CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

Yesterday I went for a walk on Whitesands beach which a few miles east of Dunbar on the East Lothian coast.  There is a nice view from the west end of this small sand beach across the bay to Barns Ness lighthouse and it is one of my favourite locations for telephoto shots of the lighthouse. The light yesterday evening was very soft and pastel colours.  Fitting the XF100-400mm zoom to the Fujifilm X-T2 I took this shot of the lighthouse, using the short end of the zoom range to frame the image. I over exposed the image slightly to give a Hi Key effect and then I converted the image to black and white in NIK Silver EFEX Pro 2 software in post production after tweaking the RAW image in Lightroom and then Photoshop CC. The image was then cropped 12:5 ratio to give this finished panoramic image. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON TH...

The traditional New Year's Day dip in the sea took place this afternoon around the UK coast and plenty of hardy souls braved the cold weather and even colder water in the name of charity this afternoon here in Dunbar. I was certainly wrapped up warm as I took these images.  I'd like to say I took my hat off to these brave people but it was even too cold to do that and my wooly hat stayed firmly on my head. Well done to those who took part, to organiser Dennis Murphy and his team and those who supported the efforts including the RNLI.   As well as personal charities, the Dippers were raising money for the  East Lothian Special Needs Playscheme.  www.elsnp.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts yo...

This is not the first time I have said this on this blog but why do some photographers never vary their point of view?  Why do they put the camera to their eye or hold it out in front of them standing up and take a picture at the same level as they are standing? By varying the view point by getting up higher or putting the camera on the ground, it can make for a much more interesting photograph. I took this shot of the shell on the beach while shooting the Barns Ness Lighthouse last night.  While I had the X-T1 on the tripod with a long telephoto lens fitted with filters, I used the X-Pro1 and the 18mm f2 Fujinon around the beach.  I put the camera onto the sand and focused on the shell just as the surf was coming up the beach.  I had to be careful because sea water and electronics don't mix, nor does fine sand, but by choosing a low shutter speed of 1/15s I was able to get some movement in the water. A panoramic crop has finished off the composition to my ...

Today was a beautiful sunny winters day in East Lothian so we wrapped up warm and headed down to Belhaven Bay for a walk on the sand.  The long 3km beach attracts a lot of surfers and with some good waves on offer Belhaven was busy with people bedecked in wetsuits and carrying surf or body boards. I decided to take the Fujifilm X-T1 fitted with the Fujinon 56mm f1.2 lens on the walk, with the 18mm f2 in my coat pocket if I needed a wide angle lens.  As it happened I decided to keep the 56mm fitted to the camera and set about capturing some of the scenes on the beach as the surfers braved the very cold North Sea. With the tide on the turn the wet sand shimmered in the bright Scottish sun, so I decided to try and use this reflective surface as the surfers walked towards the water. The colour of the water, the bright blue sky and the yellow sand provided a very colourful subject, which I duly captured using the camera's RAW and JPEG mode, with the later set to 'Ve...

2014 was the first full year we have lived and worked in East Lothian and I have put together a video slide show with some the photographic highlights from this part of Scotland.  Some of the images, like this shot of the Dunbar Lifeboat, are previously unpublished. The video lasts 7 minutes and I have used three tracks featuring guitar solos by artists Jason Shaw and Gillicuddy which area available to download on the Free Music Archive website. Here is the video and we hope you enjoy this photographic tour of East Lothian.   Don't forget you can book a Photography Workshop or Tour in East Lothian with MacLean Photographic HERE

The outer marker at Seacliffe is a favourite place of mine for early morning photography.  A few weeks ago I headed out to the beach to catch the sunrise and, with the low tide, a closer look at the marker.   The cross marks the southern end of an invisible line, with an identical marker on the Fife coast on the northern shore.  To the left of this marker is the Firth of Forth and to the right is the North Sea and is there to tell the merchant ships when they will have to start paying port fees. Today I am heading to Qatar for two days and then off to London for a further two days for awards ceremonies.  Once I return on the 8th December I will be endeavouring to increase my East Lothian portfolio. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts you are helping support this blog - thank...

This was the scene a few weeks ago when I spotted the ' Marean' coming back to Dunbar with a large tanker on the horizon heading towards the Firth of Forth.  The contrast in the sizes between the 28ft Creel boat, which was built in 1949, and the large tanker is clear to see. The seas off the East Lothian coast is a busy shipping lane for merchant ships and when vessels are waiting to to enter the Firth of Forth they usually mooring just off Dunbar to wait for the call to enter port. The image was taken on the Fujifilm X-T1 and the XF55-200mm f3.5/4.8 lens. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts you are helping support this blog - thank you. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ALL IMAGES ARE THE PROPERTY OF ...

With autumn in full swing the seas off the East Lothian coast have been a little 'choppy' for the past few days, with high winds helping things along. The two shots used in this post demonstrate two techniques using fast and slow shutter speeds to record the wave movement.   The image at the top of the page was taken on the Fujiflm X-Pro1 and XF18mm f2 lens.  Using a slow shutter speed of 1/6th second, the crashing waves are blurred just enough to give the sense of movement. A longer shutter speed would've blurred the entire sea, turning it 'milky' but this isn't the effect I wanted. The shot below was taken using the X-T1 and the XF56mm f1.2, with the focus locked on the rock as the waves crashed over it.  Using the motor drive at 8 frames per second and a high shutter speed of 1/1000th second, the wave is frozen, with the water droplets clearly visible.   ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------...

The upshot of all the glorious weather we are experiencing in Scotland (and the rest of the UK) is we have been getting a regular dose of great sunsets.  The local beach at Belhaven is just a short 5-minutes walk from our house in Dunbar and when the sun starts to set behind some interesting clouds it is time to grab the camera bag and tripod and head down the path to the bay. With the tide having just gone out, the beach was left with lots of standing water near the edge which provided me with the perfect reflection for the skyscape.  The receding tide had also sculpted the sand into ridges which also provided a great foreground for some of the images.   Here is the latest batch of images from the amazing sunset the other night - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts you are he...

Yesterday the weather in East Lothian was very tropical for Scotland, with 24 degrees and bright sunshine, however just off the North Sea coastline the sea fog continued to linger.  By the afternoon most of the fog had cleared but some of it still lingered, producing some beautiful effects as the sun started to set. I headed down to the beach below Winterfield Golf Course to capture the sunset and the effects of the fog around the base of Bass Rock out in the Firth of Forth.  A passing container ship could also be seen passing on its way out into the North Sea, looking like a ghost ship in the mist. The sun continued to set, producing some magnificent orange and red reflections before turning to purples and blues as the sun sank below the horizon.   Images taken on the Fujifilm X-T1 and Fujinon XF55-200mm f3.5/f4.8R OIS with a Lee 0.9 ND Soft grad and for some of the images a Lee 10x ND 'Big Stopper' -----------------------------------------...

The weather is improving as winter slips away and spring takes hold.  More people are heading down to Belhaven Bay to enjoy the wide, flat sands and on Saturday we took the opportunity to go for the first walk of April since my return from eight days of working at Paul Ricard in the South of France. At low tide the beach is perfect for horse riders, who take advantage of the area to give their steeds a good run out.  We spotted these two riders and I waited until they were in the centre of the area of wet sand to capture the reflection. The second shot shows one of the many surfers heading towards the North Sea with Winterfield Golf Club on the headland behind.  While spring is coming I'm not sure that the sea is warm enough to brave quite yet - maybe by August but definitely not in April. Images taken on a Fujifilm X100 and Fujinon 23mm f2 lens --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------...