CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

One of the beauty of the Fujinon prime lenses are the fast apertures that allow you to shoot in low light without having to resort to pushing the ISO to the limit.   On Sunday evening we held the end of season awards ceremony at the Casino Estoril and the lighting conditions in the room could only be described as challenging.  While my photographers worked the floor around the room, I sat up on the first tier of tables using the Fujifilm X-T1 to get wide shots of the proceedings.  Using the 35mm f1.4 and 56mm f1.2 I was able to keep the shutter speed high enough to shoot without pushing the ISO higher than 800 for the entire evening. In the low light the AF on the X-T1 did struggle at times but a switch to manual focus solved this problem, and with the wonderful split screen in the viewfinder, manual focusing was very easy. Here are some of the shots from the ELMS awards evening. -----------------------------------------------------...

This morning I will be heading to Lisbon airport after a few days at the Circuit do Estoril for the European Le Mans Series in Portugal.  I have six days at home before the next trip, which is Round 6 of the FIA World Endurance Championship in Shanghai, China.   The schedule of seven races in twelve weeks, which began in the middle of September, is pretty 'full on' and includes trips to North America, Europe, Asia, Middle East and concludes in South America. The reason I mention all of this is the reason for this post.  I live in the most beautiful country in the world, Scotland, and I feel very lucky to be able to experience the natural wonders of East Lothian everytime I am home.  I love my job and the fact I see and meet some wonderful people.  BUT it is very nice to be home in between these events and this morning I am looking forward to stepping out into the Scottish countryside later this week.  These images were taken on last week's wal...

Here are some of the shots from the Circuit do Estoril in Portugal during the build up to the final round of the European Le Mans Series, the 4 Hours of Estoril. After qualifying the pitlane was opened for the thousands of Portuguese fans to get some photographs and autographs with their favourite drivers.  An hour later the cars were forming up on the grid for the start of the race. As part of the entertainment their was some traditional Portuguese folk music and dancing and a brass band performed on the grid. Here are some of the shots from the build up to the race today. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts you are helping support this blog - thank you. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------...

Today is race day for the European Le Mans Series at the circuit of Estoril in Portugal and this will be the finale to an exciting 2014 season.  All of the six titles have yet to be decided and thousands of Portuguese fans are expected to descend on Estoril today to witness an epic encounter during the four hour race. Over the past couple of days I have taken the opportunity to walk around the paddock and pitlane to grab some shots of the teams, drivers and the facilities.  This is an old circuit with a long history of racing.  It used to be the home of the Portuguese Grand Prix for many years and has also hosted many famous sports car and bike races as well.  I last visited the track in 2001 for that year's round of the Le Mans Series, which I was also series press officer.  I am certainly glad to be back. I walked around the paddock on Friday with the Fujifilm X-T1 fitted with the 56mm f1.2 lens and the X100 fitted with the TCL-X100 tele conver...

Last weekend at the Fuji International Speedway, where I was working on the Japanese round of the FIA World Endurance Championship, I had the opportunity to see the new Fujinon  XF50-140mmF2.8 R LM OIS WR lens ahead of its release in the UK this November.  My thanks to the guys from Fujifilm Japan, who brought one along to the race.   Because it was race day I was unable to go out and shoot with the lens, hopefully I will be able to remedy this later this year, but here are my first impressions of this new fast telephoto lens. During my 18 years shooting with Nikon, my favourite lens was the Nikkor 80-200mm f2.8 AF-D that I bought new in 1996. I kept this lens for the entire time I used Nikon both as an enthusiast and professional photographer and I sold it, reluctantly, in May of this year. It is probably the one lens that I miss the most,  so when Fujifilm announced a constant f2.8 mid range zoom (76mm-213mm equivalent) I was eager to get my hands on a copy...

Luckily the shoreline on the East Lothian coast is usually pretty clear of the usual rubbish left behind by the human visitors but there is still plenty of 'flotsam and jetsam' washed up by the tides.  Plastic bottles and cans do wash up but usually it is often rubbish from the fishing industry - ropes, net etc - or natural debris like trees, branches and drift wood from boats. Some of this debris is very photogenic and we also like to collect some bits for our house or garden - we just love beach combing! The other debris we collect is sea glass, a legacy of the former glass works further up the coast towards Edingburgh.   However Tyningham is not the best area to find disgarded bits of glass that have been worn smooth by the action of the sea. On a long walk on Wednesday at Tyningham I used the X-T1 with the 56mm f1.2 or the 18mm f2 lens to highlight some of the marine debris left on the beach.  ----------------------------------------------...

I spend a lot of my time on planes traveling to the FIA World Endurance Championship events and today I am flying to Lisbon for the finale of the European Le Mans Series at Estoril in Portugal.  Because I have a lot of time I tend to stare out of the window and watch the world below, if it isn't covered in cloud or we are flying at night of course! These two shots were taken from the top deck of a KLM Boeing 747 last Monday flying from Tokyo to Amsterdam while we were above the mountains of Eastern Russia.  Unfortunately the flight data on my entertainment centre didn't give me the location of these mountains but it was indicating somewhere in Russia and flying at 39,000 feet it almost appears that we were on the edge of space itself. Images taken on a Fujifilm X-T1 + Fujinon XF18mm f2R lens ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS...