CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

Snow has been in short supply in East Lothian this winter and it has also been pretty scarce during three landscape photography trips into the Highlands as well, but yesterday there was plenty of snow around during a trip into the Scottish Borders for a couple of meetings. As well as snowy landscapes I love taking close up shots of icy pools where the cracks and trapped bubbles of air make fantastic patterns. These images were taken of frozen pools of water formed into the deep wheel tracks on forestry commission land near Walkerburn.  The images were shot on the X-T2 and 16-55mm f2.8 with the camera set to ACROS (R) film simulation. I then processed the images through Silver EFEX Pro2 using a custom filter I have set up to give the images a extreme contrast to enhance the patterns in the ice. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING...

Frozen water - Fujifilm X-T2 + XF10-24mm f4 - 1/13 @ f8 ISO800 (zoom 10mm) Bealach na Ba is Gaelic for Pass of the Cattle and is a road that is reminiscent of Alpine roads with tight and twisty bends as the single track road twists it was from sea level to 626 metres (2054ft). We had packed away our camera gear into the car at the bottom of the pass and as we headed up the weather had taken a turn for the worse, with rain swiftly turning to flurries of snow as we headed up.  This made the climb seem even more dramatic as the dark layer of cloud was lit from underneath by the sunlight down on Loch Kishorn. Bealach na Ba - Fujifilm X-T2 + XF10-24mm f4 - 1/100 @ f4 ISO800 (zoom 10mm) When we reached the top we stopped to climb out of the car to taken some images.  The twisting road provided a great lead in line for the resulting image At the top of the ridge the large pools of water were frozen over with snow flakes being blown across the surface....

Today was another photographic trip into the Highlands of Scotland visiting Rannoch Moor for sunrise, Glen Orchy, Loch Leven and Glen Coe for sunset.  We took over 700 shots which now have to be edited for tomorrow's blog but here is one shot that stood out on the Lightroom display. This was one of the final shots of the day at the sun set behind the mountains at the top of Glen Coe.  Standing ankle deep in freezing water (with proper waterproof boots on I hasten to add) I got this shot on the X-T1 and XF10-24mm f4 lens of the sunset behind Buachaille Etive Beag.  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ...

Sunset in Glen Lyon Yesterday's blog was about climbing Ben A'ag to capture the pre dawn light over the Trossachs National Park.  We arrived back at the car park at the bottom of Loch Achray around lunchtime and after a coffee and a bite to eat we set off for the next stop at Loch Lubnaig on the A84. Loch Lubnaig is around 5 km long, and has depths of up to 44.5 metres. The loch nestles in the space between Ben Ledi and Ben Vorlich. The name is derived from the Gaelic Lùbnaig, meaning crooked. When we arrived we noticed the near shore was frozen while the hills on the opposite bank was still covered in snow.  We pulled into the car park opposite a boat house on the far shore and used the frozen reeds on the bank as foreground interest. After 30 minutes we carried on heading north up the A84 before turning west on the A827 through the village of Killin and the famous Falls of Dochart.  We decided not to stop to capture the falls as ...

This morning I will be flying south to Marseilles for seven days at the Paul Ricard track for European Le Mans Series and FIA World Endurance Championship testing and a special event on Thursday when Porsche will be unveiling their FIA WEC works challenger to the media. The temperature in Marseilles is currently a balmy 17 degrees centigrade compared to the freezing conditions here in the UK.  After 24 hours of snowfall the sun finally came out this evening and I grabbed the camera to get some shots of icicles back lit by the setting sun. Nikon D800 - Nikon 105mm f2.8G micro - 1/1600 @ f8 - ISO800 Nikon D800 - Nikon 105mm f2.8G micro - 1/80 @ f5.6 - ISO400 Nikon D800 - Nikon 105mm f2.8G micro - 1/200 @ f4.3 - ISO800 I am looking forward to leaving the freezing conditions behind and I hope that spring finally arrives in the UK while I'm away. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ...

While out and about in the Peak District we came across this rock face covered in icicles where the water flowing off the hill had frozen.  With the temperatures rising the ice had started to melt and the rock face was covered in water drops, some running down the icicles before dropping to the ground.   We set about capturing the scene before the temperature melted the ice, being careful note to get the cameras too wet from the falling water, which was like rain under the rock but also being careful to be hit by icicles that were falling off as the ice melted. This shot was caught at the perfect time as the water drop formed on the tip of the icicle before falling to the ground.  I used a Nikon SB600 flash gun on wireless remote to light the back of the ice.  All images taken on a Nikon D800 with 60mm f2.8 AF-D Micro lens -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------...

After two days of taking snowy landscapes I decided to get the macro lens out of the camera bag and take some shots of the snow crystals and icicles.  The miniature world of the snow flake and ice is quite amazing and the close up images were lit by an off camera flash gun, which was positioned to highlight the wonderful shapes. Here are some of the results -   All images taken on a Nikon D700, Nikon 60mm f2.8 AF-D Micro using a Nikon SB-600 flashgun on remote commander mode, except for the 'red berries' which was taken on a Fuji X100 on macro mode. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ALL IMAGES ARE THE PROPERTY OF MACLEAN PHOTOGRAPHIC AND CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION If you like what you see on this blog please visit our  Facebook  page and click 'like' MORE IMAGES CAN BE VIEWED ON  FLICKR  AND ON O...