CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

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. -----------------------------------------------------------------...

Photographing a firework display is pretty easy and the results can be spectacular.  I recently had two opportunities to photograph fireworks, the first in Italy and the second in Texas during the FIA World Endurance Championship race at Circuit of the Americas near Austin. A sturdy tripod and a remote release are required to enable you to take long exposure shots.  Pointing the camera towards the firework display I usually set the aperture to f11 and open the shutter for 10 seconds (with the ISO set to 200).  I then review the image and adjust the exposure accordingly.  I also try to include some foreground interest so the images are not just explosions against a dark sky.  On the final evening of our week long stay in Italy we were treated to a spectacular firework display which was visible from our apartment balcony in San Siro.   The display was being launched from the headland in Rezzonico, which was north of the commune of San Siro. F...

In Texas last weekend the video mode on the Fujifilm X-T1 was used to record and stream the press conferences on all three days of the FIA World Endurance Championship at the Circuit of the Americas. The overall podium press conference took place immediately after the race and featured the winning crew from Audi, Andre Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassler, who were joined by the second placed crew, also from Audi, Tom Kristensen, Loic Duval and Lucas di Grassi.  In third were Anthony Davidson, Sebastien Buemi and Nicolas Lapierre.  The video was psoted on the FIA WEC Daily Motion channel and it can be seen below   Overall Podium Race Press Conference - 6 Hours... by fiawec Starting on Thursday we held the traditional pre event press conference with drivers from the top teams and also some local drivers to help drive media awareness in the local area.   CLICK HERE to see the video. On Friday we held the Qualifying Press Conference ...

Using Partial Colour Red I retained the colour in the Union Jack flying from the Royal Yacht Britannia Last month I featured a blog on one of the Fujifilm X-T1's advance modes when I took shots of Lake Como in  miniature mode, which adds top and bottom blur for a diorama or miniature effect.   The X-T1 has several ADV modes, selectable on the left hand command dial, including Partial Colour, where the X-T1 retains one selected original colour and changes the rest of the photo to black and white.  The colours available are  Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue and Purple. Using Partial Colour Yellow I retained the yellow Lichen on the rocks in this shot of Bass Rock While it isn't a hard job to produce a Partial Colour image from a full colour shot in Photoshop, the X-T1 makes it very easy to take a single colour image, especially if a scene has a dominant colour like the shots above.  The image below was taken during scrutineering for the FIA World ...

Andre Lotterer - Audi During a race weekend the manufacturer teams hold 'Meet the Team' events for the international and national media that gather to report on the FIA World Endurance Championship.   Today at the Circuit of the Americas, near Austin, Texas, Audi and Toyota both held 'Meet the Team' events in the foyer of the International Media Centre.  First up was Audi with their six drivers - Tom Kristensen, Loic Duval, Lucas di Grassi, Marcel Fassler, Benoit Treluyer and Andre Lotterer.   Next up was Toyota with Nicolas Lapierre, Sebastien Buemi, Stephane Sarrazin, Anthony Davidson and Alex Wurz. The two events gave me the opportunity to further test the new Fujinon XF56mm f1.2 lens, shooting wide open to create a very shallow depth of field. The images were then converted to black and white in Silver Efex Pro2. Loic Duval - Audi Marcel Fassler - Audi Tom Kristensen - Audi Anthony Davidson - Toyota Nicolas Lapierre - Toyota ...

Yesterday morning I received the Fujinon XF56mm f1.2R that I have had on order and I was able to give it a quick run out during the drivers briefing ahead of the FIA World Endurance Championship event at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin Texas. I have had two short test sessions with this lens in May and in June  which persuaded me to buy a copy of this lens for my growing Fujifilm X-Series kit.  I will be doing a full report on this lens once I have given it a thorough test but the initial impressions are this lens is deserving of the positive plaudits it has been receiving in the press and on the internet. These three images were shot on the Fujifilm X-T1 with the Fujinon XF56mm f1.2 and converted to black and white in Silver Efex Pro2. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts you a...

Today Scotland goes to the poles as people decide whether the country becomes an independent nation or stays as part of the United Kingdom with more devolved powers.  As I am in Texas I am watching developments from afar but I have already cast my postal vote.   Today's post is from my the cliff top walk near to my home in Dunbar.  When we go I usually take one of the Fujifilm cameras fitted with the 35mm or 18mm prime lenses (or 23mm in the case of the X100). These two images were taken recently on a walk along the Cliff Top trail  which runs from the centre of Dunbar out to the Winterfield Golf Course near to where we live in the Scottish town.  The dramatic coastline, with the houses perched above the rocks, make for great photographic subjects when the light is right, which it was on this particular morning. The images were taken on the Fujifilm X-Pro1 and the Fujinon XF18mm f2R.  The two images were converted to mono using Silver Efex Pro 2 s...