CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

For the past two days much of the UK has been gripped in a severe snow storm, including the South East of Scotland.  In fact the Met Office issued the first ever 'RED' weather warning for snow in the central belt of Scotland.  The high winds and low temperatures have produced blizzard conditions and dumped a fair amount of snow across the country.   While Dunbar hasn't been as severely hit as other parts further inland, the weather has forced the trains to be cancelled, the schools to be shut and made roads hazardous to drive on and even impassable for a while. Today I walked with my wife to the school where she works and then headed down to the harbour with the Fujifilm X-Pro2 and Xf16mm f1.4 lens to capture some images of the wintery conditions. I also took along my GoPro Hero5 Black and the Karma stabiliser grip to capture some video of the conditions.  I didn't fly the DJI Mavic Pro drone because the wind conditions were too strong to safely fly. ...

On Wednesday this week it will be four years since we moved into our current home in Dunbar on  Scotland's east coast and we are still discovering new places to visit locally.  Today was another first as we went for a walk in Pressmennan Wood, a Woodland Trust Scotland reserve near Stenton just outside Dunbar. While there has been plenty of snow in the Highlands and further south, East Lothian has not seen any of the white stuff, but it has been VERY cold, with the car showing minus 3 degrees as we headed into the hills outside Dunbar. The sun was low in the sky, as it always is at this time of year, which cast long shadows through the trees. Using the Fujifilm X-E3 I have on test until Tuesday I captured some images along our walk around the frozen lake.  The ice was very thin, you certainly couldn't stand on it, but it did make for some really nice images. I used the 23mm f2, 18mm f2 or the 90mm f2 prime lenses for the images on this page. CLICK HERE ...

Fujifilm X-T2 +XF100-400mm f4.5/5.6 + 1.4x converter - 1/125 @ f8 ISO1600 (zoom 560mm) One of the highlights of the two day winter photo trip into the Highlands of Scotland was the number of stags we saw and photographed.  Red Deer  (Cervus elaphus) roam the Highlands of Scotland but while I have seen them further south, I hadn't expected to see them in such abundance on this trip. We had seen and photographed a young stag on the roadside as we were leaving Applecross on Friday evening and I was pretty pleased with the results in such poor light, but little did I know we were going have more opportunities on the second day of our trip. Fujifilm X-T2 +XF50-140mm f2.8 - 1/110 @ f2.8 ISO6400 (zoom 140mm) As we were travelling from Loch Assynt up to Kylesku I spotted three stags off in the distance.  As we rounded a bend in the road I noticed a large rock was obscuring us from the stags and so I could, hopefully, get closer without being spotted. ...

The view over the anchorage at Altandhu just before sunset Fujifilm X-T2 + XF10-24mm f4 - 1/40 @ f10 ISO400 (zoom 10mm) As the horizon brightened to the west we stopped photographing at our location near Inverpolly and headed in the car the 6 miles to a view point above the small fishing village of Altandhu. The clouds on the horizon had broken up and the sunlight was streaming through producing a spectacular display.  I had fixed the X-T2 to the Manfrotto 190 tripod while I used the X-Pro2 with either the 100-400mm, or the XF50-140mm with the 1.4x converter, to get some closer images of the sunset and the cloud formations.  Fiery skies about the headland to the south west of Altandhu Fujifilm X-Pro2 + XF50-140mm f2.8 + 1.4x converter - 1/320 @ f13 ISO400 (zoom 196mm) The light was fading fast and we had to work quickly.  Being exposed on a hill on the coast also subjected us to high winds, which were also pretty cold, which meant we had to wat...

The beach at Clashnessie  - Point A on the map Fujifilm X-T2  + XF16-55mm f2.8 - 1/250  @ f5.6 ISO400 (zoom 16mm) After the stop at Drumbeg we continued following the coast road, dropping down to the beautiful white sand beach at Clashnessie.  The west coast of Scotland is famous for its beaches and Clashnessie is certainly a beautiful sight.  Not sure that I would be taking a dip in that sea though as it looked pretty cold from where I was standing. The beach at Clashnessie  - Point A on the map Fujifilm X-T2  + XF16-55mm f2.8 - 1/200  @ f5.6 ISO400 (zoom 16mm) - Panoramic Mode As well as taking some standard images on the X-T2 I switched the camera to Panoramic mode to take the image above of the entire bay. The cottage at Loch a Phollain  - Point B on the map Fujifilm X-T2  + XF16-55mm f2.8 - 1/80  @ f5.6 ISO400 (zoom 30mm) By the time we set off again the rain had returned and the likely hood of a break in th...