CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

I've been using the Fujifilm X-Pro1 for the past month and I haven't enjoyed my photography so much since I bought the Fuji X100 12 months earlier.  The only issue I have with the X-Pro1 is the lack of a long telephoto lens.  The longest lens I have is the 60mm f2.4, which is the equivalent of a 90mm telephoto; it's a great lens but I sometimes wish my Fuji system had a bit more pulling power.   Fuji have provided the X system with a telephoto zoom, the 55-200mm f3.5 / f4.8 R LM OIS and I will be testing this lens next week for three days. I will be showing the results on this blog. However my Nikon kit has one of the best short telephoto zooms in the world, the Nikkor 80-200mm f2.8 AF-D.  I bought this lens brand new in 1996 for £1600.00 and it has been a faithful companion ever since. I've bought and sold plenty of SLRs / DSLRs in the past 18 years but I've never felt the need to upgrade the 80-200mm because it is still optically the best lens I own and it ha...

Doon Hill overlooks the coastal town of Dunbar and provides great views across the North Sea and down the Firth of Forth towards North Berwick and Edinburgh.  The hill is just 177 metres above sea level, the top is marked by a concrete Tor.  Doon Hill is far from being the highest point in the area but the view from the top is worth the short climb. Images taken on a Nikon D800 and 17-35mm f2.8 AF-S or Sigma 50-500mm f4/f6.3 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY CLICKING THE GOOGLE ADVERTS It doesn't cost you anything to click on an advert but we get a small fee for every click thru from Google and this helps support this blog - thank you for helping ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ALL IMAGES ARE THE PROPERTY OF MACLEAN PHOTOGRAPHIC AND CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHO...

Five miles inland from our home in Innerwick is the Lammermuir Hills, which is home to a number of wind farms, the closest of which is at Aikengall.  On Wednesday evening, after an afternoon of rain showers, the clouds started to break up, so I grabbed the camera bag and headed into the hills. The landscape changes dramatically in a short space here in East Lothian.  It starts as wide sandy beaches on the coast leading to rich arable farmland inland.  As soon as you head into the hills the landscape changes again from rich woodland and then moorland with heather and boggy ground.   This is the scene that I came across as the light started to dim as the sun set.  My only disappointment was the lack of wind, that meant most of the wind turbines were static, with some turning lazily in the slight breeze.  The views from the top of the hill, the highest point being nearly 400 metres above sea level, are quite spectacular with almos...

This morning I will be flying south to Marseilles for seven days at the Paul Ricard track for European Le Mans Series and FIA World Endurance Championship testing and a special event on Thursday when Porsche will be unveiling their FIA WEC works challenger to the media. The temperature in Marseilles is currently a balmy 17 degrees centigrade compared to the freezing conditions here in the UK.  After 24 hours of snowfall the sun finally came out this evening and I grabbed the camera to get some shots of icicles back lit by the setting sun. Nikon D800 - Nikon 105mm f2.8G micro - 1/1600 @ f8 - ISO800 Nikon D800 - Nikon 105mm f2.8G micro - 1/80 @ f5.6 - ISO400 Nikon D800 - Nikon 105mm f2.8G micro - 1/200 @ f4.3 - ISO800 I am looking forward to leaving the freezing conditions behind and I hope that spring finally arrives in the UK while I'm away. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ...

A couple of days ago I posted some pictures of The Shard, the tallest building in the European Union and the second tallest in Europe.  There is a lot of new buildings going up in around the London Bridge / Tower Bridge area with a group of shiny new offices in what is now called More London Place. Fujifilm X100 - 19mm f2 - 1/1250 @ f4 - ISO400 More London Place is new the Greater London Council offices and near to Tower Bridge and consists of office buildings, apartments, cafes and shops.  The glass sides and strange architecture provided plenty of photo opportunities. Fujifilm X100 - 19mm f2 - 1/200 @ f8 - ISO400 Fujifilm X100 - 19mm f2 - 1/170 @ f5.6 - ISO200 Nikon D800 - Nikon 17-35mm f2.8 - 1/160 @ f5.6 - ISO200 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ALL IMAGES ARE THE PROPERTY OF MACLEAN PHOTOGRAPHIC AND CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSIO...

