CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

My luck was in this evening as I headed down to Belhaven to catch the last light of the day.  My original plan was to take some images to produce a new time-lapse of Belhaven Bay and with lots of moving clouds I did set the X-T1 to capture around 600 images for this purpose. However as the sun began to set it appeared below the cloud cover and a spectacular light show took place for around 30 minutes.  using the X-T1 to capture some 4-5 minute long exposure shots using the 10-24mm wide angle zoom, I also used the X-Pro1 and the 18mm to capture some images at around 1/250s handheld. Here are the results of this evening's sunset and I will also be posting the time-lapse sequence in due course. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 Southern Upland Way is Britain's first official coast to coast long distance foot-path. It runs 212 miles (340 km) from Portpatrick on the south-west coast of Scotland to Cockburnspath in the east and just 9-miles from Dunbar, where the John Muir Way begins and takes walkers 130 miles (215km) to Helensburgh in the east. The route takes walkers through the beautiful village of Abbey St Bathans in the Lammermuir Hills alongside Whiteadder Water.  The path follows the river for a mile before heading east towards Cockburnpath. On Saturday I walked this small part of the Southern Upland Way and also through the village itself in the warm spring sunshine.  The colours of leaves and wildflowers were breathtaking and the only noise came from the wind in the trees, the bird song and the bubbling of the water on the rock in the nearby river. There are also some walks on the bank of Whiteadder Water that are not part of the Southern Upland Way but are worthy of me...

While walking along the Southern Upland Way near Abbey St Bathans yesterday I came across this iron sculpture made from old farm tools and mechanical parts. It looked like an ostrich to me and it took about five foot high. The sunlight coming through the trees created pools of light on the sculpture and highlighted the head.  The iron had started to rust and the textures and colours in the metalwork were beautiful.   I took a few shots of the head using the 56mm f1.2 lens at a wide aperture to give a shallow depth of field to concentrate the viewers attention on the head of the sculpture. Images taken on a Fujifilm X-T1 + XF56mm f1.2R ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts you are helping support this blog - thank you. ---------------------------------------------------------...

During yesterday's walk along the Southern Upland Way near to Abbey St Bathans in the Lammermuir Hills I came across some Rhododendron bushes that were covered in white flowers.  A further along the trail there were bushes covered in pink and purple flowers as well. This time of year Rhododendron's are in full flower and are quite beautiful, however Rhododendrons are not native to the UK and they are quite destructive in killing off native plants and local eco systems.   Steps have been taken in parts of the UK to clear Rhododendrons in an attempt to restore the natural habitat.  The shrubs can be thought of as gigantic weeds and hopefully they can be brought under control. CLICK HERE for more information on the damage caused by Rhododendrons ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE ...

In January I had a 'spring clean' and cleared out some of the photographic items I wasn't using. One of the lenses I sold was the 60mm macro, the reason for this was the fact I had the 56mm f1.2 and I was shooting macro images infrequently. Today I was out shooting in the Lammermuir Hills in and around the village of Abbey St Bathans.  The first place I stopped was down by the Whiteadder Water, taking shots of the fast moving river.  Along the bank there were some wild flowers so I decided to use the 56mm f1.2 lens with the 16mm extension tube fitted to see how close I could focus with and with the extension tube.  The results were excellent. Here is the shot of the Common Bugloss (Anchusa Officials) with out the extension tube fitted and the focus of the 56mm lens set to the closest point. Here is the shot with the 16mm extension tube fitted between the body and the lens and the closest focus point is now a lot closer than without the extension tube fitte...

I am always on the look out for interesting patterns, colours and textures and during my time on Thursday photographing in and around the Breedon Priory Church Yard I was drawn to an ornate, but very rusty and broken, iron railing surrounding a grave on the edge of the church yard.  This provided a great photographic opportunity which I captured on the X-T1 and 56mm f1.2.  I set the camera to electronic shutter to enable me to use the 56mm at f1.2 to give a shallow depth of field and concentrated the focus on a small part of the frame. Here are some of the results from my short 10 minute photo shoot. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts you are helping support this blog - thank you. --------------------------------------------------------------------------...