CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

The Koutoubia Mosque or Kutubiyya Mosque is the largest mosque in Marrakech, Morocco.  It is located in the southwest medina quarter of Marrakech. The mosque is ornamented with curved windows, a band of ceramic inlay, pointed merlons, and decorative arches; it has a large plaza with gardens, and is floodlit at night. The minaret, 77 metres (253 ft) in height, includes a spire and orbs. It was completed under the reign of the Almohad Caliph Yaqub al-Mansur (1184 to 1199), and has inspired other buildings such as the Giralda of Seville and the Hassan Tower of Rabat.     For more information on the Koutoubia Mosque CLICK HERE ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ...

After the sights and sounds of the Souk in Marrakech we had the opportunity to spend a few hours exploring the edge of the desert from the saddle of a quad bike and what fun we had.  I have only been on a quad bike once before but I have sone plenty of off roading in 4x4 vehicles when I was in the Royal Air Force and felt quite at home. All of the images in this blog post were taken on my Fujifilm X100 using either the standard 23mm f2 lens or with the wide angle converter fitted to make it a 19mm f2. The Fujifilm coped admirably with the dusty conditions and produced a memorable record of our day in the desert. Quads and Buggies are the mode of transport in this part of Morocco We were picked up at the hotel in Land Cruisers and taken out to our start location around 15km outside Marrakech.  After a quick briefing and demonstration we saddled up with most of our party on quad bikes, with three others in buggies. We set off in two groups,...

I've just got back from a two day, three night trip to Marrakech in Morocco.  This place is a photographers paradise, with so much going on you don't know where to point your lens first.  So the best bet is to slow down, take your time and consider what you want to achieve.   Marrakech is so colourful and vibrant it is difficult to take it all in but after careful consideration I decided to try and capture this wonderful place with images that work in black and white.  By taking out the colour perhaps I could capture the essence of Marrakech from my short trip. Traffic in Djemaa El Fna, Marrakech The first visit was to Djemaa El Fna, the main market place in Marrakech that is the entrance the Souk.  In the square there are plenty of market stalls, snake charmers, orange juice sellers, monkeys, acrobats and much more. Djemaa El Fna The Souks are a maze of shops in narrow alley ways selling everything from leather goods...

A few months ago one of the photo magazines I subscribe to printed an article on how to produce 'planet' panoramics.  The idea is to produce a 360 degree panoramic image and turn it on itself to produce a round image that looks like a mini planet. Bahrain International Circuit It doesn't work with all subjects and it has to be a strong image to work properly so I decided to try this technique at the final three circuits of the 2012 FIA World Endurance Championship - Bahrain, Fuji and Shanghai. The ones in Bahrain and Fuji worked well because I was using a D700 with a 17-35 f2.8 set at 17mm.  The one in Shanghai was taken on my Fuji X100 using the 35mm (equivalent) lens, which really wasn't wide enough. The technique is fairly easy - Take overlapping images in a 360 degree rotation.  It is easier on a level tripod but it can be achieved handheld with a little patience.  The problem comes when you join the ends, they have to match at the join. St...

All digital cameras have sensors that can be set by the user for sensitivity using a setting called ISO.  The higher the number the higher the sensitivity to light which means a photographer can take pictures in lower light. The trade off is what is referred to 'noise' in the image, artefacts that, in the days of film, was referred to 'grain'.  This has the effect of lowering the quality of the image.  On the flip side of this particular coin, the lower the ISO number, the less noise and the better quality final image. The test subject - a 1:36 scale Mini Miglia Corgi model The way a camera handles 'noise' is also dependent on a number of factors. The first being the size of the sensor and the number of pixels that is packed onto that sensor.  For example a mobile phone cameras sensor or simple digital point and shoot are tiny compared to normal cameras.  Manufacturers pack millions of pixels onto these tiny sensors but the downside is the ...

This image was taken on the Isle of Mull on our last trip to the island at Easter.  There was a full moon and the clouds over the Sound of Mull parted to produce a fantastic moon lit scene. Nikon D300s - Sigma 18-50 f2.8 - 30s @ f5.6 - ISO 100 - Tripod Putting the Nikon D300s and 18-50 f2.8 Sigma on the tripod I took several long exposure images of 30 seconds or more and the result was a very surreal moonlit shot of Calve Island in Tobermory Bay with the Sound of Mull stretching away in the background.  There was a fair breeze so the clouds were moving across the scene, which can be seen in the long exposure and the moon looks as bright as the sun.   Hope you like the shot.   ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 visi...

In the past few months we've visited England's most northern county on three occasions as we've discovered the joys of Northumberland, a beautiful part of the UK that is only three hours up the A1 from where we live in Lincolnshire. Alnwick Castle - Nikon D700, 17-35 f2.8, 1/125 @ f8, ISO200, Lee 0.6 ND Soft Grad In August we had a family day in Alnwick.  One of the draws of the town is Alnwick Castle, which is famous for where they filmed the outdoor scenes at Hogwarts in the Harry Potter films.  Perched on a hill overlooking the river Alnwick Castle doesn't look like Hogwarts from the outside but it is a perfect example of a medieval English castle on the frontier with Scotland. We paused to admire the scene while heading back into Alnwick and also so I could photograph the castle from the river bridge. There will be more from Northumberland on this blog soon. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------...