CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

Just off the B9007 between Forres and Carrbridge in the Highlands of Scotland is the little known ruin of Lochindorb Castle.    Lochindorb means 'Loch of Trouble' and the 13th century castle was built by the Clan Cromyn on a man made island in the centre of the loch. On a recent visit to Forres I decided to stop off at Lochindorb to scout out the location for a future visit.  The wind had dropped completely and the loch was like a mirror, with the dark peaty water water perfectly reflecting the broken clouds above. I launched the DJI Mavic Pro to get some aerial footage around the castle as the only other way to approach the ruin is by boat.  The scene below the drone's camera was very etherial and I carried out a 15 minute flight to capture several angles and a few still images before landing the drone on the shore.  Being low down, and with only one angle from where I was flying the drone, I decided not to shoot still images with the Fujifilm X Serie...

Fujifilm GFX50S  + GF32-64mm f4 - 0.5s  @ f22 ISO200 Last Friday I headed north into the Highlands of Scotland to put the Fujifilm GFX50S through it's paces as a landscape camera.  This medium format beast does not disappoint and I spent an enjoyable day in four locations from dawn until late afternoon before heading back to Dunbar. First stop was Rannoch Moor, a favourite haunt of many landscape photographers.  I arrived before dawn and with the misty clouds hugging the mountains and not a breath of wind to ruffle the still waters of the small lochs, I set the camera on the tripod and waited.   The biggest issue I had was the fact the camera was only delivered with one battery and it is only good for around 250 shots, so I had to limit the time the camera was switched on to ensure I had enough power throughout the day.  It certainly reminded me of when I used to shoot with my Bronica ETRSi.  The issue back then was not battery power but...

To photograph autumn in the Highlands is a very rare occurrence for me because of my motorsport schedule at this time of year.  Between September and November I have seven events in just eleven weeks in Mexico, USA, Belgium, Japan, Portugal, China and Bahrain which doesn't leave a lot of time for other work in between.  This year I set aside one day to go north and explore the area around Pitlochry and the River Tummel. So an early start last Friday with friend and fellow photographer Alistair Spence saw us heading over the Forth Road Bridge towards our first stop just north of Dunkeld to catch the dawn.  We stopped on the side of Loch Craiglush (Point A on the map) looking east waiting for the sun to come up above the tree line on the opposite shore at 08h15.     Loch Craiglush at Dawn - Fujifilm X-T2 + XF10-24mm f4 - 240s @ f11 ISO100 I had set the Fujifilm X-T2, fitted with the XF10-24mm f4 ultra wide angle zoom, on the Manfrotto 190...

After lunch in Ballachulish we headed east along Loch Leven towards Glencoe village before turning left onto the B863 to Kinlochleven.   Kinlochleven sits at the mouth of the River Leven that flows into the loch of the same name and the B863 runs the length of the loch on both the south and north shores. We spent around 30 minutes looking for a vantage point  to get a view down the loch towards the bridge at North Ballachulish but we couldn't find a good location.  So we headed back to the south side and set up on a small hill overlooking Loch Leven with a good view of the snow covered 742 metre Pap of Glencoe (Sgorr na Ciche) on the left and Beinn na Caillich, the 764 metre high peak on the right. Beinn na Caillich Pap of Glencoe (Sgorr na Ciche) With the sun heading towards the horizon we packed up and headed into Glen Coe to capture the sunset that was looking very promising.  This will be the subject of the final blog from our first photo trip ...

While waiting for the sun to come up over the horizon last Sunday I did some long exposure images of the wintery scene on Rannoch Moor. Lochan na h'Achlaise was frozen solid except for a patch where the flow of the river kept the loch from freezing over completely.  I had to tread carefully in the half light (I did take a torch) to make sure I was on land rather than on frozen loch - I didn't want to end up in the loch! On that point I also made sure I was dressed for the conditions. The temperature was down to -4 degrees but factor in the wind and the temperature was more like -10 degrees Celsius!  Plenty of lay ers, with thermals, winter coat and proper walking boots.   You are standing around for a while during these long exposures and you will not want to stop for long if you are cold and miserable. The first two images were taken on the X-T1 with the 14mm f2.8 lens fitted.  The shutter speed was 20 seconds for each shot. The images above was ...

This image was taken on our way back from the beach at Hushinish the day we arrived on the Isle of Harris.   The old boat was pulled up out of the water at Loch Leosavay, not far off the B887.  The sunlight and the high clouds made for an interesting image so we had to stop to get the picture before we traveled up to Lewis for our first night in the Outer Hebrides. Using the Fujifilm X-T1 and Fujinon 10-24mm f4 fitted with a polariser, I took several shots  around the boat and the shoreline. The images were converted to black and white in Nik Silver Efex Pro2 after using Lightroom 5.5 to convert the RAW file. The last shot was taken on the Fujifilm X-Pro1 with the XF 55-200mm f3.5/4.8 lens and is looking across the small bay back towards Amhuinnsuidhe Castle Estate. Today I am heading to Austria for the next round of the 2014 European Le Mans Series at the Red Bull Ring in the Styrian Alps.  I will be posting some images from this tri...

At the bottom of the long, winding road through Glen Etive is Loch Etive, a long body of water that opens out onto the sea at Connel Bridge by the Falls of Lorn and into Ardmucknish Bay.  In the late 19th Century Victorian tourist used to take a boat up Loch Etive to a landing platform at the estate at the head of the loch.  When I was last here in 2004 the remains of the old pier were still visible but on this trip the pier had been rebuilt to allow the foresters to load timber onto the boats to be taken down stream. We set up near the head of Loch Etive and took these images looking south down the loch. Nikon D800 - Nikon 17-35mm f2.8 - 0.6s @ f22 - ISO50 The following image was taken using the X-Pro1 and the Nikon 80-200 f2.8 and was attached to the camera using a Fotodiox Nikon to Fuji adapter.  I still impressed with the results from this combination and for £17 the Fotodiox adapter has to be my 'star buy' of 2013. Fujifilm X-Pro1 - Nikon 80-200mm f2...