CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

In Dusseldorf we came across a toy shop with a window display of old wind up tin toys.  Robots, cars boats, flying saucers, jack in the box and other toys that were straight out of the 1950s and 60s.   These toys were modern, not antiques, but it did bring back memories of the wind up clockwork robot I used to have as a child. It was very nostalgic so I took some shots of the display through the window on the X-Pro2 and XF16-55mm f2.8, making sure that the reflections from the glass were minimised or eliminated all together.

On Wednesday I had the opportunity to go to the city centre in Dusseldorf so I took the X-Pro2 and the 16-55mm f2.8 along for the ride.  I decided to switch to shooting JPEG only and decided to choose Classic Chrome as the film simulation as it was a bright, crisp winters day in that part of Germany. Dusseldorf has been undergoing a lot of building work as the city centre is transformed with some of the tram lines being diverted underground and a new pedestrian only area.  Once the work is completed it will be brilliant but at the moment there is still a lot of work to do. We also got the chance to go up on the ferris wheel that was in the city centre and gave us a birds eye view of the city. Walking around with the X-Pro2 is great, it is a great camera for shooting street images.  The XF16-55mm f2.8 is a rather large lens for the camera but it worked well.  Perhaps I should've packed the 18mm f2, 35mm f1.4 and 56mm f1.2 primes instead but I didn't want to...

When out and about with my camera I love looking for those little details to point my lens at.   Yesterday while in Edinburgh I spotted these old mechanical door bell pullers on a street just off the Royal Mile. I don't know if they were still operational but I suspect they were.   The bright red of the door and the blue of the wall contrasts nicely with the battered grey and black of the door bells. The image was shot with a Fujifilm X-Pro2 and a XF56mm f1.2 lens. I shot the image at f1.2 to give an extremely shallow depth of field and the resulting shutter speed was 1/1000s at 200 ISO. The image was shot in RAW and then run through the Nik Analog Efex software to complete the final image with an old classic feel. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts you are helping support...

Today we visited Edinburgh for Sunday Brunch at David Bann Restaurant and then took a stroll around the Royal Mile and George Street.   While taking in the view at St Giles Cathedral on The Royal Mile I spotted the statue of the Duke of Buccleuch being silhouetted against the broken clouds and strong sunshine while in the background a backlit Saltire flew in the morning breeze from the top of Parliament House , the home of the Scottish Parliament until 1707. I took the shot on the Fujifilm X-Pro2 and the XF56mm f1.2. For more information on the statue of the Duke of Buccleuch CLICK HERE ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts you are helping support this blog - thank you. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------...

Yesterday evening I headed down to Belhaven Bay to take some long exposure shots of the Bridge to No Where on the X-Pro2 + XF16-55mm f2.8, which I posted last night. While I was waiting for the four minute exposures to complete I used the Fujifilm X-T1 and the XF100-400mm f4.5/5.6 to take some images of the waves that were crashing along the 3-mile long shore at Belhaven Bay.   The evening light, combined with the spray kicked up by the crashing waves gave the scene a mystical quality and a warm glow to the images. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 PHOTOG...

The combination of high tide, a choppy sea and beautiful evening light had me grabbing the camera bag and tripod and I headed down to Belhaven Bay, just a short 5 minute walk from my front door. This shot was taken on the Fujifilm X-Pro2 fitted with the XF16-55mm f2.8, a Lee 0.9 ND Soft Grad and Lee 10x 'Big Stopper' ND filters.  The camera was placed on a Manfrotto 190 tripod and the image composed with bridge in the bottom left hand corner and the tripod raised so the top of the bridge was clear of the dark background. The final exposure time was 251 seconds at f8 with the ISO set at 200. The final image is more or less as it came out of the camera except for tweaks to the exposure, contrast and clarity in Photoshop. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts you are helping ...

I have finally finished all the new promo videos for the 2016 MacLean Photographic workshops.  The final 1-minute tour preview was for the Beaches and Castles workshop which can be seen in the below. This was the third video that I chose music by Adam Selzer via the FreeMusicArchive.com website.  The track is called 'Front Porch' and matches the style of music I selected for the Long Exposure Landscapes and Woodland Exploration workshops. I also kept the videos at around 60 seconds so potential clients can view them quickly and make a decision which workshop would suit them. Here is the Beaches and Castles promo video, which can also be seen on the MacLean Photographic YouTube channel HERE The second video is a bit longer and is entitled "Reasons to visit Dunbar".  This video is on the main page and will be used to promote the reasons to come to Dunbar and take part in a MacLean Photographic workshop.   This is a collection of images set to music, ...