CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

As I reported earlier this week, Dunbar will host the second annual Street Art Trail on Saturday 20 August and this year MacLean Photographic has been asked to display some images on the High Street. I've spent the last few days building a frame to display the 11 images I have selected to be shown to the public this weekend and also produce an A3 sheet with a bit of information about MacLean Photographic. Choosing the images to go into the display was a difficult one, as was choosing the size of image to show each picture off at its best. In the end I chose four images to be printed to A1, one at 18" x 12", 4 at 15" x 10" and two square 12" x 12" prints. The display was finished off with two Fujifilm X20 cameras that were reskinned in blue and green by Fujifilm UK and are a colourful final touch.  All of the images featured were shot on Fujifilm X Series cameras over the past 18 months in and around East Lothian. The display in Lloyds Pha...

Traprain Law From the beach at Winterfield looking west along the coast across Belhaven Bay there are three distinctive landmarks.  Two are the hills at Traprain and North Berwick, known as Laws.  The lowland Scot definition of a Law is a conical hill that rises out of the landscape. Both Traprain and North Berwick were sites of ancient forts due to their elevation above the landscapes and North Berwick Law was also used as a lookout post in the Napoleonic Wars and also as recently as World War II. Bass Rock needs no introduction to the regulars readers of this blog and if the Bass was on land then it too would probably be described as a Law.  The fact that Traprain Law, North Berwick Law and Bass Rock are in a rough line north to south is also an interesting fact and probably has much to do with the ancient geology of this region of Scotland. These images were taken from the edge of Belhaven Bay with the Fujifilm X-T2 and XF100-400mm lens. Bass Rock N...

Last month I decided to upgrade my trusty Samsung S5 to the new iPhone 6S plus.  In 2012 I had an iPhone 4S. While I wasn't a fan of the phone itself or the operating system, I did like the camera and the images it produced ( CLICK HERE for the feature).   Fast forward four years and I am now back to Apple for my phone.  One of the main reasons is the ability to link to my iPad and iMac and also the size of the iPhone 6S Plus makes it great for traveling with - it's almost a mini iPad. Anyway the camera is a big step up from the iPhone 4S and my Samsung S5 and I have been playing with the different settings for both stills and video.   I have found the panoramic function really useful as it is really easy to use and the results are great. Here are a selection of panoramic images taken on the iPhone 6S Plus ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ...

This Saturday Dunbar celebrates all things art with the annual Dunbar Street Art Trail .  For the first time MacLean Photographic has been asked to participate and we will have a selection of images from in and around Dunbar on display on the High Street in Lloyds the Chemist.  Of course MacLean Photographic's image will also be on display in Bass Rock Gallery at the other end of the High Street and Jeff Carter is also organising a display of images from the Dunbar in Picture s Facebook group he helps organise. All in all it should be a fun day in Dunbar and here's hoping the sunny weather continues until the end of the week. For morning information visit the Dunbar Street Art Trail website or Facebook page

For the third stop on Sunday's Long Exposure Landscape workshop we went out to Seacliff to take some long exposure images towards Tantallon Castle and Bass Rock. By late afternoon the wind had really picked up speed and we were pretty exposed on the headland looking out towards Bass Rock.  We had to set out tripods close to the ground to stop the wind from moving the cameras during the 120 second shutter speeds we were using. I set my camera facing Tantallon Castle, with the X-Pro2 and the 10-24mm f4, while I took 'normal' shots on the X-T2 + 50-140mm f2.8 as the sun broke through the clouds. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 I conducted my latest Long Exposure Landscapes workshop and one of the places we visited was St Helen's Chapel up the coast from Dunbar.  This is a ruined church that was abandoned in the late18th century.  It is a very atmospheric place with ruined walls and upturned grave markers. Using the X-Pro2 and 10-24mm f4 lens fitted with the Lee Big Stopper and Lee 0.9 ND Grad, I produced some images to demonstrate the techniques I was teaching.  Here are three of the shots from yesterday. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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...

As a landscape photographer I try to plan where I want to go, what I want to shoot, check the weather forecast and be in position at the right time and hope that all the elements come together for 'the' shot.  On Sunday when I went to Loch Tay for the sunrise this is exactly the type of planning that I followed but there is still a pinch of luck when it comes to Mother Nature. Now on Tuesday there was a lightship that was captured purely down to luck, pure and simple.  On the boat trip out to Bass Rock we travel west along the East Lothian coastline past Seacliff and Tantallon Castle.  I had the Fujifilm X-T2 and the XF100-400mm set ready to capture any wildlife that should appear, especially dolphins that do frequent these waters.  Sadly no dolphins were visible today. Now I was watching Tantallon Castle coming up just as the heavy sea mist that had been hugging the coast started to break up and just as we got close to the castle perched on the cliffs a shaf...