted with the 100-400mm and 50-140mm zooms plus the 90mm f2 prime. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts you are helping support this blog - thank you. --------------------------------...

Ardvreck Castle - Fujifilm X-T2 + XF10-24mm f4 - 4s @ f22 ISO200 (zoom 10mm) After a good night's sleep in a hotel in Ullapool we headed north at 6:30am to hopefully catch the sunrise over the mountains.  However a fairly steady rainfall meant we were not going to be lucky in that respect.  But as anyone who has traveled in Scotland knows, you just have to make the best of the Scottish weather because it rains a lot here! We decided to head to Loch Assynt to photograph the ruins of Ardvreck Castle which stand on a small outcrop of land surrounded by water. Ardvreck Castle - Fujifilm X-T2 + XF90mm f2 - 1/500 @ f2 ISO400 Ardvreck Castle was built by the MacLeods of Assynt at the end of the 15th Century and stood until 1795 until it was struck by lightning and largely destroyed. The castle now stands as a ruin on the shores of the loch, surrounded by the Scottish mountains on all sides. As the light started to gather the rain eased off, but didn'...

As the end of 2016 approaches I begin my countdown of my ten favourite images from my travels this year. This image was from the first of two trips to Japan this year.  This visit was in January when I was invited by Fujifilm to take part in the 5th Anniversary Press Conference in Tokyo.   On the day we arrived we visited the Senso-Ji temple in Tokyo and in the strong winter sunshine I was able to get some very atmospheric images of the worshippers burning incense in the courtyard of the temple. This image is my favourite as the lighting just gives the picture so much depth and mystery.  The picture was taken on a Fujifilm X-T1 and the XF90mm f2 lens. CLICK HERE to see the blog and all the images   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts you are helping support this blog...

SMP Racing - Fujifilm X-T2 + XF100-400mm At each of the nine FIA World Endurance Championship events the drivers and their engineers take part in the track walk.  This is their opportunity to get a close look at the circuit, see if there have been any changes from the previous years and also see where their car might be able to gain an advantage. Here in Bahrain the track walk took place late in the afternoon just before sunset and it was a hot walk in the desert for the drivers and their teams as they completed one lap on foot of the 5.4km Bahrain International Circuit. I took the X-T2 fitted with the XF100-400mm to the final corner to get some images of the drivers walking down the long final straight and also the X-Pro2 fitted with the XF90mm f2. Here are some of the images from the track walk - no6 Toyota Gazoo Racing crew - Fujifilm X-T2 + XF100-400mm SMP Racing - Fujifilm X-Pro2 + XF90mm f2 Ford GT - Harry Tincknell and Andy Priaulx (secon...