This shot was taken a few weeks ago on my first test shoot with the Nikon D800.  This is the single track road that leads down to the village of Burton Coggles or Burton Le Coggles as it is sometimes known, just 8 miles from Grantham in Lincolnshire. Nikon D800 - Nikon 17-35mm f2.8 - 1/20 @ f7.1 - ISO 200 The first shot above was taken on a landscape view and shot in colour.  It was then converted into mono in Photoshop Elements 11. Below you can see the live view screen on the D800 showing what the camera 'sees' and at what exposure.  I have found the live view function on the D800 to a huge step forward from the live view on the D700.  It is a revelation and I have found myself using it more and more. The final shot was the same view but shot in portrait with the 50mm f1.4 lens rather than the 17-35mm f2.8 used in the first shot. Nikon D800 - Nikon 50mm f1.4 - 1/200 @ f4 - ISO 200 ---------------------------------------------...

Nikon D700 - 28-105mm f3.5/f4.5 - 1/200 @ f8 - ISO400 I caught this scene on my Nikon D700 and 28-105 lens when out shooting the first test shots on my Nikon D800 at Stoke Rochford.  The beauty of having two camera bodies is you can be shooting long exposures with one camera (as I was with the D800) and capturing the scene a different way with the second camera. The other advantage when working with two camera bodies is you can have one type of lens - a wide angle for example - on one camera and a telephoto on the other so you don't have to keep swapping lenses. For landscapes, where time is usually not of the essence, one camera body s usually enough, but in this case where the clouds were changing very quickly in the high winds, I was able to react quickly due to the second camera body fitted with a short telephoto.  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ALL IMAGES ARE...

While out and about in the Peak District we came across this rock face covered in icicles where the water flowing off the hill had frozen.  With the temperatures rising the ice had started to melt and the rock face was covered in water drops, some running down the icicles before dropping to the ground.   We set about capturing the scene before the temperature melted the ice, being careful note to get the cameras too wet from the falling water, which was like rain under the rock but also being careful to be hit by icicles that were falling off as the ice melted. This shot was caught at the perfect time as the water drop formed on the tip of the icicle before falling to the ground.  I used a Nikon SB600 flash gun on wireless remote to light the back of the ice.  All images taken on a Nikon D800 with 60mm f2.8 AF-D Micro lens -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------...

This shot was taken at Curbar Edge in the Peak District this week.  This is one of the millstones that were cut   at the site and then were left below the cliff for some reason. Nikon D800 - 17-35 f2.8 AF-S (at 17mm) - 1/60  @ f11 - ISO200 - Tripod - Lee 0.9 Grad ND Soft Filter ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ALL IMAGES ARE THE PROPERTY OF MACLEAN PHOTOGRAPHIC AND CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION If you like what you see on this blog please visit our  Facebook  page and click 'like' MORE IMAGES CAN BE VIEWED ON  FLICKR  AND ON OUR  WEBSITE

A day in Paris for a Media and Marketing seminar didn't give me much time for any photography so I decided to take the 30 minute walk back to Gare du Nord from the Hotel Concorde Opera and see what I could capture with my new D800 along the route. Église  de la  Sainte - Trinité The Église  de la  Sainte - Trinité caught my attention and I managed to get some shots of the church from the road with the 17-35 f2.8 lens.  There was a lot of construction work going on around the church at ground level so I had to be careful how I framed the shot.  Using one of the ornate lamp posts as a bit of foreground interest I managed to frame this shot. Gare du Nord I was running out of time so I headed to the Gare du Nord to catch my Eurostar to London but not before I took a quick shot of the station from the Eurostar check in area. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ...

This is one of my favourite places in and around Grantham to take photographs.  The stream runs through a field next to the A1 and the bridge leads to the church on the hill at Stoke Rochford.  I decided this would be a good place to test the new D800 and this is one of the first shots that came out of the camera. Nikon D800 - Nikon 17-35 f2.8 AF-S - 1/5 @ f10 - ISO200 - Lee 0.6 Soft ND Grad - Tripod More shots from this first test will be posted soon. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ALL IMAGES ARE THE PROPERTY OF MACLEAN PHOTOGRAPHIC AND CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION If you like what you see on this blog please visit our  Facebook  page and click 'like' MORE IMAGES CAN BE VIEWED ON  FLICKR  AND ON OUR  WEBSITE