CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

Fujifilm X-T4 + XF10-24mm f4 - Haida 15stop ND + 3 Stop ND Grad - 480 seconds@f8 ISO160 Yesterday I hosted another MacLean Photographic 'Long Exposure Landscapes' workshop at Seacliff beach, a location I tend to take most of my guests to because of the immense variety of images available in a relatively small location. Located a couple of miles east of North Berwick, Seacliff features a small sandy beach looking out towards Bass Rock one mile out in the Firth of Forth.  At this time of year the small island is covered in gannets as up to 150,000 birds call this part of Scotland home from March until October.  We were treated to some fantastic diving displays as the birds fished just off the beach for most of the day. Fujifilm X-T4 + XF50-140mm f2.8 - Haida 15stop ND + 3 Stop ND Grad - 480 seconds @f11 ISO80 On the headland looking west is the ruins of Tantallon Castle, which is still an imposing sight high on the cliffs across the bay.  Just off the bea...

Fujifilm X-T2 + XF16-55mm f2.8 - 250s @ f16 ISO200 This evening I headed along the East Lothian coast to Tyningham and the River Tyne Estuary at the western end of Belhaven Bay. The rock formations at the end of Belhaven are amazing and on checking the Tide Timetable I noticed that High Tide almost coincided with sunset, so I grabbed the camera bag and tripod to do some long exposure images on the shore line. Setting the camera and lens on the tripod I composed the image to include the rocky fore shore and some of the brightly coloured sky with fast moving clouds.  The four to six minute exposure time resulted in plenty of movement in the sea and the sky. Each of the the images were taken on the Fujifilm X-T2 and the 16-55mm f2.8 fitted with a Lee 0.9 soft ND Grad and the Lee 10x ND 'Big Stopper'.  Fujifilm X-T2 + XF16-55mm f2.8 - 361s @ f16 ISO200 Fujifilm X-T2 + XF16-55mm f2.8 - 291s @ f8 ISO200   ---------------------...

Photography is all about the light and when you get the perfect light a scene that would be 'OK' photographically is suddenly transformed.  This was the case this morning as I headed along the beach at Barns Ness just after sunrise. Halfway along the rocky shoreline between Whitesands and Barns Ness lighthouse are some rocks where the rain water pours onto the beach.  After days of heavy rain the ground above the rocky outcrop was quite sodden and the water was pouring down like a shower. Normally this would make an interesting image but with the low sun hitting the cascading water, there was a bright glow as the water hit the rocks.  I set the camera up on the tripod to allow me to use a slow shutter speed and set about capturing this set of images before the sun rose too high in the sky and the light changed. I also took some other shots with a higher shutter speed to freeze the water drops With in 10 minutes the light had changed ...

Yesterday evening the wind and the rain disappeared and so I gathered my camera bag up and headed out to Skateraw which is near Torness Point.  I wanted to capture the colours and the textures of the shoreline on this part of the East Lothian coast.  Skateraw has a natural labour with a beautiful sandy beach.  Around the point the shoreline is a flat rocky surface with lots of grooves and cracks that look like crazy paving and is home to rock pools, seaweed and other flora and fauna. When I arrived the tide was on the turn and waders were out in abundance feeding off the creatures that had been left exposed by the retreating sea water. The seaweed that was piled up on the tide line had started to dry out and the red and brown colours were quite vivid.  The growth that was still in water or was covered by water when the tide was in was still green and with the low angle of light coming from the sun the greens and browns where highlighted against...

We decided to take quick walk out on the beach at Tyninghame in the spring sunshine.  The tide was out when we arrived and the rocks and pools of water were exposed along the estuary of the Tyne River. I was drawn to the patterns and shapes formed by the lying water and the scattered rocks.  Using the Fujifilm X100 I captured a set of images from along the shoreline and the woodland. I converted the resulting images in Photoshop using Nik Silver Efex Pro2 software. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 MACLEAN PHOTOGRAPHIC AND CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHOU...

The geology in this part of Scotland is amazing and very diverse, a very visual reminder of the volcanic past of East Lothian.  The beach at Skateraw looking west along the coast to Barns Ness is one of my favourite areas to captures the different types of rocks. Near the shoreline is a slab of rock that looks like crazy paving and even has seaweed growing in the cracks, much like our path at home but substitute grass for the seaweed. Now I am not a geologist, I don't know what type of rocks these are or what caused the formation but as a photographer I like the shapes and the textures. So this evening, as the sun was setting in the west, I headed out to Skateraw to take some shots as the tide receded.