CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

When I am out shooting I sometimes see in my mind's eye a panoramic crop when taking images in standard 3:2 format.  Panorama's are very striking and for me can add a dynamic element to landscapes and cityscapes. It is very easy to visualise a panoramic crop.  When shooting I check to see if the important elements of an image are all concentrated into one third of the image area.  I then shoot the image with the dead area of the image either to the top or bottom of the picture.  I then crop 12:5 in post production to give me the final panorama. Japan was a perfect canvas for the 12:5 crop (or even wider) both when shooting landscapes at Lake Ashi (top picture), Enoshima (second picture) and in Tokyo (two images below). All of the images were shot on the Fujifilm X-T2 with either the 16mm f1.4, 50-140mm f2.8 and 100-400mm f4.5/5.6 lenses. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------...

As the end of 2016 approaches I begin my countdown of my ten favourite images from my travels this year. This image was from the first of two trips to Japan this year.  This visit was in January when I was invited by Fujifilm to take part in the 5th Anniversary Press Conference in Tokyo.   On the day we arrived we visited the Senso-Ji temple in Tokyo and in the strong winter sunshine I was able to get some very atmospheric images of the worshippers burning incense in the courtyard of the temple. This image is my favourite as the lighting just gives the picture so much depth and mystery.  The picture was taken on a Fujifilm X-T1 and the XF90mm f2 lens. CLICK HERE to see the blog and all the images   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts you are helping support this blog...

On the recent trip to Japan we traveled to Kyoto on the Shinkansen, the world famous Japanese bullet train.  We traveled the 500km to Kyoto on the Tokaido line, which was the first high speed line to open in 1964, the year I was born. The trip took just over two hours, which literally flew by at speeds of 320kph / 200mph.   Speeds of 440kph /275 mph were recorded in 1996 and a new world record of 603kph /375 mph was set in 2015 by the new maglev trains. One of the things that I noticed was the frequency of the trains.  On the way down from Tokyo there were services every 20-minutes. On the way back from Kyoto there were four trains to Tokyo in a 30 minute period.  And they all ran with typical Japanese efficiency and punctuality. Now I have travelled a lot by train in the UK and in France and the first thing that struck me on entering the carriage was the width.  In the Europe the seats are usually two each side of the aisle.  On the Shinkan...

When I visited Japan in October 2015 I went for a walk around the Roppongi district of Tokyo with the Fujifilm X100 where I took some shots of the colourful Tokyo taxis against the bright neon lights of the shops and restaurants.  I found the standard 23mm Fujinon lens on the X100 a bit limiting so I decided that on my next trip I would revisit Roppongi with the X-T1 and the wide angle 10-24mm f4 zoom.  I then switched lenses to the XF90mm f2 to get some closer shots of the cars as they negotiated the very busy junction. Here are the shots I took on the first evening in Japan on the 14th January before I headed back to the Fujifilm HQ for a dress rehearsal for the next day's Fujikina press conference. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts you are helpin...

On arrival in Japan and after visiting the Skytree tower we went to the Senso-ji temple.  Sensō-ji is an ancient Buddhist temple located in Asakusa, Tokyo, Japan. It is Tokyo's oldest temple, and one of its most significant. Formerly associated with the Tendai sect of Buddhism, it became independent after World War II.  In the central courtyard worshippers buy incense sticks which they place in a communal  censer which they then waft the smoke over their heads. In Buddhist temples, the inner spaces are scented with thick coiled incense, which are either hung from the ceiling or on special stands. Worshipers at the temples light and burn sticks of incense in small or large bundles, which they wave or raise above the head while bowing to the statues or plaques of a deity or an ancestor. Individual sticks of incense are then vertically placed into individual censers located in front of the statues or plaques either singularly or in threes, depending on the sta...

One of the places we visited on the recent trip to Japan was the Tokyo Skytree, taking in the breathtaking views of the Japanese capital from the lower observation deck 350m above the ground. Tokyo Skytree is a broadcasting, restaurant, and observation tower in Sumida, Tokyo, Japan. It became the tallest structure in Japan in 2010 and reached its full height of 634.0 metres (2,080 ft) in March 2011. The tower is the primary television and radio broadcast site for the Kantō region; the older Tokyo Tower no longer gives complete digital terrestrial television broadcasting coverage because it is surrounded by high-rise buildings. Skytree was completed on 29 February 2012, with the tower opening to the public on 22 May 2012. The 360 degree observation tower gave a great view over the city with clear blue skies enabling us to see to the horizon.  I chose to use the Fujifilm X-T1 to get these shots because we were accompanied by some journalists and it was...

In December I posted on this blog that I had been selected by Fujifilm to be part of the X-Photographers exhibition in Tokyo to celebrate 5 years of the X-Series cameras. Last week I travelled to Tokyo to take part in the press conference on Friday 15th January (more on this later) and I also had the opportunity to see the image that Fujifilm had selected to be part of the exhibition of 100 images by photographers from all around the world. The image Fujifilm chose was a long exposure pre dawn shot of the lighthouse at Barns Ness that I took on the 27th November using the brand new Fujifilm X-Pro2 camera that I was secretly testing for the Japanese manufacturer.  The image was captured using a Fujinon 10-24mm f4 lens with an exposure of 300 seconds at f8. Because this camera was so new I didn't have a suitable solution to access the RAW file so this image is almost straight out of the camera, with just a few tweaks to the brightness and contrast in Photoshop. The fi...