“That tree” – said with admiration, love, or detest – it doesn’t matter, it’s what pretty much everyone living in or visiting Lake Wanaka will say at some point once a day! To be fair, this was the second time I’ve visited “that tree” in 12 months, and while unassuming and unimpressive in itself, the scene surrounding this lone willow tree out in the freshwater lake is nothing short of stunning. No wonder it’s helped bring […]
Night/Astro/Star/Star-trail Photography – whatever you want to call it, this is a genre which has become increasingly popular over the past couple of years (partly connected with the increase in sensitivity of reasonably-priced camera sensors over the same period). The irony being, it’s also one of the easiest forms of photography that yields some of the most impressive results if you get it right. Given the chance for some downtime while travelling around the New […]
What an amazing view! I’ve seen many sunsets during my time shooting in the Maldives, but never have I seen it in context of the entire island of Huvafen Fushi from above… Granted, my title is a little wrong – by definition a “drone” is “an unmanned aircraft or ship that can navigate autonomously, without human control or beyond line of sight”. But then, bearing that definition in mind, none of the so-called drones out […]
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 […]
It’s that time of year again – the “WPP Brandz Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands” has just been released for 2015, and this year (their 10th anniversary) it features a subset of my Tiny Planets series. Contained within the 100-page publication, there’s analysis on every section of the world, along with insight into which brands are making headlines and commanding huge value. In between each section, you’ll find an introduction featuring a subset of […]
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 […]
That’s right – we’re looking for models to shoot a set of brand images in the Maldives next month 🙂 We’re shooting in two of the most luxurious Maldivian resorts in April, and are looking for two faces that can represent each of the properties. Sadly, we’re on a bit of a tight timescale, but for those interested in expanding their book and/or adding a campaign to their portfolio, this is a great opportunity. If you […]
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 […]
It doesn’t matter how many rooftops I’ve photographed from, whenever I’m in a new city I always get that “wow” moment when I look across the skyline for the first time – and this was no exception. From the top of a building (which was, in fairness, extremely tall in its own right!), I set up on the ledge and started clicking. Sadly, jpeg compression doesn’t do this image enough justice on-screen, but the tones of the sky and detail in […]
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 […]
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 […]
Well, we’re definitely heading into the “awards season”, and what better news to receive today than the email that came in informing me that I’d made the shortlist for The Societies’ Photographer of the Year 2014 award – Europe’s largest association for the serious photographer. Against some of the worlds most renowned photographers, my image of Huvafen Fushi‘s Spa Jetty – “Overwater” – will compete for the award of Travel Photographer of the Year and The Societies’ overall Photographer […]
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! […]
This is Andy Neate. For 2011, he’s joined Tom Chilton at Aon/Ford in the British Touring Car Championship, having overcome an absolutely horrendous injury in 2008. Back then, he nearly ended up paralysed from the neck down, having sustained pretty much what Christopher Reeve had to deal with only this was at 150mph. When Andy contacted me for a shoot, I honestly had no idea about the background to this incredible guy – but there […]
As part of a shoot for Lick (and also to make use of some samples sent across from BaskIt), I shot London-based model Gemma Elizabeth June a short while back – in both solo images as well as those for Lick as a “couple”. While the couples shoot went really well (some great chemistry between her and both male models we were using), some of the solo shots we captured after the main shoot were […]
Here it is – the third and final of the current series of Steve Box adverts for Lick Underwear – appearing in Attitude magazine next month. Previous ads had been studio shots with calculated lighting. This one, however, used nothing more than a skylight from above and some pretty “down to earth” surroundings provided by a very helpful local bar… It’s certainly a lot grittier than the images used in the two before – let’s […]
Yup, that’s right – it’s the second in the “Lick Underwear” series, featuring Steve Box as the underwear model. Following the success of December’s campaign, Lick are there again in the next issue with a very different style of photograph from the last. This time, shot with an intentional blow-out using a backlight behind the frame Steve is stood within, the focus is purely on the “Union Hipster” that he’s wearing. So, that’s January sorted […]
Some time ago, I shot Adam Court (“AJ”) nude at the studio in London. With a range of images (some of which are found in my portfolio), I had to work out how they could be presented. Initially, as single-shots, they worked on their own and images such as this were really distinctive… However, this still left me with a *lot* of images we’d shot on the floor, trying to capture nude movement, but in […]
