CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

Yesterday afternoon I had the opportunity to take the Samyang 12mm f2 wide angle prime lens for a quick walk in the paddock and pitlane during the set up day for the European Le Mans Series event at the Red Bull Ring in Austria.   I already have the superb 8mm f2.8 fisheye made by the Korean manufacturer and I was intrigued to see how good the Samyang 12mm f2 would be in the real world. I am happy to report that the results were just as I expected - they were excellent!  The lens gives the same field of view as an 18mm f2 on a full frame camera.  Like the 8mm fisheye, the 12mm f2 is manual focus only and there is no electronic coupling with the camera so the EXIF data shows the lens to be a 50mm f1.0.  You can set the data in the camera to 12mm manually but in the EXIF data the aperture will always show f1.0 - this is annoying but not a big problem in my book. The build quality of the lens is excellent, it has a solid feel with a metal lens mount.  ...

For the next eight days I will be supplying Fujifilm UK an image a day for their social media feed from the 24 Hours of Le Mans.   Today is the first day of Le Pesage, the two day scrutineering in the Place de la Republique in the centre of Le Mans.  Once each team has completed all of the technical and administration checks they all gather for the official photograph. I joined the rest of the media on the photographers platform to get a ultra wide angle shot of the proceedings.  Using the Fujifilm X-T2 and the Samyang 8mm f2.8 fisheye I captured this shot from behind my fellow photographers, with Porsche's official photographer Jurgen Tap standing above everyone else to ensure he got the shot. There will be more shots posted over the next seven days as we begin the countdown to the 2017 24 Hours of Le Mans which starts on Saturday 17 June at 15h00 (CET). -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------...

About eight months ago I decided to buy the diminutive Samyang 8mm f2.8 fisheye for the annual trip to Le Mans.  This lens is small and light and has a field of view of 180 degrees.  It is a manual focus lens but focusing only starts at one metre so I tend to leave the focus ring on infinity, stop down to f5.6 or f8 and not worry about it. This little lens allows me to get pictures from some very tight places or take an extreme wide view that you can't normally get, even with the Fujinon 10-24mm set at 10mm. Now if you want a wider view some photographers will say 'take a few steps backwards and then shoot'.  But there are some situations where you can't do that. The shot at the top of the page is a good example.  2016 European Le Mans Series LMP3 Drivers Champion Alex Brundle was getting strapped into the Ligier-Nissan for the final race of the season at Estoril in Portugal.  I took the shot through the other door into the cockpit.  The working a...

2016 saw my first ever visit to Mexico when I travelled there with the FIA World Endurance Championship at the beginning of September.  I set aside one day to be a tourist and, along with fellow X Photographer John Rourke, was invited to join Jaime Pastelin and some others from the FujiX MeXico group to see Mexico City with the help of some local people. The day we spent with Jaime and the rest of the group was one of the best of the year and I have a new entry on my top ten cities to spend more time in 2017. One of the places Jaime took us was the  Gran Hotel Ciudad de Mexico, which is located just off the Zocolo, the main square of the city.  The Art Nouveau architecture of the building is very famous and was used in the opening sequences of the last James Bond film 'Spectre'. This image of the stained glass ceiling was taken on the Fujifilm X-T2 and the Samyang 8mm f2.8 Fisheye lens. CLICK HERE to see the blog on the  Gran Hotel Ciudad de Mexic...

The Kingdom of Bahrain is starting to attract more tourists and one of the attractions on the island is the Tree of Life. The Tree of Life (Shajarat-al-Hayaf) is a 400-year-old 10 metre / 35 ft high tree that is growing out in the desert.  It is the only large tree in the area and there are no water sources nearby and with little to no rain throughout the year the Tree of Life attracts a lot of attention, including tourists with 50,000 people traveling to the site on the south side of the island. The trip down from Manama takes you through the gas and oil fields, with workers campsites all around the site of the Tree of Life.   We decided to travel down at sunset before heading back to Manama to catch our flights back to Europe after the 6 Hours of Bahrain weekend. I captured these images on the Fujifilm X-T2 as the sun went down behind the tree.  Sunsets in the Middle East are pretty quick, lasting several minutes at best.   -...

On Friday I spent the day in the Highlands photographing the autumn colours along the River Tummel. While shooting from the footbridge over the river near Pitlochry I decided to take a few images using the Samyang 8mm Fisheye on the Fujifilm X-Pro2.  This 180 degree field of view lens is very good at keeping distortions under control but sometimes I like to take images that enhance the fisheye look of the lens. The top image is using the bridge handrails as a lead in line to the copse of trees at the end, while the A9 road bridge spanning the river provides a nice frame for the river and the trees, with the fisheye effect adding a curve to the bridge that was actually right above my head when I took the image. Images taken on the Fujifilm X-Pro2 + Samyang 8mm f2.8 fisheye lens   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS ...

The season finale of the 2016 European Le Mans Series took place at the Autodromo do Estoril with a dramatic end to the year with the championship leading no66 JMW Motorsport Ferrrai retiring due to a gearbox problem, handing the European title to their nearest rivals at Aston Martin Racing. Alex Brundle (top picture) had already secured the LMP3 European title with his teammates Christian England and Mike Guasch (pictured below) and started the race from pole position.  But an incident between Mike Guasch and the no66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari after two hours of the four hour race meant the Anglo American trio failed to finish their championship wining season on a high note. In the pitlane I spotted Fabien Barthez, the former French goalkeeper and national captain, signing autographs.  Barthez is now a successful driver and team owner, competing in the LMP2 class of the European Le Mans Series. AF Corse Ferrari driver Rui Aguas was also signing some autograp...

Yesterday was my last day in Japan and my plan to photograph the countryside around Mount Fuji had to be abandoned due to heavy rain and low cloud.  So I decided to head back to Narita where the airport is located and visit the Naritasan Shinshoji Temple.  It is one of the oldest and largest temples in Japan and located just 20-minutes from the airport. I will post a longer feature on the temple in the coming days but one of the standout shots I took in the gardens was this one of a standing stone in a wooded glade.  The stone was one of many but was the largest of the group, with two statues flanking each side.  The stone reminded me of the monolith in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey and I decided to fit the Samyang 8mm fisheye lens to the Fujifilm X-T2 and get down low beneath the stone.   The light on the stone contrasted nicely with the surrounding trees, which also gave a nice composition with the converging verticals in the image. ...

Samyang 8mm f2.8 Fisheye At the moment I have a choice of two ultra wide angle lenses in my Fujifilm armoury.  The XF10-24mm f4 has been my wide angle of choice since I bought it in 2014 and this year I added the manual focus Samyang 8mm f2.8 fisheye which adds a further, almost 3D, dimension to my photography. In the pitlane and on the grid both lenses come into their own and at the Circuit Paul Ricard during the European Le Mans Series event I was able to get shots on both lenses. Samyang 8mm f2.8 Fisheye Fujinon XF10-24mm f4 Fujinon XF10-24mm f4