Exploring the incredible (and lesser-visited) Stokksnes peninsular to photograph the iconic Vestrahorn mountain range in all weathers on the south-east coast of Iceland.
Post Tagged with: "Sky"
Comet Neowise – NeoWhere? Finding the Coolest Thing in the Night Sky
As the brightest comet in nearly a quarter of a century, you’d think that catching a glimpse of the huge cosmic ice-ball otherwise known as C/2020 F3 “Comet NEOWISE” would be easy.
Light Pollution, Astroklar & Natural Night Filter Review – Do They Really Work?
Light pollution: Increasingly a challenge for city dwellers and photographers alike. Those deep, dark skies that I’m lucky enough to see full of stars out in the countryside are becoming an endangered species in their own right as the world’s population continues to rise and urban areas inevitably expand. The problem is, with all that light bouncing around, our view of the night sky (and ability to capture it) continues to diminish on a daily […]
Capture One – Advanced Masks & Adjustments, Bridging the Filter Gap
Glass filters are an essential part of many landscape photograpers’ kit bags, but what happens when there simply isn’t the perfect filter for the scene before your eyes?
Paul guides you through how Capure One’s advanced masks and dynamic range recovery tools can help bring that image back to exactly what you saw.
Restless – Lake Te Anau, a New Zealand Sunset
For all the weather forecasts and cloud cover tools that exist out there, one element of each day still remains completely unpredictable to all of us photographers: Sunset. We might proclaim “it’s going to be a good one tonight” or “there’s on point, nothing’s going to happen” with a knowingly convincing tone every now and then, but the truth is nobody can really say what will happen in the sky from one evening to the next. Our […]
Old Harry Rocks – 3rd Time Lucky
Despite the initial frustration, there’s something rather satisfying about finally getting the shot you’ve been working at for a while – managing to “beat the weather”, in a sense… Old Harry Rocks | East – Buy the open edition print Old Harry Rocks, jetting out into the English Channel – these chalk cliffs are all that remains of the stretch of headland that once joined the Isle of Wight to the mainland at Purbeck. Similar […]
9 Years in the Making : Fog City – San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge
There’s always that one shot, for every photographer out there – “the one” that just keeps getting away, the one that’s never quite right when you click the button, or the one that’s impossible to find the right conditions to capture. For me, that shot has been the same for over 9 years now: San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge in the fog. Finally, one random winter’s afternoon, I managed to break that spell – and shoot […]
Through the Keyhole: Durdle Door’s sunrise, revisited
Since my first attempt to capture sunrise “through the hole” a few year back, a couple of things have happened. Firstly, I’ve managed to get a lot more familiar with my gear – its quirks and challenges, as well as what to do to get it to really perform. Secondly, I’ve seen a mini-explosion of photographers shrouding their images in fake mystery regarding “the art of capturing sunrise through the hole” at Durdle Door. If you seriously listened […]
Zen – A winter sunrise across the Pacific Ocean
Surrounded by surfers preparing to enter the ice-cold Pacific Ocean, it’s easy to forget the temperature as you set off down to the water’s edge with all your equipment – hoping for that pink morning sky. But wow, what a treat we were in for… “Zen” – Limited edition print available to buy now. Sunrise is a funny thing really – everyone looks for beauty in the sunrise itself, the golden glow, the flare of light, the warm […]
Bye Bye Shanghai – Leaving “home” after 3 years in China
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 […]
A Tale of Two Sunsets : Pulpit Rock in Black and White
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 […]
“That Tree” Again – Lake Wanaka’s Lone Willow Revisited
“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 […]
How to Shoot the Night Sky – Paul’s Guide to Astro & Star Photography
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 […]
Sunset Parasailing in the Maldives – The Human Drone
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 […]
California Workshop – Bonsai Rock & Emerald Bay, Lake Tahoe
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 […]
Tiny Planets – Cityscape Skylines as Miniature Worlds
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 […]
Back at the W – Shooting the W Retreat Maldives
Welcome to the W Retreat Maldives – where one of the coolest hotel brands in the world meets paradise on earth. (As you can imagine, it’s a great combination!). Building on the shoots we did at the amazing W Retreat Koh Samui last year, I headed out to the Maldives to photograph the talent team there with the Starwood digital marketing team. Now I’m not going to lie – paradise or not, the warning email I got […]
Photographing London – The capital city of home
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, […]
Phantasy Fairytale Underwater Exhibition at Huvafen Fushi & Niyama Maldives
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 […]
Emerald Bay Sunset – Lake Tahoe’s little gem
“Pink Emerald” – print available to buy now As someone who’s snowboarded around Lake Tahoe since 2001, it can be really infuriating when you know there’s an awesome view of the lake that you’ve tried to capture but not quite managed to get the right combination of weather, timing and camera gear to be in the same place at the same time. This time, with a 3 day stay booked in, I was hoping that […]
Chasing the Northern Lights – Aurora Borealis from Tromsø, Norway
This is a photograph I never thought I’d get – not only because I hadn’t planned a trip to Norway (the Northern Lights / Aurora Borealis had never been something I thought I would see for myself) – but also on the first dark Friday night there, having spent 4 hours freezing by the side of a lake, they showed absolutely no sign of appearing! That’s right – less than 30 minutes after getting to Tromsø, […]