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 […]
“Venezia” – print available to buy now What an awesome sight – being up before dawn on one of the first vaporetto (water bus) services across to Piazza San Marco (or “St. Mark’s Square” as we know it in English) and capturing San Giorgio in the distance as the gondolas moved gracefully in the tide, lapping the side of the lagoon. But Venice had a little surprise up its sleeve for me – just waiting […]
I’m rapidly becoming a huge fan of Sydney. This was the first place I ever visited in Australia, and while there are obviously many more beautiful places across the country to see, Sydney will always be the place that impressed me first. My visit earlier in 2014 gave me the chance to shoot some unique (lucky!) images of the Opera House at sunrise as well as overnight during Chinese New Year – but this time, my trip […]
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 […]
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 […]
The bitterness of the cold winter mist across Lake Wakatipu in Glenorchy is the strongest memory I have of taking this photograph. Granted, it’s turned out better than I could have hoped for given my initial trip to these famous willow trees the night before – but wow, the weather really made me work for it. “Myst” – print available to buy now The shot above, “myst” was actually taken around 7:30am, just before sunrise, and […]
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 […]
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 […]
Stood on the banks of the River Thames looking at Tower Bridge and the Tower of London at 4:30am, I pondered over the question I’d been asking myself the whole way back to London this month: “Why don’t I have more pictures from home?”. Looking at the images I’ve captured over the years, I’ve been really lucky to get to see and photograph some stunning locations around the world – but as with many others, […]
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 […]
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 […]