Blog

Wells-next-the-Sea Allotments, North Norfolk January 2019   In contrast to the quite long blog posts of late, here is a pithier one to help with the making of minimally composed pictures. As ever, I try to make practical suggestions you can use. Hopefully, this...

HMS Warrior, Britain’s first iron-hulled, armoured battleship. Launched in 1860, at a time of empire and Britain’s dominance in trade and industry, powered by steam and sail, she was the largest, fastest and most powerful warship of her day. Portsmouth August 2014....

A highkey vertical shot of my shower curtain and loo roll. May 2020 51, 200 ISO, f1.4 & PB Filter. I previously did this bathroom seeing exercise in 2016 and this shot was not among the pictures taken then.     The Effective Lockdown Seeing Challenge   It has...

Me playing my first good-ish guitar a Yamaha FG180 in the middle ’80s. I read today that this guitar model has acquired a cult status, not quite sure why it was not particularly expensive when new. The feature picture was chosen for its planned lack of respect for...

A family photo from the early 1960s How to scan glass plate or film negatives with ease The first thing to say is – before you turn your scanner on, think about all the possible uses for the pictures that will be created from the scans. The long-suffering readers of...

“I had another tough day at the office today dear!” Bournemouth March 2020. Samyang 85mm f1.4 lens. Lith over colour process.    Do This to Escape Derivative Work Part 3 Success requires failure!   “Failure is a success, If we learn from it.” Malcolm Forbes...

New Harbour Lighthouse Holyhead February 2020. Fujifilm 100 - 400mm lens on a monopod in a howling gale via Storm Ciara.   Do This to Escape Derivative Work Part 2 "Sweetie, derivative is not a nice word to say"   In part 1 of this series, I discussed examples of...

National Slate Museum Llanberis February 2020. 51,200 ISO, 35mm f1.4 lens. Predetermined extreme High ISO to place Noise in the Shadows and Mid-tones. Processed for the window light on the enamel cups. I love the further hints of the harsh environment these men worked...

Drax Biomass and Coal Power Station South Yorkshire. January 2016. The owners plan to be coal free by 2025.   How Green Was My Valley? Climate change is in the news every day now without really looking for it. It's a topic that is hard to miss even for the chief...

London Embankment Skateboarder – June 2016. 200 ISO, 1/8s, f11, Grain added in Photoshop with Silver Efex Pro 2. The feature picture is a 2020 interpretation of the digital negative, other earlier interpretations and the original are shown below.  It’s About Tonal...

3x2 Crop Dungeness October 2009. Infrared capture, 3200 ISO, f16, 125/s. A good example of letting your digital negatives mature over a ten year period. Taken a bright day the dark rendering makes the picture work for me.   How Cassie Learned to Create...

Murrays’ Mill, Ancoats, Manchester - December 2019. 11mm f333 Pinhole Lens 0.4s, 51,200 ISO - Handheld     Happy New Year  It's that time of year again to wish all insunderary a happy new year. So consider yourself wished from me!     New Viltrox...

Raw Bank Petrol Pumps Yorkshire Dales on the Mono Take > Select > Edit Masterclass - see the 2020 dates I was last writing about this subject nearly a year ago. See the current penultimate post in the series hereI was alerted to thinking about potential...

Refilling oil cans – Didcot Railway Centre – October 2019. Fujinon 8-16mm f2.8 lens taken on the recent Depth of Field workshop   In this post is - The Hierarchy of Photographic Importance, Talk and demonstration opportunities for your club, Inspiration – Black...

"Blue sky thinking", meaning creative ideas that are not constrained by preconceptions.   The Creative Pathway - Part 2 In part 1 I concluded there is an idea that photography is or can be a solitary pursuit. There may be limits to self-expression where...

"Blue sky thinking", meaning creative ideas that are not constrained by preconceptions.   This is the first part of a two-part series on how to come up with ideas. This is not a new line of enquiry a Google search on how to come up with ideas for art found about...

Late again - New Brunswick 2010   The Reasons Why There are generally trade-offs to be considered when setting up your camera, particularly when you want to go to the limits its design specification. In this post, I am going to share with you some of my current...

Late again - New Brunswick 2010 12 - 24mm lens   The Reasons Why Being ready for the shot The best camera in the world is of no use to you unless you are prepared and ready to take the shot. In the next series, I want to explore ways of speeding up digital camera...

Spitalfields Teadance 2019 – Double Bass Player with no Crop. Samyang 85mm f1.4  200 ISO 1/35s f1.4  7th in a series of 11 shots. I love the high key effect; the post-processing issue is to get enough shadow detail without overpowering the highlights.     Part 3 -...

