Capturing the Las Vegas Strip and Fountains of Bellagio in 150+ megapixels of medium format image from a stunning location in the heart of Sin City.
Creative
Hands-on Review – Launching the Phase One IQ4 150MP Infinity Platform Camera System
151 million pixels of pure medium format perfection, combined with the most advanced camera system in the world – all revealed inside today’s announcement and hardware release from the amazing guys at Phase One in Copenhagen. For sure, the IQ4 150MP tech specs are impressive: A Back Side-Illuminated (BSI) sensor capable of capturing unsurpassed levels of detail onto dual storage cards, coupled with lenses that can resolve incredible resolutions in a camera package that now […]
Shoot for the Moon – Capturing the 2018 Lunar Eclipse
While eclipses of all sorts happen throughout each year – from “blood moons” to annular solar eclipses, total eclipses and every partial one in between, this year’s lunar eclipse promised something special: the longest lunar eclipse in the 21st century. So the call from Rollei came – could I come across and be involved in their live shoot on Instagram, capturing the spectacle from Hamburg? Well, why not…? With a few days’ preparation beforehand and […]
Light Pollution, Astroklar & Natural Night Filter Review – Do They Really Work?
Light pollution: Increasingly a challenge for city dwellers and photographers alike. Those deep, dark skies that I’m lucky enough to see full of stars out in the countryside are becoming an endangered species in their own right as the world’s population continues to rise and urban areas inevitably expand. The problem is, with all that light bouncing around, our view of the night sky (and ability to capture it) continues to diminish on a daily […]
Capture Dedication – Win one of our All-Inclusive Workshops with Phase One
Updated – only 24 hours to go before entries close at 23:59, 23rd April 2018 (CEST)! Once again, Phase One have pulled some huge prizes out of the bag for their latest Capture One Pro competition, and all you have to do to win is show them an image which is really special to you as a photographer… The top prize? An all-inclusive workshop with me, to your choice of either California or Shanghai later […]
Rollei Lion Rock 30 Mk II Review – Could this be the most stable tripod, ever?
There’s a new kid on the block – well, triplets, actually : The Rollei Lion Rock Mark II series of tripods, made by FotoPro, with three different heights and capacities of up to 20kg, 25kg and 30kg. So, having used tripods from Manfrotto, Really Right Stuff, Gitzo and many others – after years of them trying to convince me to switch from my existing “old favourites”, could this finally be “the one”? Last year, I […]
Capture One – Advanced Masks & Adjustments, Bridging the Filter Gap
Glass filters are an essential part of many landscape photograpers’ kit bags, but what happens when there simply isn’t the perfect filter for the scene before your eyes?
Paul guides you through how Capure One’s advanced masks and dynamic range recovery tools can help bring that image back to exactly what you saw.
Capture One 11 by Phase One – it’s arrived, and it’s simply great
Surrounded in prior secrecy, today marks the launch of Phase One’s latest version of (in my opinion) the best raw image processor available today – Capture One 11. But beyond the fantastic new features, this launch is a little more special from my perspective – as my Dubai photographs are being used as one of the Press Pack’s “hero series” of images. So what do we get in the new version of this phenomenal image […]
Hide & Seek – Denmark’s Sand-Covered Rubjerg Knude Lighthouse, Løkken
Arriving into bad weather wasn’t on the original plan, but it had taken us long enough to get to Løkken so a determination to shoot took over – I was there to shoot the hidden lighthouse, and that’s precisely what I was going to do, rain and sand storm or not. Set almost as far north as you can go in Denmark, Løkken has become somewhat of a local tourist-trap for its beaches more than […]
Say Hello to the New Phase One & Capture One Brand Ambassadors
Well, the news is now official – the brand new lineup of Phase One & Capture One Brand Ambassadors has landed, and I’m very pleased to be counted among this amazing group of 13 photographers from around the world. With the website launched this month, we’re bringing an entirely new presence to the post-production software space with a mix of photographers who use Phase One hardware as well as those who utilise cameras from other […]
Review : Shooting Icebergs with the Phase One iQ3 Achromatic 100MP Digital Back
Over $50,000 for a camera system that only shoots Black and White images? Yes, say Phase One, and that’s exactly why the iQ3 100-Megapixel Achromatic Medium Format Digital Back is that price – because it does purely that, exceptionally well. While my original intention was to capture sunsets, sunrises, and everything in between on my trip to Ilulissat, in Greenland – the opportunity to collect a demo unit from them in Copenhagen on the way to […]
Win a brand new Rollei Mark II 100mm filter system
The brand new ultra-light Mark II version of Rollei’s fantastic 100mm filter system holder is about to land, and to celebrate its launch, they’ve given me a complete setup to give away to one lucky reader at the bottom of this page. But hurry – entries close at 23:59 GMT on the 10th October 2017! Having tested the new system recently, it’s a major leap forward in terms of functionality and styling, from their already […]
Electric Dreams : Dubai Revisited
