CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

When I arrived at Silverstone this morning there wasn't a cloud in the sky but, unfortunately, this didn't last.  This afternoon's European Le Mans Series race, the 3 Hours of Silverstone, was cut short by the inclement weather that saw the track awash with water. Hopefully Sunday's World Endurance Championship race will see some better weather.  visit www.europeanlemansseries.com for the race report from Silverstone and www.fiawec.com for today's qualifying report. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 OUR  WEBSITE

With the weather starting to feel more spring like here in the UK I thought I would post another shot from the archive of the Clematis that grows in our garden at home. This shot was taken on a Nikon D300S with a Nikon 60mm f2.8 AF-D micro lens at 1/60 @ f32 400ISO. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 OUR  WEBSITE

This is another image from the Isle of Mull.  Taken in April 2012 it was taken just after snow had fallen on the mountains on the mainland.  We were standing near Duart Castle and the wind was blowing very hard, which can be seen in the white caps of the waves in the Sound of Mull. The picture shows the Lismore Lighthouse which was highlighted by the sun coming through the clouds. The sunlight also hit the tops of the snow capped mountains. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 OUR  WEBSITE

After the paddock was relatively quiet yesterday it was all hands on deck today as the trucks arrived at Silverstone to deliver the 31 cars that will race in this weekend's 6 Hours of Silverstone, round one of the FIA World Endurance Championship. I took the opportunity to get some shots of the cars being uploaded for the FIA WEC Facebook page and so I took the Fuji X100 for a walk around the garages. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 OUR  WEBSITE

After months of preparation, testing at Paul Ricard and launches in Paris and London the 2013 FIA World Endurance Championship and the 2013 European Le Mans Series gets underway this weekend at Silverstone.  I arrived this morning to help with the set up and the teams and cars will start to arrive tomorrow morning. Today everything was very quiet in the paddock, with just a couple of hospitality units being set up but I did get chance to take some shots around the paddock before it gets busy tomorrow. It will be a busy season for me this year with twelve events in eleven different  countries including, UK, Belgium, France, Italy, Austria, Hungary, Brazil, USA, Japan, China and Bahrain from now until the end of November. For more information visit www.fiawec.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ALL IMAGES ARE THE PROPERTY OF MACLEAN PHOTOGRAPHIC AND CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY PUR...

Continuing my theme of images from the West Coast of Scotland, this is another shot from our visit to the Isle of Mull at the end of 2011 to celebrate Hogmanay.  This is one of the rivers that flows into Loch Buie on the south side of the island and it known as Sruath a' Ghreusaiche in Gaelic. The day was a bitterly cold one but the air was perfectly clear, with snow on the mountain top.  It was also a good day for spotting otters as we sat and watch one fishing a little further up the coast road. With less than six weeks until we head to Mull on the 25 May, we are counting the days by posting images from previous visits to this beautiful part of the world. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ...

A lot has been written about the D800's ability as a tool for capturing sport with many reports stating that the 4 frames per second (fps) motordrive is too slow and the large files fill the buffer too quickly.  I decided to spend an hour trackside at the recent European Le Mans Series test at Paul Ricard to try the D800 out as a camera for sport photography and to see if these reports were true. Nikon D800 - Sigma 50-500mm f4/f6.3 - 1/1000 @ f8 - ISO 200 - DX MODE The shot above was taken on the D800 and converted to black and white using Silver Efex Pro 2.  There is nothing wrong with this shot and the D800 handles like any other Nikon DSLR (D50, D90, D300S and D700) I've owned.  I have to admit that I have never been a 'spray and hope' type of photographer, this is where you point the camera and shoot at 8fps and hope that one of the shots is what you need.   Yes high speed frame rates are useful but you have to use the facility wisely.  I p...