CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

Last week I hosted a Maclean Photographic workshop and one of my clients wanted to know how to get images of birds in flight using her X-T20 and XC50-230mm lens.   At this time of year the seabirds along the East Lothian coast are starting to return and I knew there were Fulmars starting to set up home in the cliffs above the beach at Seacliff.  So that is where we headed for a couple of hours to get some pictures of the Fulmars ( Fulmarus glacialis). While my client was using her X-T20 I decided to put the new Fujifilm X-H1 fitted with the XF100-400mm lens through it's paces to test the Auto Focus capabilities and I am pleased to say it is as good shooting wildlife as it is shooting sport. Fulmars Glacialis Fulmars are actually related to the mighty albatross and they fly low over the sea on stiff wings and shallow wingbeats.  They glide on the sea breezes and nest high up in the cliff faces, riding the  up draughts.  Fulmars defend their nest...

A couple of weeks ago I made my annual landing trip out to the Isle of May off the coast of Dunbar on the border of the North Sea and the Firth of Forth. The Isle of May is home to over 200,000 seabirds and is well worth a visit for anyone interested in the world of nature.  The boat trips are run by the Scottish Seabird Centre in North Berwick and the island is maintained by Scottish Natural Heritage. Isle of May Landing 2017 from Fujifilm X Adventure on Vimeo . Taking the fast RIB from North Berwick harbour the trip out took around 25-minutes.  When we landed we were met by one of the wardens, who gave us a quick talk about the dos and don'ts while on the island and then we had the choice of joining our guide or take ourselves off around the small island. Because this was my third trip out to the Isle of May I and my fellow photographers headed up to the north of the island to see if we could find some Puffins before the other two boats from Anstruther do...

While on Bass Rock on Tuesday I shot some video clips as well as stills during my three hours on the island.  I shot the video using both my X-T2 and X-Pro2, plus I used my new iPhone 6S Plus.  While the X-T2 and iPhone are both capable of shooting 4K, I shot the video clips in 1080P to keep the consistency across the three devices. The clips were edited in iMovie. The music was obtained from freemusicarchive.org and is a track entitled 'Surface Tension' by a group called 'A Ninja Slob Drew Me'. Here is the short video which gives anyone who has never visited Bass Rock a good idea of the natural spectacle that we have here in East Lothian and why people from all over the world travel here just to witness the gannets of Bass Rock. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on th...