CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

'The best lens for landscapes is a wide angle', how many times has this advice been given?  I give it myself and on the whole I agree with this, but this is not a hard fact.  Any lens is good for landscapes and a medium to long telephoto lens is also very useful and I use my 55-200mm (80-300mm equivalent) on almost every photography trip.  A telephoto lens isolates elements of the landscape and it also compresses the perspective, bringing items in the composition closer together.  For example in the shot at the top of this page of Barns Ness lighthouse, Bass Rock can be seen to the left of the lighthouse.  In this shot it looks like The Bass is just beyond the headland when in fact it is a few miles away out in the Firth of Forth.   This 'stacking' of the different elements is highlighted when the light is slightly behind the subject as in the shot below of Lismore Lighthouse in the Sound of Mull. The lighthouse is dark, the shoreline in the middle ...

As Duart Castle is the home of the Clan MacLean I ask your indulgence as I post more images of this beautiful place on the Isle of Mull. In just over three weeks we will begin our annual trip to the Isle of Mull, one of the most beautiful places in the world.  One week of de-stressing, I am really looking forward to this holiday which will take place after the next two events at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium this weekend (3rd/4th May) for the FIA WEC and the ELMS event at Imola in Italy on 17th/18th May. Duart Castle is on my list of places to photograph when I am on the island and I have also been invited to give a talk to the Mull Through the Lens Camera Club about my travels with a camera. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 pl...

Continuing to look forward to our next trip to the Isle of Mull in less than six weeks time I went through the images from our previous five trips to Mull and discovered this shot from the early morning excursion in December 2011 down to the harbour in Tobermory. Nikon D90 - Sigma 10-20mm - 1/8s @ f8 - ISO100 - Tripod I converted the image using Silver Efex Pro2 and completed the transformation with a bit of dodging and burning on the key points of the picture.  I'm very happy with the result. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 

There was a bit of good news this morning when the March issue of Outdoor Photography magazine arrived in the post, one of my images that I had submitted for their 'Night' photography competition had been picked for the top 10 submitted images. The shot was of Calve Island off the Isle of Mull in Tobermory Bay and was taken at dawn just over a year ago.  It was taken on a Nikon D90 and a Sigma 18-50 f2.8 lens, exposure was 30 seconds at f11 and I used a tripod. While there is no prize for a runner up the fact that they chose this image is reward enough as the photography in this publication is outstanding with many of the contributors are my favourite landscape and wildlife photographers.  And there is a link to my website, so a bit of free publicity as well.   If you don't subscribe, the March issue of Outdoor Photography will be in the shops in a couple of days. The two pages from the March issue of Photography Magazine ---------------------...

This shot was taken at Denton Wharf near Grantham and is one of the old bridges that spans the Grantham Canal.   In 2006 members of the Grantham Canal Society put in a concrete slipway to launch boats into the restored part of the canal as well as picnic tables and fencing to enable visitors to stop and take in the views. Many of the old road bridges along the 33 mile stretch of the Grantham Canal were replaced by low modern structures when the canal fell in disuse but the one at Denton is a foot bridge.  It has been maintained and is is in good condition.  The Grantham Canal Society aims to restore the entire stretch from Grantham to Nottingham to full working order and the low bridges will have to be restored so boats can pass under them. For more information on the Grantham Canal Society visit www.granthamcanal.org ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ALL IMAGES ARE THE PROP...