CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

Ruhba Hunish is the most northernly part of the Isle of Skye and a great place for wildlife.   It is also a great place for wild flowers growing in the boggy and rocky conditions and while out at Ruhba Hunish yesterday morning I stopped to take some shots using the 90mm f2 lens fitted with the 16mm extension tube to increase the magnification. Cotton grass and orchids were amongst the flowers growing on the cliff top. 

During yesterday's walk along the Southern Upland Way near to Abbey St Bathans in the Lammermuir Hills I came across some Rhododendron bushes that were covered in white flowers.  A further along the trail there were bushes covered in pink and purple flowers as well. This time of year Rhododendron's are in full flower and are quite beautiful, however Rhododendrons are not native to the UK and they are quite destructive in killing off native plants and local eco systems.   Steps have been taken in parts of the UK to clear Rhododendrons in an attempt to restore the natural habitat.  The shrubs can be thought of as gigantic weeds and hopefully they can be brought under control. CLICK HERE for more information on the damage caused by Rhododendrons ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE ...

In January I had a 'spring clean' and cleared out some of the photographic items I wasn't using. One of the lenses I sold was the 60mm macro, the reason for this was the fact I had the 56mm f1.2 and I was shooting macro images infrequently. Today I was out shooting in the Lammermuir Hills in and around the village of Abbey St Bathans.  The first place I stopped was down by the Whiteadder Water, taking shots of the fast moving river.  Along the bank there were some wild flowers so I decided to use the 56mm f1.2 lens with the 16mm extension tube fitted to see how close I could focus with and with the extension tube.  The results were excellent. Here is the shot of the Common Bugloss (Anchusa Officials) with out the extension tube fitted and the focus of the 56mm lens set to the closest point. Here is the shot with the 16mm extension tube fitted between the body and the lens and the closest focus point is now a lot closer than without the extension tube fitte...

A break in the grey weather that has been sat over East Lothian for the past few days had me grabbing my camera bag to try and find some snowdrops for my stock library files before I head to the South of France on Saturday for eight days.   With it getting late in the season the chances of any snowdrops being left by the time I got back from Marseilles were slim at best, so I took the opportunity to get an early start and head up to Hailes Castle near East Linton. When I parked up and walked through the gate I was pleased to see that the bank in front of the wall was still covered in snowdrops, so I set to work to capture the dew covered flowers without treading on any in the process.  Just as I completed my first set of images the sun broke through the clouds behind me transforming the red sandstone walls of Hailes Castle, so I continued to shoot from a low point. Moving down the slope that runs down to the River Tyne, I continued to shoot the little white f...

After we returned from England on Thursday evening we went for a walk down to Belhaven Bay to walk on the beach to clear away the cobwebs from the 6 hour drive back to Scotland. We took our usual route down Back Road past Winterfield Golf Course and as we reached the bottom of the hill we were greeted by this spectacular display of wild flowers next to the road.   Using the Fujifilm X-T1 with the 10-24mm or 55-200mm Fujinon zooms I captured these images of the colourful display. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 USED FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHOUT PRIOR ...

Taking a short walk by the Grantham Canal I came across a rape seed field that had started to lose it's yellow flowers.  But in the corner of the field there was a clump of giant daisies growing and I headed over the capture the flowers with my Fuji X100.  I did several images in Black and White rather than the usual colour pictures.   All images taken on Fujifilm Finepix X100 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY CLICKING THE NEW GOOGLE ADVERTS It doesn't cost you anything to click on an advert but we get a small fee for every click thru from Google and this helps support this blog - thank you for helping ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ALL IMAGES ARE THE PROPERTY OF MACLEAN PHOTOGRAPHIC AND CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION If you like what y...

My first day back in the UK after 10 days in Le Mans and the chance of a good sunset had me grabbing the camera bag and heading out to the poppy fields out towards the village of Burton Coggles.  The scene that greeted me didn't disappoint and the a low sun meant the field of red was backlit for around 20 minutes as the sun sank below the horizon.  This gave me the chance to capture the scene on the D800 and three different lenses. Nikon D800 - Nikon 80-200mm f2.8 AF-D - 1/250 @ f9 - ISO400 Nikon D800 - Nikon 50mm f1.4 AF-D - 1/320 @ f5.6 - ISO400 Nikon D800 - Nikon 80-200mm f2.8 AF-D - 1/500 @ f5.6 - ISO400 Nikon D800 - Nikon 17-35mm f2.8 AF-S - 1/25 @ f11 - ISO400 Nikon D800 - Nikon 50mm f1.4 AF-D - 1/1600 @ f2 - ISO400 Nikon D800 - Nikon 50mm f1.4 AF-D - 1/250 @ f11 - ISO400 - SB600 off camera flash Nikon D800 - Nikon 80-200mm f2.8 AF-D - 1/80 @ f6.3 - ISO400 -----------------------------------------------------------...