I got it! The shot I wanted of Australia’s Sydney Opera House at sunrise – and luck (while not wanting to give me an easy ride this time) was on my side. “Solo” – print available to buy now Standing on the Grand Harbour wall at 4:30am wasn’t exactly the best use of the room we had at the Shangri-La for the weekend – but this was an image of the Sydney Opera House that […]
What happens when you mix an award-winning artist, the world’s first underwater spa, the world’s first underwater nightclub, the luxury of the Maldives and the creativity of the Per Aquum brand? Simple – a unique underwater exhibition titled “Phantasy Fairytale” – a collaboration between two amazing hotels and Andreas Franke, the artist responsible for previous underwater galleries such as his work on “The Sinking World”. Looking back at my blog, in part I feel sad […]
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 […]
Hong Kong. The city where East truly meets West, and what an amazing recipe it has for a burst of culture and style. “Reach” – print available to buy now As a result of living in Shanghai, Hong Kong becomes easily accessible and such a Mecca for photography it simply can’t be ignored (and the tax free purchases can’t be sniffed at either 😉 ). Having spent some decent amounts of time in the city, […]
Featured in issue 141 of “Digital Photographer” magazine – my long exposure shots from the Northern Lights above Tromso in Norway during 2012. The feature focuses on the techniques required to capture different situations with long-exposure settings in-camera. From firework shows at 20 seconds to lightning captures to sports scenes, the whole spectrum is covered. My visit to view the aurora borealis didn’t go without the odd hiccup or two – as I wrote at […]
Shanghai’s Pudong skyline – once the home to two of the tallest skyscrapers in the world is soon to be the home of 3. The neon lights of the boats running up and down the river all night circle the peninsular in electric blue while the city behind entertains passers by with its iconic light show. To give Shanghai its true credit, this is a view that really doesn’t need an expensive camera to be […]
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 […]
Can a £50 compact digital camera really hold its own against a full-frame DSLR? I was contacted somewhat “out of the blue” a few weeks ago by Lucy at MoneySupermarket.com, the UK-based financial comparison and advice site, asking if I’d be willing to take on one of their challenges: to use a £50 camera (which they would provide) and write a comparison between that and my own (slightly) more expensive gear. How could I say […]
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 […]
Now there’s something you don’t get to see every day – the top of what was once the tallest skyscraper in a country (the Jin Mao Tower), from above, at night 🙂 By day, it’s spiky architecture is a defining part of Shanghai’s Pudong skyline – indeed, it was the key focus for another shot I took from the same building (if a little lower down) – the SWFC. This image, however, was unplanned… I’d […]
Thames Town – according to Wikipedia, has “architecture [which] is themed according to classic English market town styles. There are cobbled streets, Victorian terraces and corner shops.” So, what a nice change from the bustling polluted streets of Shanghai it would be to go and have a look around (besides, it’s always fun as a Brit to see how other countries look at us – take Disney’s Epcot Center for a perfect example!)… On very […]
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 […]
Cool – I won “bronze” in Fashion, Hair & Beauty at the 2012 Professional Photography Awards – held at BFI Southbank in London last night 🙂 Last year’s awards were held at Blenheim Palace, in Oxford, and while it was a fantastic location – I have to admit I’m not really the formal dinner suit type… So it was with an element of surprise, as well as relief, when I found out that not only […]
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 […]
