CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

Fujifilm X-T2 + XF90mm f2 With 2018 being Winter Olympics year, we decided to feature a winter sport that will be one of the highlights of the games in South Korea - Ice Hockey. There are twelve clubs playing in the Elite League, the premiership of the ice hockey world, and I contacted my local club, the Edinburgh Capitals, to feature a home game against the Guildford Flames for part 11 of the ‘Sports Photography as a Spectator’ series.  Ice Hockey is played at a high level in the UK and attracts players from all over the world. The game takes place over three 20-minute periods and is fast and exciting to watch.There are six players from each team on the ice at any one time but they rotate the players from the bench regularly, it is sometimes difficult to keep up with which players are on the ice.   Sports Photography as a Spectator Part 11: Ice Hockey from MacLean Photographic on Vimeo . I took along the new  Fujifilm  X-H1 and two X...

On Thursday 15 February 2018 Fujifilm announced the brand new X-H1 compact system camera with simultaneous launches around the globe.   As an official Fujifilm X-Photographer Jeff Carter was asked in November 2017 to be part of the test team for the new camera. He took the X-H1 to the WEC event in Bahrain and to the Scotland v Australia international test at Murrayfield.  This gave the X-H1 the hardest of tests and there was plenty of feedback for the Fujifilm development team back in Japan, almost all positive.  He has had to keep the camera under wraps for three months but Jeff can now give his thoughts on the latest addition to the Fujifilm X-Series family. The X-H1 is the third camera I have tested for Fujifilm, I was involved in the development of the X-Pro2 and X-T2.  It is a great feeling as a working photographer to be asked by a camera manufacturer to give your input.  I am part of a large team of photographers from around the world b...

Football is undeniably the world’s favourite sport as it is watched and played in every corner of the globe. The English Premier League is the most-watched sports league in the world. The premiership is shown on TV in 212 territories with a potential audience of 4.7 billion people. All the major news outlets cover the matches each weekend on TV and in print, with revenues generated accordingly. This popularity has filtered down to the lower professional leagues as well. This has made media passes highly sought after and the prospect of amateur sports photographers getting decent pictures from the spectator areas in the all seater stadiums almost impossible, even if you were allowed to take a camera and telephoto lens into the ground in the first place. Shooting Sport as a Spectator Part 10 - Football from MacLean Photographic on Vimeo . However there is an alternative for the aspiring football photographer and this is going along to your local non-league club. The ac...

The latest edition of shooting sport from the spectator areas is on horse racing for Fujifilm.   I attended the first jump meeting of the 2017/18 season at Musselburgh Racecourse on Wednesday 8th November to shoot the latest feature and came away with a nice selection of images for the Fujifilm website. I shot the event using the Fujifilm X-T2 and Fujifilm X-Pro2 fitted with the XF100-400mm and XF50-140mm f2.8 zooms plus I also used the XF16mm f1.4 prime as well. CLICK HERE to see the full article on Fujifilm.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. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ALL IMAGES (UN...

On our travels in Hakone we went along the coast south of Tokyo to visit the island of Enoshima.  As it was a holiday in Japan the island was jam packed with visitors so we decided to stay on the mainland and sit on the beach at Kamakura to watch the Black-Eared Kites ( Milvus lineatus). These medium sized raptors are fairly common along the coast of Japan and they are opportunists, having worked out that snatching food from an unsuspecting human is far easier than catching rodents or small birds.  They are to Japan what seagulls are to us in the UK, just far more interesting to watch. While we sat on the beach about a dozen 'Tobi' as they are known in Japan were soaring above us watching for an unsuspecting human to swoop down on and snatch their lunch.  This happened several times we are there but the kites were so quick I wasn't able to catch an image. We sat shooting the birds using the X-T2 with the 100-400mm and 50-140mm zooms For more on the Blac...

One of the places we visited in Hakone was the  Sengokuhara Japanese Pampas Grass Field . The fields are 180,000 square of grass with a promenade running through the middle.  On the day we visited the sunlight was streaming through trees on the mountain side and across the tops of the tall grass. The Japanese pampas grass was planted for the use in thatching a roof  and cattle feed in the Edo era. It was a cropsthat made an important income for the region. Today the pampas grass fields have become a special district of the Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park. All the images were shot on the Fujifilm X-T2 fitted with the XF50-140mm f2.8 lens. CLICK HERE for more information on the Pampas Grass Fields of Hakone. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts yo...

Japan is famous for its hot springs and volcanic activity.  Only last week Tokyo was hit by an earthquake but this happens so often the Japanese don't worry about minor events.  On Monday we went down to Hakone and took a trip up the Hakone Ropeway (Cable Car) to Owakudani station to see the volcanic venting on the top of the mountain.  The drifting steam look like white clouds but the rotten egg smell certainly made sure that you knew this wasn't anything so benign. The volcanic activity in the area has increased in recent weeks and while the cable car was still in operation, the paths further up the mountain were closed due to the danger.  Shooting from the viewing areas at Owakudani Station with the X-T2 and XF100-400mm I was still able to get some good shots of the rising plumes of steam. On the otherside of the mountain an area of volcanic activity had destroyed part of the forest, uprooting trees and killing the plants in the area....