CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

The cars lined up at the first corner - Fujifilm X-T2 + XF50-140mm f2.8 The FIA World Endurance Championship 2017 season is now underway after two days of track running at Monza in Italy for the Official Preseason Test, The Prologue. Part of the proceedings is to take two special images, one of the group of static cars showing the size of the 2017 grid and the second is the car to car racking shots.   Both of these official images were taken by fellow X Photographer John Rourke and I rigged a GoPro Hero 5 Session and GoPro Hero 5 Black to record a timelapse video of the proceedings for the official website of the FIA . The video above was of the group shot at the first corner at Monza.  Fujifilm X-T2 + XF16-55mm f2.8 The car to car tracking shots took place on Saturday lunchtime after the morning session was concluded and my job was to organise the cars at the end of the pitlane and brief the drivers on the procedures to follow.  Once John wa...

When working at a motorsport event it is very easy to get caught up in the 'big picture' capturing that racecar out on track or taking a dramatic image of a pitstop.  I occasionally like to step back from this and look for images that are not the norm or objects that lit by the sunlight. Take the shot at the top of the page.  This was a photocall for the no12 Rebellion Racing crew of Nelson Piquet Jr, Nico Prost and Mathias Beche.  I took some shots from the side on the pitfall and then I saw Rebellion on their race suits and decided to take a close shot of their legs and race boots.  this was captured on the X-Pro2 and XF50-140mm f2.8. The image below was also captured on the same combination of camera and lens while walking back to the pitlane from the multicar photoshoot at the last corner of the track.  The sun was very low in the sky and relaxing off of the red stripes that are painted on the inside of the last corner.  The colours and textures...

The Fujinon XF 1.4x TC WR has been available since autumn 2015.  The converter is a useful addition to the camera bag for any photographer using the X-Series system who has either the XF50-140mm f2.8 and /or the new XF100-400mm f4.5/5.6 as it extends the focal length of these two lenses at the expense of one stop of light. The 1.4x converter only works with these two zoom lenses due to the fact that part of the converter protrudes and fits into the back of the lens.   The advantage is it keeps the profile of the converter very small - it only increases the size by 16mm - but it means that lenses that have enough clearance to the back element can accept the converter.   This means the two cheaper Fujinon telephoto zooms - the XF55-200mm f3.5/4.8 and the XC50-230mm f4.5/6.7  - cannot be used with the converter, much to the disappointment of owners of these lenses. Fitting the 1.4x converter to the 50-140mm f2.8 turns it into a 70-196mm f4 (or 105-300mm f4 e...

Ford have entered two of their stunning Ford GTs in the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship to challenge the might of Aston Martin, Ferrari and Porsche for the world title. 2016 is a special year for Ford as it is 50 years since the American manufacturer took a famous 1-2-3 at the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans with New Zealanders Chris Amon and Denny Hulme taking the win for Ford. Here are some shots from the last few days at the Circuit Paul Ricard where the teams and drivers have been testing. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 USE...

Fujifilm X-Pro2 + XF100-400mm f4.5/5.6 - 1/60 @ f16 ISO200 Today was the first time the teams and drivers taking part in the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship had the opportunity to take their cars on track at the same time to compare their pace against the opposition.  The venue is the Circuit Paul Ricard on the Cote d'Azur and I was attending the event - The Prologue - in my capacity as the FIA Media Delegate for the World Endurance Championship. This afternoon I decided to go out on track to get some images to accompany the reports and interviews I would be producing for the FIA official website and also give the Fujifilm X-Pro2 its next big test and that was to shoot motorsport. Fujifilm X-Pro2 + XF100-400mm f4.5/5.6 +1.4x converter - 1/250 @ f8 IS0400 As regular readers of this blog will know I have been attending different sporting events to test out the X-Pro2 and the XF100-400mm lens and a couple of weeks ago I attended the 6 Nations Rugby internationa...

Today is the start of The Prologue, the two day official pre-season test for the World Endurance Championship.  Yesterday was spent preparing several photo sessions including the group shot for the WEC grid. Official Photographer John Rourke was 8 metres above the track in a highlift platform while I directed the cars into place on the track.  While he was shooting from above, I grabbed a couple of low level shots. In addition we did a photoshoot with Audi driver Oliver Jarvis and Toyota's Mike Conway for the Silverstone programme. For the latest information on the World Endurance Championship go to www.fiawec.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts you are helping support this blog - thank you. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------...