Spitalfields Teadance 2019 – Double Bass Player with no Crop. Samyang 85mm f1.4  200 ISO 1/35s f1.4  7th in a series of 11 shots. I love the high key effect; the post-processing issue is to get enough shadow detail without overpowering the highlights.    Where Is The...

Shoot Loose Crop Tight Part 2    If you missed part 1 of this mini-series it can be found here. In part 2 I will be looking at the following topics The artistic and technical reasons to a re-crop a picture The Lightroom Crop Tool Shoot Loose Crop Tight Good Crop...

Chatterley Whitfield Colliery Stoke on Trent April 2019. The crop has enhanced the triangular compostion (bike, Chimmney & telegraph post) and lost some of the dead space on the left. I feel the original composition was ok but made sronger by the applied...

Spitalfields Market Tea Dance June 2019 135mm, 200 ISO, f1.4, 1/6s handheld   A Relationship Between Respect and Resentment I have written a few times recently about my view that digital photography is too everything! By that, I mean sharp, contrasty and...

Lloyds of London, Leadenhall St EC1 - 16mm f333 wide-angle pinhole lens, ISO 51,200, 1/40 s This blog post will look at:Photograhic journalsWise words from the English photographer Joe CornishThe new Texture Slider in Lightroom and ACRPointing a spotlight on my new...

  Expand the vision and style of your clubs photographers  Make positive changes for the better to their photography Interesting and entertaining club talks & demo’s how pictures are made and not just taken. A range of talks is offered on Mono and Colour...

Foundry Workers Cottage Blaenavon February 2019 Fotospeed Easy Books A Fotospeed Easybook allows you to create a reusable portfolio album without additional tools or glue. You will have the ability to quickly and easily change the pictures. Easybooks are great for...

Ballintoy Harbour County Antrim NI January 2019   Talk and demonstration opportunities for your club Here is a list of the talks and demonstrations I offer camera clubs - FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO YOUR CLUB PROGRAMME SECRETARY IF YOU ME TO VISIT YOUR CLUB NEXT SEASON ...

Snowdonia Monochrome Masterclass October 2018 Originality 2 - the 4 S’s of Creativity Following on from last week’s post about the 4 S’s Creative Funnel I thought I would extend the information available giving you some pointers on how to start the process. Sieve and...

“The first condition of progress is the removal of censorship.” George Bernard Shaw Scotland in the rain of December 2005, this picture was selected on the basis of the George Bernard Shaw quote above / below. The censored approach would say the unprocessed file is...

Learn, Grow and Express yourself "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." Nelson Mandela Is your photography moving forward and changing over time?   A great example is a comparison between two composers you might have heard...

3 Essential tips for continuing your photography Once the photography bug bites it is difficult to shake it off and you will want to continue your hobby or profession for as long as you can. In this post, I’m going to talk about some of the essential aspects of your...

Iron Foundry Workers Bedroom Blaenavon 2017 Try My New Free Online Pro Review  I have just launched a new service I am offering you a free online pro review this is an opportunity to get my professional insights into your work and how you can make changes for the...

The reason why - perfection is not all its cracked up to be I am not convinced that straight photography as promoted by Alfred Steichen and Edward Weston of the f64 Group fame in 1932 is the only true faith. Their raison detre was that the main difference between...

Blaen y Glyn Uchaf - Bannau Brycheiniog May 2018   Try these tips for planning a landscape shoot Landscape photography is a classic subject of the photographic genre with much written online and in books. In this post, I’m going to concentrate on how to plan a...

Cameras do not make photographs’ In this post, I will be briefly looking at the truth behind the statement "cameras do not make photographs’." Your highly expensive camera does not know you or love you. You can accurately think for your camera but it can only guess at...

Behind the shot – Legacy Lenses This ancient looking picture of the Bristol Tobacco Bond A Warehouse was taken last Sunday. The idea behind the picture was to marry the foreground and background together. The foreground is two of the struts on the Ashton Avenue Bridge...

Try These Tips For Selecting Pictures - Part 2 Photography is the art of communication. To extend that thought a photograph is a direct act of communication, you the photographer are the viewer's eyes.  See part one of this series “How to select pictures for your blog...

A print in the hand is worth two on the screen I greatly value the sponsorship I have received from Fotospeed over the past 11 years. Fotospeed has a philosophy of continuous product development and customer service that is unrivalled. The whole team at Fotospeed are...

Platinum Blonde - Bristol Harbour 2016 The Dark Art A Black and White Digital Printing Workshop Manual Hurrah, a big box of new “The Dark Art” books arrived from the printers today. Spruce up your digital black and white printing skills in Photoshop or Lightroom. Here...

6 Must-Have Photographer Skills  To be a good photographer requires you to be at one with your camera. There is a seamless connection between awareness and intuition that effortlessly allows you to set your camera to record the picture. This post focuses on the camera...