As part of my post last year, I briefly touched on the growing number of “photoshop-ographers” in the industry – a worrying trend which is creating a void of necessary in-camera capture skills and knowledge. This is where people are instead opting to “fix things later” (often fabricating reality), publishing fake scenes while claiming them to be photographs. In this article, I want to explore the challenges we face as a result of this apparent shift in what […]
“Any tips for shooting sunset?” – was the start of the conversation with Time Inc’s reporter. As part of Jaguar Land Rover’s latest USA campaign, the guys were looking for tips and guides to help people get the best out of their travels to undiscovered places. “Sure”, I said, and rattled off a whole stream of quick concepts, easy to remember tips and tricks and a few “be careful when….” thoughts that would help the […]
With lots of exciting news coming up, I’m delighted to finally be able to announce a new (amazing!) option to my workshop line-up for next year. Working directly with the team at Phase One, not only will I be running a direct workshop on New Zealand’s south island, but in June 2016 we’ll also be offering a longer, enhanced, PODAS (“Phase One Digital Artist Series”) trip this winter! The PODAS workshops really are something else […]
Every photographer has “the list” – the list of locations they’ve always wanted to capture. It could be 1, 2, 10 or 100 places, but we all have one – and for me, a feature on my list since I can remember is Mesa Arch in Canyonlands, Utah – and I finally got to tick that box. Introducing: “Eye Wonder”, my latest limited edition print: “Eye Wonder” – Buy the limited edition print Having years to prepare […]
A couple of weeks ago, after landing back to London Heathrow, my phone informed me that I’d been “mentioned” on an unknown app called “Steller“. As is normally the case with this kind of thing, I initially brushed it off as an invite to yet another useless social media/networking tool that will likely disappear after I’ve put effort into using it. However, something grabbed my attention with this one: It listed a company that I’d recently photographed for and […]
Well, that wasn’t a bad little “haul” – 6 images credited in this year’s Epson Pano Awards 2015 🙂 On the list of award-winning images, some of my favourites: “Alone“, gaining a silver award, along with “Reveal” from New Zealand, “Bonsai” from California, “Settle” from New Zealand, “The Morning After” from Sydney and “Financial Freedom” from New York. I guess that makes it a truly International spread of awards, and adds to some of the fantastic […]
Well, that’s it! After 3 long years being based in Shanghai, this is one of the last images I captured of this amazing skyline. In the illuminated cityscapes I’ve now shot so many times, it’s easy to forget about all the problems, issues, health effects and frustrations that come as a downside to living in such a rapidly expanding metropolis – at least the view’s amazing! But stood on top of yet another amazing rooftop location, I […]
That’s not a sunset! That’s in black and white! …would be what I’d normally think about the shot above. I mean, why shoot at that time of day if you’re going to remove all that colour? And it really was fantastic colour – for two nights, I’d stood in the same little cliff-alcove and watched as the sun set off to the right of this amazing formation – “Pulpit Rock”. For sure, we’d been lucky […]
From the tallest buildings in the world to the largest permanent video screen on earth – My “Tiny Planets” series has managed to make it on Broadway! At 7 storeys high, the MarketSite Tower on the corner of Times Square was broadcasting my images on Thursday to millions as part of NASDAQ’s celebration of WPP’s “Brandz Top 100” 10-year anniversary. With their CEO, Martin Sorrell, in attendance for the occasion this was a big day for […]
Welcome to the crystal clear blue waters of Lake Tahoe, spanning across the state lines of California and Nevada on the West Coast of the USA. Taken at sunrise, the shot above was the result of quite a bit of waiting, anticipation, depression (as the clouds looked like ruining the morning) and a severe lack of sleep! As part of the workshop I was running across California, Mark and Martyn came along to the lookout […]
It’s vacation season! (Well, “holiday” season when you grew up in my part of the world, but let’s not split hairs… 😉 ) And it seems my “Top 10 tips” have made it into a few publications, including today’s update on ShutterBug. With that in mind, I figured it would probably be a good idea to put a copy of them up on my own site too, so – here goes…! 😉 1. Don’t Let the Camera […]
My first visit to Beijing was a bit of a mixed bag – on the one hand, it would have been “rude not to” visit the capital city, given I’ve been living so close in Shanghai. On the other, it didn’t really impress me as much as I’d expected. Given the effort it took in order to get there, I also wasn’t keen to repeat the visit. However, a random “empty weekend” and a chat […]
It’s been a crazy and exciting month, May 2015 – for many reasons, and most of which are the excuse for not updating my blog often enough (sorry!). Still to come, I have images to upload from Tokyo, Beijing, the Great Wall of China, Dubai, Maldives and much more. For the next few weeks, however, I’m going to focus on my California road-trip photography workshop as well as the most recent Instagram takeover I did for […]
It’s every photographer’s nightmare: “That email” from somebody telling you they’ve seen your work published in a place you didn’t know about. Usually this results in a sunken heart, some stern letters and frustration that yet another person has taken your work without permission. So, when I clicked the message from Joey yesterday, it was not only a huge relief – but also a pleasant surprise. It seems an agency I’ve been working with has […]
Well, it’s official – I got the news today that I’ve been awarded a Fellowship by the British Institute of Professional Photography (BIPP) 🙂 By their definition, an FBIPP award is “attainable for distinguished and exceptional ability and creativity” and my panel of landscape and cityscape images that were submitted evidently hit the mark! A Fellowship is considered as the highest qualification that there is within the professional body and the fact I’ve been awarded one is quite […]
Well this was a trip down memory lane – in more than one sense of the phrase… I last saw Ed Sheeran play live at a realtively small venue – the O2 Academy in Bournemouth. Back then, 4 years ago, he was still playing as a “new act” in many ways and had a growing base of loyal fans who sang along to every song with perfect timing. Also, “back then”, I was shooting a few […]
“Hey Paul, would you like to take over our official Instagram account for a week in January and publish some of your images as well as behind-the-scenes shots?” (Said Phase One to me a few months back). “Ummm – Yeah! Sure, that sounds cool!” was (of course) my answer. So, here we are on “Day 4” of my takeover, and I have to say it’s going pretty well. Everything you’ve seen on their Instagram account so […]
You may not be aware, but 2015 is the International Year of Light (or “IYL 2015”) – a global initiative adopted by the United Nations and UNESCO to raise awareness of how light and optical technologies can promote sustainable development and provide solutions to worldwide challenges in energy, education, agriculture, communications and health. Along with over 100 scientific bodies spanning countries all around the world, SPIE organised a photo contest some time ago, and to my […]
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 […]
I remember writing this blog post in 2010 as if it were only yesterday. It was about the relaunch of my website after upgrading from an Adobe Flash based system to a more device-friendly one that met a lot more standards on the Internet. Well, 4 years fly by and since then a lot has changed. HTML5 is now prolific, as are the demands of 3G/4G connections and devices instead of desktop, broadband, viewers. More importantly, however, […]
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 […]
Approaching the city of Auckland for the second time this year, I didn’t hold out much hope for a great set of images. Based on some of the weather “challenges” we’d encountered on the south island during this trip to New Zealand, despite being lucky with a few images it seemed that Auckland’s weather wasn’t set to be much better. Still, when you’ve travelled for 12 hours to get somewhere it would be rude to […]
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 […]
