It’s really quite easy. Just lock yourself in a room with your favourite photographs and don’t share with anyone until you’re done.
What could possibly go wrong? ...more

Apparently once you have learned to ride a bike, you never forget. You may be a bit rusty after an absence but it all comes back to you. If I was to apply that to flash photography, then I would be road-kill by now……. ...more

At some point you have to show your work to strangers rather than people who you know will like it . So it was with some trepidation that I sent a review copy of my book to the editorial desk of Amateur Photographer. ...more

Eugene Jules Colan, artist, born 1 September 1926; died 23 June 2011. ...more

Who is Ragnar Axelsson? If you had asked me that a couple of months ago I would have had to do a surreptitious Google search before telling you that he is, (in my opinion), an extremely impressive photographer from Iceland. ...more

I thought not, because I’ve just made it up. ...more

now this is a tough one, because I just have so many “oh bugger it” situations that its difficult to choose. ...more

Luckily I don’t rely on it to put food on the table. I don’t think the marketing strap-line of “I’ll do your wedding – IF I CAN BE BOTHERED” is likely to win much in the way of business. ...more

Did you know that on the 20th February 2011 the moon and the sun were in positions on the horizon that would have made winning shots of Bodiam castle a certainty. A double-whammy. Who could resist? This had all been worked out by our erstwhile Chairman of the Bexhill Photographic Club (BPC); by examining chicken livers or something, (although I always thought that in this day and age there would be an “app” for it).
All we had to do was be there at 0530 in the morning. The BPC Dawn Raid on Bodiam was go! ...more

but you can’t make a horse learn new tricks, or something like that. ...more

Back in October 2010 I bemoaned the fact that Blurb had put their prices up. Oh woe was me. “I can't sell books at this price, not unless I get famous and die, which is a bit excessive, even for me”, I said. Well, I’m not famous and I’m not dead, so on balance, that’s pretty good. ...more

Converging verticals. The scourge of photography, the very thing that the Photoshop Transform tool was designed for, a photographic faux pas so heinous that you will never be able to hold you head up high in polite company. Or are they? ...more

There is something about the idea of work-flow that has always bothered me. I suppose it’s that word “work” associated with a past-time which I don’t like to think of as working.

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OK, I know the pun is terrible but I was really struggling how to introduce something as exciting as scanning. ...more

Well, I have to admit Blurb advised me on the 24th September that their prices were going up - but it doesn't make it any better. ...more

I assisted at the local photographic club exhibition this year in a kind of meet and greet capacity. This generally involved hanging around trying not to scare people off while also fielding questions about the photographs on display and other camera miscellany. ...more

It’s hardly a scientific conclusion but I can confidently report that the EOS1DS MkII is so easy to use, even a six year old can take decent photos. ...more

In search of inspiration I paid my regular visit to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. I didn’t find any. ...more

The photographs for the book are coming along; I feel that I’m getting a good selection that show the local area beyond the standard postcard views, but it’s a long way from finished yet. ...more

It’s amazing how things just occur to you from nowhere and you ask yourself, “why didn’t I think of that?”. ...more

It is said that procrastination is the thief of time. On the contrary, I say it is the savior of my credit card. ...more

If it seems that there has been a touch of radio silence, well I’ve been a bit busy of late and haven’t been doing too much on the photography front. ...more

Well, the plan for the next book is coming together. As I said in previous articles, (do keep up), I find it’s better to have an outline plan, rather than just drifting along and trying to make sense of everything afterwards. ...more

It is said that everyone has a book in them waiting to get out. Now I suspect that cliché refers to the written word, but what about a photographic book? I don’t mean a 21st Century photo album, but a proper book with words, photographs, an ISBN number, and available through Amazon? ...more

The graphics workhorse, Dreadnought, has been rebuilt, (am I the only person that names their computer?), so to relax some unchallenging television was called for. ...more

I’m going to try a little experiment.
For those of you that have been following the plot, my latest photographic endeavour has been stalled by the premature demise of my computer. ...more

Normally, before I start a new project I like to do a bit of housekeeping on the computer. It is too easy to slowly get it cluttered up with multiple versions of scans, edited files, files for print and so on, and while I have a system for managing this, I still find odd photographs that just refuse to conform. ...more

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With the right preparation, and a bit of luck, there is no reason why you cannot take photographs of gorillas in their natural habitat that you would be proud to hang on your wall ...more

For anyone that is interested, some background and technical information on the equipment that I use. ...more