Stepping out onto the scorching hot ground of the Red Sand Desert, I was reminded (rather cheerily) by our guide of the one thing I should be grateful for in this midday sun : “at least it’s not last month, it was at least 10 degrees C hotter!”. It was quite a contrast to where I’d been sat just hours before, being looked after in BA’s Concorde Room at London Heathrow – getting pampered (in […]
Rollei Pro Square Filter Mark II Review & Comparison
When you’ve been testing a new series of filters for a while, it’s easy to forget that one day they’ll actually become real-life products – that is, until the final versions arrive in their shiny new packaging at your door. Say hello to the brand new “Mark II” Rollei square photographic filters, and finally I can talk about some of the amazing features on these German-engineered sheets of glass. And they’re not just any glass, they’re now […]
Stonehenge : Photographing the Inner Circle at Sunrise
Stood in the crisp air of a spring morning, enjoying the view through Stonehenge across the Wiltshire countryside; it was all too easy to forget for a moment that what I was photographing had been built over 4,500 years ago – by our Neolithic ancestors – out of 25 tonne “sarsen” stones transported for over 20 miles to be here. It was a morning that had been planned for a while – with weather that seemed set to disappoint. The nearer I […]
Chill Out : The End of Winter in Iceland
For the briefest of moments, the sound of cracking had stopped – the huge iceberg formations that feed Iceland’s iconic Jökulsárlón (or “glacial river lagoon” when translated) had steadied and the tide was turning. While often full of baby icebergs which have fallen away from the surface of the Vatnajökull glacier, finding one of this size in isolation resting in still water (with very few people around to distract) was quite unusual. Even better, the stillness […]
Spellbound : Iceland’s Northern Winter Waterfalls
It’s a truly amazing feeling – that moment when you walk up to a location that’s taken ages to get to, having planned it for months, with doubt all along the way that you’d even arrive – to find the exact scene you were hoping for. With a mix of relief, awe and then urgency; it was time to shoot the stunning Aldeyjarfoss waterfall, in the North-East of Iceland, before the weather closed in after our ice-bound […]
Chicago from the rooftops : Carbide, Carbon and a little Hard Rock
Chicago. “The Windy City” – home to some of the finest architecture, food and (now!) baseball teams in the USA. Stood on the rooftop of the Carbide and Carbon Building, now the home of Chicago’s Hard Rock Hotel, it’s easy to see why people are so fascinated with this city – looking out across the skyscrapers, neighbourhoods and river as it weaves its way through the juxtaposition of historic stone buildings and sleek modern towers. And what […]
Graduated? Reverse? Neutral Density? Paul’s Quick Guide to GND Filters
They can be the difference between a nice picture and a “wow” photograph, but I’m always amazed by how many people still seem to believe the phrase “photographic filter” means nothing more than an Instagram effect on their iPhone. The use of filters forms a significant part of my landscape photography workshops around the world, along with talks and presentations I deliver for manufacturers and camera brands, as they’re often the most misunderstood addition or tool in any photographer’s kit bag. In […]
Photokina Roundup & Rollei Filters 15% off Discount Code
The doors are closed, the lights are off, last night saw the end to another fantastic Photokina show for another year. And what a fantastic show it was – surrounded by the latest innovations, technology and knowledge from some of the industry’s leading brands and experts – it’s easy to see why Cologne consistently retains the title as hosting the largest photographic show in the world. This year, I had the absolute pleasure of supporting Rollei […]
announcing essence : our world in vivid fine art prints
Six years in the making and after a lot of hard work we can finally announce the launch of our fresh, vibrant, colourful new series – “essence”! Inspired by cities and countries around the world, these meticulously crafted, contemporary fine art prints are designed to represent the character of some of the finest locations across the planet. Check out our exclusive video below, showcasing the brand new collection: Abstract in nature, we’ve pulled together a total of […]
Restless – Lake Te Anau, a New Zealand Sunset
For all the weather forecasts and cloud cover tools that exist out there, one element of each day still remains completely unpredictable to all of us photographers: Sunset. We might proclaim “it’s going to be a good one tonight” or “there’s on point, nothing’s going to happen” with a knowingly convincing tone every now and then, but the truth is nobody can really say what will happen in the sky from one evening to the next. Our […]
New Zealand Nights : Aurora Australis & our Galaxy Above
Seeing the northern lights (aurora borealis) in the sky above us is becoming an increasingly popular to-do list item, but despite being fortunate enough to have seen them a few times now, the lure of seeing the southern lights (aurora australis) during our time in New Zealand was just too tempting to ignore. We’d been lucky so far, really, when it came to night sky photographs. While not my favourite subject, hunting for the right location, angle, […]
Thinking outside of the Box : Kuala Lumpur from Above
(Don’t) Look down! At around 1,000ft above the ground, Menara Kuala Lumpur (or the “KL Tower” as it’s also known) isn’t a record-breaker by any means, but hey – it’s still the highest place you can get to across the city. My usual plan when shooting nightscapes tends to specifically exclude photography from the iconic towers for one simple reason : that icon can’t be in the shot if you’re stood on it to take the photo! This […]