CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

Last month I posted some images of a feature I was writing for the FIA WEC Silverstone programme on the Aston Martin Vantage S V12.  Eight pages of the programme were dedicated for this feature and now that it has been published I can now share it here on the blog. Two days with the Vantage S was spent near the Aston Martin HQ at Gaydon, Aston Martin Racing HQ in Banbury and then up to Silverstone.  Day two was spent in the Malvern Hills getting some great dynamic shots of the car on some magnificent country roads.   John Rourke of Adrenal Media was taking the images while I was composing my prose while I drove the car around, but all of the shots here are ones that I took during a wonderful two days with an Aston Martin. THE BEST OF BRITISH Italy has Ferrari, Germany has Porsche and Britain has Aston Martin; these manufacturers are very much part of the national identity for each of these countries.  The Aston Martin brand, which celebrated its 100th anni...

Dawn and sunset are the best times for landscape photography because the light can be sublime at these times of the day.  The hours around sunrise and sunset are called 'The Golden Hour' for a very good reason. With a promise of a glorious sunrise I got up and headed down to White Sands at 5:45am this morning. With sunrise due at 6:33am this gave me plenty of time to get into position to get the sun coming up behind the lighthouse at Barns Ness.  However even before the sun made an appearance the colours of the dawn were absolutely amazing, with blues becoming purples and then orange as the light shifted along the spectrum. I took these shots of the lighthouse in the pre dawn light and also the fishing boats on the horizon as they headed out into the North Sea to begin another day. As the sun started to come up I was able to capture moment it cut the land behind the lighthouse and continued to track it as it grew in strength and quickly rose up into the sky....

One of the things I see a lot of photographers do when presented with a beautiful landscape is to grab the camera and take a picture standing up.  The camera will be either pressed to the photographers face or, more normally these days, with the camera / phone held out in front at arms length.  There is nothing wrong with this way of viewing the world, it's how we see it (ie normally between 5 and 6 feet above the ground), but a different point of view can change a picture dramatically. Rannoch Moor - Nikon D800 - Nikon 17-35mm f2.8 (@17mm) - 2s @ f11 - ISO100 The picture above was taken on Rannoch Moor. The Nikon D800 was attached to the tripod and placed into the water so the camera was almost level with the rocks.  The camera's live view screen was used to compose the shot and the shutter released using a remote cable. A word of warning. Make sure you had something tied to the tripod or camera and to your wrist when putting your gear n...

One of the iconic sightseeing stops on any trip to Tokyo is the Shibuya Crossing, which is the intersection outside one of Tokyo's busiest train stations and shopping areas.  The area has also become a location for films such as 'Lost in Translation', 'The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift' and numerous adverts and music videos. Huge television screens mounted on the buildings facing the intersection flash all day, while the rest of the area is covered with lights, advertisements, and more lights.  But the most remarkable feature of the area are the people. People are constantly pouring across the street from all directions going to even other directions. They all meet in the middle in a frantic mess, bumping, side stepping and swerving around each other as they try to cross. We crossed over with the crowd and headed to Starbucks to grab a coffee and people watch from the first floor window.  Once a front row seat came available we were able to get ...

With just 24 hours in Tokyo we tried to cram in as much sightseeing as possible.  One of the places we visited was the Mori Tower Rooftop in the Roppongi Hills district of Japan's capital city.  From here you can see all around the city and on a clear day you can even see Mt Fuji, which is over 100km away. The Observation Deck is on the 52nd floor and for 1500 Yen (£9) gives visitors a comfortable view of Tokyo with a cafe, restuarant and gift shops on the floor.  In addition you can go up to the Sky Deck, which, for another 500 Yen (£3) is another two floors up on the outside of the building which gives you and uninterupted view of Tokyo and allows photographs to be taken without shooting through glass. For more information CLICK HERE  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY CLICKING THE GOOGLE ADVERTS It doesn't co...

Mount Fuji is one of the iconic landmarks of Japan and last year I took plenty of images from ground level.  This year, along with my FIA WEC colleague Lisa Crampton, we stopped at the mountain on our way down to Suzuka from Tokyo airport to get a closer look at Fuji-San and attempt to climb the 3775 metre (12389 ft) volcano. Driving up to the 5th station at 2440 metres the Fujinomiya Trail to the top is clearly marked and well worn.  The climb is not difficult but it is tiring and takes 3-4 hours on average.  We arrived at 2:30pm and with the sunset due at 5:20pm we decided to see how far we could get up the trail. The trail is marked with ropes and the path covered with loose rocks and shale from the volcano.  There are parts that are steeper than others but it is never a need to be a mountaineer.  That said warm closes, plenty of drink, choclate and sturdy boots are a must as at 12...

This is one of those images where luck played a big part, being in the right place at the right time.  The clouds were pushing across East Lothian at a fair rate of knots and as I watched the sun started to hit the top of the clouds above Torness Power Station.  I managed to grab a few images before the light changed again.   This shot is actually two images stitched together to form a panoramic image.  Shots taken on my Nikon D800 with a 50mm f1.4 lens.  The exposure was 1/200 @ f11 with the ISO at 400. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------...