CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

I have been delving into the archives once again and re editing some of the shots from previous photoshoots on the new Apple iMac. This shot was taken two years ago on 14 February 2013.  The image is of a farm house up in the Peak District with a dusting of snow on the fields. a quick edit in Photoshop CS and then converted to mono in Silvers Efex Pro2 software and this high contrast image is the result. The image was taken on a Nikon D800 and Sigma 50-500mm f3.5/f6.3 lens, with the zoom set at 230mm.

The shortest month of the year saw us visiting Paris, Northumberland, East Lothian and the Peak District. The weather was decidedly wintry with more snow covering the ground in Lincolnshire and Derbyshire providing some dramatic landscapes.   We also added a Nikon D800 to the MacLean Photographic line up and the 36 megapixel camera provides us with a great working tool for landscapes.  We also unveiled the new MacLean Photographic logo, a much simpler and cleaner image for the company.  The shot I've chosen for this month's review is the scene from Curbar Edge in the Peak District.  Using the D800, Nikon 17-35mm f2.8 lens and a Lee ND Grad filter I captured this image as the light rapidly changed across the landscape.  The wind was really blowing and the clouds were moving quickly but the result was one of the most amazing natural light shows I have every seen and this image captures what I witnessed perfectly. CLICK HERE to see the February...

One of the things I love doing when I haven't been able to get out with the camera is to go through the archive and see if I can find a RAW file to work on.   This shot of a lone tree in the Peak District is one such image.  It was taken just as the clouds started to lift across the hills and we saw this lone tree in the foreground.  The original colour image is a bit washed out but a quick conversion to black and white in Silver Efex, a boost to the contrast, a bit of dodging and burning and a 16:9 crop has produced a very different image. Nikon D800 -Nikon 80-200mm f2.8 - 1/320 @ f7.1 - ISO200 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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...

This was taken in the Derbyshire Peak District near to the village of Priestcliffe just off the A6 near Buxton.  We'd stopped to take some shots of Lichen on a wall when I saw this scene on the other side of the road just as the clouds started to break.   Sheep are curious animals and when I stood behind a dry stone wall to get the shot the sheep just stood there staring at me while I got the shot.  After a couple of minutes it went back to eating grass but not before the sunlight had lit the scene. Nikon D800 - Nikon 17-35 f2.8 AF-S - Lee 0.9 ND Soft Grad 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 ...

The beauty of shooting landscapes in the winter is the fact that the sun never gets very high from the horizon, allowing you to shoot longer than you could in the summer months. When we visited the Peak District last week we were given a fantastic light show by Mother Nature (see this BLOG POST ) as the wind pushed the clouds across the landscape at an incredible rate of speed.   When we arrived at Curbar Edge the scene was very different, with bright sunshine over the Peak District.  I took this shot from the top looking towards the West using a Nikon D800, Nikon 17-35mm f2.8 AF-S lens at 17mm, fitted with a Lee 0.6 and a 0.9 soft ND grad filters, to balance the exposure between the sky and the land, and all sitting on my trusty Slik tripod. Within 20 minutes of this shot being taken, the next weather front had closed in producing the dramatic pictures seen in the previous blog post. Image taken on a Nikon D800 with 17-35mm f2.8 AF-S Micro lens -----------...

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 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------...

A trip to the Peak District in Derbyshire today didn't start off so well with grey clouds and driving rain.  Sometimes you have to wait to see if the weather conditions will change and our patience was rewarded with a fantastic light show as the sun broke through the clouds to light up the landscape. Standing on top of Curbar Edge, we set about capturing the ever changing sun bursts and here is a small selection of images from today's shoot.  There are still more to come as I still have several more images to look through. Nikon D800 -  Nikon 17-35mm f2.8 Nikon D800 -  Nikon 17-35mm f2.8 Nikon D700 - Sigma 50-500 f4/f6.3 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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' M...