CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

Fujifilm X-T2 + XF16-55mm f2.8R WR - Lee 10x ND + Lee 0.9 ND Soft Grad 60 seconds @ f16 ISO100   Yesterday I hosted the final MacLean Photographic 'Long Exposure Landscapes' workshop of 2017.  We visited Seacliff beach in the morning and then headed to the other side of Dunbar to Barns Ness Lighthouse in the afternoon.  The weather was glorious with bright sunlight streaming across the Eat Lothian landscape casting long, deep shadows.  The only issue for the morning session was the lack of any clouds above the beach at Seacliff, meaning we had to concentrate our lenses on the waves to give any sense of movement in the long exposures. Fujifilm X-T2 + XF10-24mm f4R OIS - Lee 10x ND 60 seconds @ f18 ISO100   The issue with the clouds was solved for the afternoon when the clouds that had been forecast dutifully appeared ahead of a weather front that was heading south across Scotland. MacLean Photographic will be holding workshops ...

Here are the two articles for November on Fujilove.com. Shooting Motorsport in Shanghai (Published 7th November 2017) The FIA World Endurance Championship (FIA WEC) is a series for sportscars that takes place over nine rounds in Europe, America and Asia.  The penultimate round of the 2017 season took place on the 5 th November at the Shanghai International Circuit in China and proved to be the decisive race for three of the world titles being fought for by manufacturers and drivers. Introducing the FIA WEC The championship calendar includes one 24 hours race, the world famous 24 Hours of Le Mans in June, and eight 6-hour races in the UK, Belgium, Germany, Mexico, USA, Japan, China and Bahrain. CLICK HERE  to read this article Black & White or Colour for Landscapes? (Published 25 November 2017) Black and white or colour? Now this is a question I see again and again across social media and to be honest there is no ‘black and white’ answer (excu...

The final day of activity at an FIA World Endurance Championship race weekend includes all of the cars taking part in the event undergoing the mandatory technical checks to make sure they are in compliance with the regulations for the championship. The pitlane in Shanghai was a flurry of activity as the teams prepared their cars ahead of the 6 Hours of Shanghai on Sunday.  The teams took it in turns to push their cars to the scrutineering bay and this shot was taken of the Porsche GT Team pushing the no91 Porsche 911 RSR down to the technical area. The image was taken on the Fujifilm X-T2 and XF50-140mm f2.8 lens.  The camera was set on the floor as the car was pushed towards me and I used the articlated screen to make sure the framing was correct.  The camera was set to AF-C to allow the camera's autofocus to track the car as it was push down the pitlane. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------...

Here are the two articles for October on Fujilove.com. One Lens Challenge in Japan - XF16mm f1.4 (Published 26th October 2017) Japan, the land of the rising sun and home to Fujifilm.  Aside from Scotland, which I am very happy to call home, Japan ranks as my favourite country on the planet. Since 2012 I’ve been lucky enough to travel there each year on business and I always take some extra time to see something of the countryside and cities while I am there. This year I was able to take a few days ahead of round 7 of the FIA World Endurance Championship, which takes place at Fuji International Speedway in the shadow of the iconic Mount Fuji, or Fujisan as the 3776 metre mountain is reverently known by the Japanese. For this trip I decided to set myself a one lens challenge with the Fujinon XF16mm f1.4R WR, which was fitted to one of my X-T2s.  CLICK HERE  to read this article Primes or Zooms for Landscapes (Published 5 October 2017) Fujinon lenses have a...

When I am out shooting I sometimes see in my mind's eye a panoramic crop when taking images in standard 3:2 format.  Panorama's are very striking and for me can add a dynamic element to landscapes and cityscapes. It is very easy to visualise a panoramic crop.  When shooting I check to see if the important elements of an image are all concentrated into one third of the image area.  I then shoot the image with the dead area of the image either to the top or bottom of the picture.  I then crop 12:5 in post production to give me the final panorama. Japan was a perfect canvas for the 12:5 crop (or even wider) both when shooting landscapes at Lake Ashi (top picture), Enoshima (second picture) and in Tokyo (two images below). All of the images were shot on the Fujifilm X-T2 with either the 16mm f1.4, 50-140mm f2.8 and 100-400mm f4.5/5.6 lenses. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------...

On our travels in Hakone we went along the coast south of Tokyo to visit the island of Enoshima.  As it was a holiday in Japan the island was jam packed with visitors so we decided to stay on the mainland and sit on the beach at Kamakura to watch the Black-Eared Kites ( Milvus lineatus). These medium sized raptors are fairly common along the coast of Japan and they are opportunists, having worked out that snatching food from an unsuspecting human is far easier than catching rodents or small birds.  They are to Japan what seagulls are to us in the UK, just far more interesting to watch. While we sat on the beach about a dozen 'Tobi' as they are known in Japan were soaring above us watching for an unsuspecting human to swoop down on and snatch their lunch.  This happened several times we are there but the kites were so quick I wasn't able to catch an image. We sat shooting the birds using the X-T2 with the 100-400mm and 50-140mm zooms For more on the Blac...

One of the places we visited in Hakone was the  Sengokuhara Japanese Pampas Grass Field . The fields are 180,000 square of grass with a promenade running through the middle.  On the day we visited the sunlight was streaming through trees on the mountain side and across the tops of the tall grass. The Japanese pampas grass was planted for the use in thatching a roof  and cattle feed in the Edo era. It was a cropsthat made an important income for the region. Today the pampas grass fields have become a special district of the Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park. All the images were shot on the Fujifilm X-T2 fitted with the XF50-140mm f2.8 lens. CLICK HERE for more information on the Pampas Grass Fields of Hakone. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts yo...