What an amazing view – and what a privilege to be able to photograph it during a one-off event at such a special hotel location. I’ve always been a fan of the Shangri-La in Sydney, the views from the Horizon Club floor and Altitude/Blu Bar at the top of the hotel are simply the best panoramas you can get of the harbour. But this was an unexpected (and very gratefully received) honour to be allowed up onto the […]
“The City that Never Sleeps”, “Gotham City”, “The Big Apple”, “Empire City”, “The City of Dreams”, “New Amsterdam”, “The Melting Pot” – to everyone that visits or lives in this incredible city, the place leaves a lasting memory that means something different. One thing that is common to all who visit or wake up in this amazing place is the sheer sense of wonder as you look out over the skyline – and that’s what […]
For those that remember, I switched to Phase One’s iQ280 / 645DF+ medium format system last year, and have never looked back. The image quality is simply stunning, and I can honestly say it is the best camera system I’ve ever used. Since then, a few more technological advances have been made by Phase One, most recently including the introduction of their 1.3x crop 50 megapixel CMOS iQ250 digital back. One thing digital Medium Format […]
Sometimes those unplanned shots are the best. Well, I say “unplanned”, but what I mean is I hadn’t intended to photograph Lyme Regis during this trip back home. Having spent the previous afternoon exploring the quaint town of Lyme Regis, however, meant the lure of the next morning’s sunrise was simply too great – and look at what I got: As always, there’s a bit of an emotional rollercoaster involved in shooting sunrises and sunsets overwater. You need […]
It’s been a long time in the planning, but we’ve finally managed to pull together an itinerary that allows me to take 6-8 people “out on the road” for a journey across some of the most distinctive and impressive landscape views available in the USA. I’ll be offering an Asia workshop later in the year too, but for now it’s all about California with my “Going from Hot to Gold” photography workshop in May 2015! […]
It’s the one thing I promised myself I would never do after I upgraded my equipment from my Canon gear to a Phase One Medium Format system : re-shooting a cityscape I had already captured. But the lure of Shanghai’s rooftops on a clear night was just too strong, and here I found myself shooting “Shanghai Calling 2” with my 645DF+ and iQ280 digital back. Now, before I go any further, let my just clarify […]
This is Auckland, but not as we know it 🙂 This is the “Tiny Planet” version of my cityscape from New Zealand in June this year – and while only a bit of fun, I think it looks rather cool! Spending a week or so resting at Huvafen Fushi, I finally had time to start playing with some Apps I downloaded a long while ago. While there are much better (and higher resolution) ways of […]
The homepage of Phase One looks a little different today, as their feature on my cityscape work appears as the headline story online. 🙂 Backed by feeds on their Facebook page, galleries, email newsletters and more – this is quite some campaign to get the quality of cityscape images that can be achieved with the 645DF+ and iQ280 out there and known. A year on from my purchase of their top end Medium Format equipment, I’ve taken quite […]
Every now and then, I’m surprised by the reaction to a photograph which I didn’t think was that great when I actually took it. This image, “Alone“, taken at Lake Wanaka on New Zealand’s South Island just outside of Queenstown, turned out to be one of those shots after I uploaded it onto a few social media platforms… Some trips just aren’t destined to go the way I had them planned in my head. Flying to […]
Yup – that’s right, I’ve just spent some of my own money on a Nikon camera! Here is my latest toy: A Nikon 1 v3 compact system camera 🙂 Granted, it’s not quite the investment that my Canon 1D X or 5D III along with all the lenses were – and it’s certainly pocket change compared to the cost of all of my Phase One gear, but I felt the need to buy it anyway. So, […]
A few miles south of the town of Rotorua, on the north island of New Zealand, lies a very special place. Of course, New Zealand itself is home to many volcanoes and much of its stunning scenery has its origins in volcanoes, glaciers and all manner of activity deep within the Earth – but this is one of the few places I’ve visited where you really can get up close and personal with nature… …and […]
As always, the most frustrating images to capture are also the most rewarding. At 7pm on New Year’s Eve, this is the night shot I was taking from a nearby rooftop looking out over Shanghai’s “Nanpu Bridge”. “Over The Rainbow” – print available to buy now The bridge is one of two spans which link the two sides of the city – PuDong and PuXi. Not only is the HangPu river one of the busiest […]
The camera system, above, is (as Phase One say) “the pinnacle of image quality, offering some of the highest resolution captures of any commercially available camera” – and that’s a picture of it sat on my dining table! That’s right, I’ve finally made the permanent switch to medium format. As a long-term Canon shooter (even my first compact film cameras were Canon) it’s a sad day in some respects as my Canon gear has been […]
The above is what’s left of a potentially disastrous mistake I made with an old camera, and trying to be “clever”. Note to self : Don’t try to be clever in future. You can buy some amazing things in Shanghai – and many of them are indeed a good deal. Take, for example, the “Lencarta Safari Li-Ion Flash System”. For sale in the UK for around £1,000 all-in (and I have one) – but if […]
Olloclip – as the website states – is “a quick-connect lens solution for the iPhone that includes fisheye, wide-angle and macro lenses in one small, convenient package that easily fits in your pocket”. Having seen something similar at CES 2012 – the iPro Lens – which seemed promising, I wasn’t too surprised to see something like this for sale in the Apple Store in Shanghai. So, I bought one (¥548 / £59) to try out […]
A couple of months ago, we were in San Diego watching the solar eclipse by accident and I started seeing images of a massive rock formation crop up across the Internet as photographers had flocked to “Horseshoe Bend” in Arizona to capture it as it happened. Sadly, clouds obscured a lot of the images they posted, but it did make me want to go there to shoot (after all, it faces almost due west, perfect […]
Wow, it’s been a looooooong time since I wrote on here – and for that, I can only apologise. Those following me on facebook and twitter will know that it’s been a crazy busy few months, but I know that’s no excuse for not checking in on here every now and then. So tonight, I was planning to grab a few pictures of the 99% full moon – but instead the somewhat permanent feature of rain […]
Quick question: What do the following images have in common? The simple answer? They’d be impossible shots to take without some form of filter – and in this particular case, a filter which many people misunderstand or simply don’t think they need. That is, until they understand the power that it can have when shooting landscapes. It’s also one of the most frequently asked questions of land/seascape photographers – “how did you manage to do […]
It’s been a long-running debate: “How much photoshop is too much photoshop?”. In the same way that the word “text” didn’t used to be a verb, the word “Photoshop” (obviously copyright Adobe) has become synonymous with retouching or “airbrushing” worldwide. As a digital photographer, it’s one of the key tools I use every day, and provides me with a truly “digital darkroom” when it comes to fixing those small imperfections that often appear when you […]
CES – or the “Consumer Electronics Show” in Las Vegas this year was a must-see for me. While there to look at everything, and learn about emerging technologies in the conference, I couldn’t help but keep my “photographer hat” on and hunt out some little gems during the 4 days I was in town. So, the obvious big-ticket crowd pleasers: Nikon and Canon had their new flagship products at the show for a hands-on look […]
