CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

This shot was taken on the Isle of Lewis last summer during our trip to the Outer Hebrides.  After visiting the Callanish Stones and the Gearrannan Black Houses, we stopped off at the beautiful sandy beach at Dail Mor.   Daily Mor is on the North West side of the island facing the Atlantic and we could see the next weather front rolling in.  The dramatic rain clouds were set against the waves crashing onto the sandy shore and against the rocks of the headland at the north end of the beach. About 10 minutes after this image was taken the rain started to fall in typical Hebridean fashion - heavy and sideways.  But we were dressed for the weather and it was only a short walk back to the car.  This shot was taken on the Fujifilm X-Pro1 and the Fujinon XF18mm f2R lens, with the image converted to black and white in Silver EFEX Pro2 software. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------...

Since August 2013 we have lived in Scotland and 2014 was the first full year of living north of the border.  The year began with a day trip to photograph the snowy Highlands - Rannoch Moor, Glen Coe, Glen Etive.   Of course most the images from Scotland in 2014 have been taken nearer to home in East Lothian and the Belhaven Bay bridge is one of my favourite subjects as it is a short 5-minute walk from our house.  This image is of the bridge under the moonlight. The East Lothian coast is a mixture of wide sandy beaches and rocky shoreline.  The beach at Yellowcraig is typical of this stretch of coastline. Cove Harbour is just a few miles south east of Dunbar and is a quaint fishing village that you can almost step back in time. A bit further along the coast from Cove is the old abandoned church of St Helen's.  Perched on the top of the cliffs this ruined church, with its upturned grave markers, is a eerie place to visit, even on a sunny d...

During our recent trip to the Outer Hebrides we stopped at an art gallery near to the beach at Luskentyre for a browse and a cup of tea to escape the rain that had blown in off the Atlantic. We did buy a couple of items that were coloured a vivid blue, just like the sea just outside the window.  One of the items we bought were a pair of glass coasters, which were blown full of air bubbles.  This made a fantastic object for a still life I set up in my office, shooting the coaster with the LED video light behind to highlight the textures and colours in the glass. Here are two shots taken on the Fujifilm X-T1 and Fujinon XF60mm f2.4 macro lens.  The one at the top of the page was taken across the glass using an aperture of f2.4 to give a shallow depth of field.   The second image is taken with the coaster parallel to the camera with the aperture set to f5.6 to increase the depth of field. -----------------------------------------------------------------...

On the recent visit to the Outer Hebrides I took over 1200 images of the scenery on Harris and Lewis.   Over the past two days I have spent some time looking at some of the images in the archive that I didn't use the first time round and this shot is one of the stand out images.  In colour the shot across the bay is OK but it didn't attract my attention. However when I looked again I saw the potential in the wide variation in tones that made this image suitable for a strong black and white image. I converted the image using Silver Efex Pro2 software and then did some dodging and burning to increase the contrast in parts of the image in Photoshop Elements 11. The result is quite pleasing.  The colour version of the image is below so you can decide if my choice was correct or not.  Image taken on a Fujifilm X-T1 + Fujinon XF10-24mm f4R OIS -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------...

While on our recent trip to the Outer Hebrides there was a lot of open moorland and peat bogs which is the perfect place to spot Cotton Grass. Cotton Grass (Eriophorum angustifolium) is very distinctive with it's fluffy white head that looks like someone has opened a bag of cotton wool and emptied it onto the landscape. We stopped near one peat bog near Tarbert on the Isle of Harris and the windy conditions was making the Cotton Grass heads wave like flags in a stiff breeze. Using the Fujifilm X-Pro1 fitted with the Fujinon 55-200mm telezoom I was able to isolate patches of Cotton Grass and throw the background out of focus with a wide aperture. CLICK HERE for more information on Cotton Grass (Eriophorum angustifolium)  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts you are helping support ...

This is a shot of Eilean Glas Lighthouse on the Isle of Scalpay taken from the Tarbert to Uig ferry on our way back to the Isle of Skye after a great weekend in the Outer Hebrides.   The clouds were sweeping in over the mountains of Harris and the breaks in the clouds allowed the sunlight to hit the lighthouse, which is situated on the eastern edge of the Isle of Scalpay. There has been a lighthouse on Scalpay since 1789 and the current tower was erected in 1824 by the Northern Lighthouse Board engineer Robert Stevenson. CLICK HERE for the history of Eilean Glas lighthouse Image taken with a Fujifilm X-T1 + Fujinon XF55-200mm f3.5/4.8R OIS lens ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts you are helping support this blog - thank you. -------------------------------------------------------------...

The Outer Hebrides is famous for many things and one of them is the discovery of the Lewis or Uig Chessmen in 1831.  Islander Malcolm MacDonald discovered 78 walrus ivory chess pieces, and some other gaming pieces, near the village of Uig on the Isle of Lewis that are of Norse origin and are said to have been carved in the 12th Century.   The Outer Hebrides were ruled by the King of Norway for 450 years and these chessmen date from that period.    Most of the collection is on display in the British Museum in London and 11 of the chessmen are in National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. In 2006 sculpture Stephen Hayward was commissioned by Uig Community Council to carve this Oak statue, which stands in the sand dunes near to the site where the chessmen were discovered 180 years ago. CLICK HERE for more information on the Uig Chessmen All images taken on the Fujifilm X-T1 and Fujinon XF35mm f1.4R -----------------------...

While walking on the Isle of Lewis it is hard to ignore the rocks that line the shores of the beaches around the island.  The layers of colours are amazing and they are some of the oldest rock formations in the world, some are over 3 billion years old, and are known as Lewisian Gneiss. The rocks are beautifully marbled with layers of browns, greys, purples and pinks.  The patterns and colours were hard to ignore as we walked along the sand and the sizes varied from chips to boulders to whole cliff faces, it was an amazing sight.  The Lewisian Gneiss page on the Virtual Hebrides website gives a more detailed background: Lewisian Gneiss is metamorphic, in that volcanic heat and pressure has altered its structure somewhat, originally the rocks were like granite which changed as the Earth's crust became molten and they solidified, which is the reason you can see great variations in the way the layers are displayed, ranging from the white, to pale grey and even ...