CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

Now that the 1.4x converter has been launched I have been revisiting the MacLean Photographic archive to see what I have taken over the couple of months but have been unable to share due to the fact that I was secretly testing this new lens. Having said that this trawl back through the files has a turned up some other gems that I hadn't used for various reasons.  Take these shots from the pitlane at the 24 Hours of Le Mans last June.  I was testing the Version 4 software upgrade for the X-T1 prior to it's introduction and I decided to go out on track for a couple of hours during the night.   As I walked back in I waited at the end of the pitlane, because I wasn't wearing a fireproof I couldn't go any closer, as I saw the pitcrew for two of the teams getting ready for a pitstop. The first to stop was the crew of the GTE class Dodge Viper and then a few minutes later the Nissan LMP1 car stopped with lights ablaze. I captured both images on the X-T1 with the X...

On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918 the guns fell silent on the Western Front, bringing an end to the 'war to end all wars'.   Sadly that didn't happen and in the past 97 years many more people have fought and died defending this country.  Men and women of all denominations and creeds from around the world and at 11am today we should all pause for 2-minutes to remember the sacrifice that allows us to be in a position to remember them. The poppy has become the symbol of remembrance and this picture taken near Grantham a few years ago is my favourite shot of this beautiful flower.

As well as posting regularly on Facebook I also use other forms of social media, including FLICKR.  I have had a PRO account on the picture sharing website for many years now and have over 2100 images loaded and add more each week.   The pictures are divided into albums and I have recently updated this album list to include groups of images taken on the various Fujifilm camera bodies and lenses that I use. I decided to do this because I have been asked several times for samples from a particular lens or body and I have found it easier to give them a link to a FLICKR album which contains a set of images from that particular lens or camera that they are interested in. So I have spent a couple of hours going through the 2000+ images and putting them into the relevant album and here are the links to the Fujifilm Cameras or Fujinon lenses.   The only lenses I haven't included in the FLICKR albums yet are the test images I shot with the XF16mm f1.4 and the XF23mm ...

While visiting the Town God Temple in Zhujiajiao I spotted this wooden rack in one of the corners of the temple with lots of red ribbon prayers or wishes tied to it.  The sunlight was filtering between the building and catching the red ribbons highlighting one prayer. I have no idea what the prayer says but perhaps the fact it was hit by the sunlight means that it will be granted by the Chinese gods.  A nice thought! The image was taken on a Fujifilm X-T1 and a XF16-55mm f2.8 lens ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts you are helping support this blog - thank you. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ALL IMAGES ARE THE PROPERTY OF MACLEAN PHOTOGRAPHIC AND CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHOUT PR...

Another stop on our tour of Zhujiajiao was the Town God Temple, which is a Daoist temple on Caohe Street opposite the Qijin Bridge, dedicated to Guanjin, the goddess of mercy.  This was immediately in front of the quay where our boat ride finished. The temple isn't large but tries to explain the Daoist gods, including the eight year cycle that dictate which sign you were born under.  I was was born in 1964 and is the year of the snake and my daughter Kate was born in 1998, so is the year of the tiger.  The others are the rat, ox, dragon, rabbit, horse and goat, which is 2015. We spent 45 minutes looking at the various parts of the temple, which I photographed on the X-T1 and the XF16-55mm f2.8 and 50-140mm f2.8 lenses. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on th...

At the northern edge of the old district, on Xijing Street, is  Kezhi Yuan (Kezhi Gardens) . This was our second stop on the tour of Zhujiajiao.  The name Kezhi is made up of the characters 课 (kè) which means "to learn" and 植 (zhí) which means "to plant". It consists of three parts - the main hall, the garden and an artificial hill area. The most iconic landmark of the gardens is a five story building with a pavilion on its roof - the tallest structure in old Zhujiajiao.  T he history of this garden dates back to 1912, when Ma Wenqing built it, drawing inspiration from a mixture of Chinese and European influences. The construction took 15 years and 300 000 silver taels, equivalent to 12000 kg of silver.  The wars and revolutions of the following half century brought much destruction to the garden and its buildings, and in 1956 additional old structures where torn down to make room for teaching buildings of the Zhujiajiao Middle School that had come to...

With a population of 60,000 Zhujiajiao is a water town on the outskirts of Shanghai, and was established about 1,700 years ago. Archaeological findings dating back 5,000 years have also been found. 36 stone bridges and numerous rivers line Zhujiajiao, and many ancient buildings still line the riverbanks today. The village prospered through clothing and rice businesses. Today, old historical buildings such as rice shops, banks, spice stores and even a Qing dynasty post office can still be found. Zhujiajiao has many sights of historic interest, such as Fangsheng Bridge, and Kezhi Garden and the  Chenghuangmiao /Town God Temple  and I will be doing separate blogs on some of these areas of Zhujiajiao. The most iconic of the 36 bridges in Zhujiajiao is the 70-meter long Fangsheng bridge. Resting on 5 symmetric arches, the height of the bridge peaks at 5.8 meters. It was originally built by the monk Xingchao of Cimen Temple in 1571, and then rebuilt in 1812. The ce...