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 […]
Yup – that’s right, I’ve just spent some of my own money on a Nikon camera! Here is my latest toy: A Nikon 1 v3 compact system camera 🙂 Granted, it’s not quite the investment that my Canon 1D X or 5D III along with all the lenses were – and it’s certainly pocket change compared to the cost of all of my Phase One gear, but I felt the need to buy it anyway. So, […]
I was asked last week, as part of a written interview, if I’d ever had to get out of my “comfort zone” in order to get the shot I wanted – the answer, of course, was “yes”, and many times over. The next question was, funnily enough, about how I approach a brand new city in terms of locations and what to shoot. So, what better than a live demonstration as answers to both questions […]
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, […]
Imagine waking up to this view at sunrise every morning. The crystal blue water, vibrant pink sky at sunrise and sunset, the tranquil overwater jetty leading out to your own private villa (or in the case above, the entrance to the island’s underwater spa). It’s all just “wow” and a memory I’ll always keep with me. Sadly, the web version of these 80mp images don’t really do them justice – but I can assure you […]
I got it! The shot I wanted of Australia’s Sydney Opera House at sunrise – and luck (while not wanting to give me an easy ride this time) was on my side. “Solo” – print available to buy now Standing on the Grand Harbour wall at 4:30am wasn’t exactly the best use of the room we had at the Shangri-La for the weekend – but this was an image of the Sydney Opera House that […]
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 […]
A few miles south of the town of Rotorua, on the north island of New Zealand, lies a very special place. Of course, New Zealand itself is home to many volcanoes and much of its stunning scenery has its origins in volcanoes, glaciers and all manner of activity deep within the Earth – but this is one of the few places I’ve visited where you really can get up close and personal with nature… …and […]
Hong Kong. The city where East truly meets West, and what an amazing recipe it has for a burst of culture and style. “Reach” – print available to buy now As a result of living in Shanghai, Hong Kong becomes easily accessible and such a Mecca for photography it simply can’t be ignored (and the tax free purchases can’t be sniffed at either 😉 ). Having spent some decent amounts of time in the city, […]
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 […]
I still find it strange how much I rely on my friends around the world to let me know when images I’ve shot have made it out into the wild. Although the use of images is obviously something we negotiate all the time, exactly when and where they will turn up is quite often a mystery, and the past month or two has been no exception. Take my shot of the Hollywood sign, for example. […]
Wow – what a morning it turned out to be! Preparing for the worst, having checked the weather forecast the week before I arrived back home to England, I wasn’t expecting anywhere near this shot when I arrived at Dorset’s Jurassic Coast – getting ready to (hopefully) capture Durdle Door at sunrise. There’s a small window in the year when the sun rises just perfectly through the arch. It’s south enough to allow you to […]
“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 […]
Featured in issue 141 of “Digital Photographer” magazine – my long exposure shots from the Northern Lights above Tromso in Norway during 2012. The feature focuses on the techniques required to capture different situations with long-exposure settings in-camera. From firework shows at 20 seconds to lightning captures to sports scenes, the whole spectrum is covered. My visit to view the aurora borealis didn’t go without the odd hiccup or two – as I wrote at […]
“Circular Motion” – print available to buy now Who remembers being told as a kid to make sure to look both ways before crossing a road, and that cars are dangerous? Yeah… I do. Sadly, when I drove through Lujiazui on the way home the other night last week, I saw a sight that made me cast that very wise advice aside and resolve to get the shot I pictured in my mind, no matter […]
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 […]
The camera system, above, is (as Phase One say) “the pinnacle of image quality, offering some of the highest resolution captures of any commercially available camera” – and that’s a picture of it sat on my dining table! That’s right, I’ve finally made the permanent switch to medium format. As a long-term Canon shooter (even my first compact film cameras were Canon) it’s a sad day in some respects as my Canon gear has been […]
The above is what’s left of a potentially disastrous mistake I made with an old camera, and trying to be “clever”. Note to self : Don’t try to be clever in future. You can buy some amazing things in Shanghai – and many of them are indeed a good deal. Take, for example, the “Lencarta Safari Li-Ion Flash System”. For sale in the UK for around £1,000 all-in (and I have one) – but if […]
So this is the latest publication to feature the shot I took of Horseshoe Bend, AZ, last year – What Digital Camera Magazine. 🙂 This follows press coverage in the Times, the Daily Mail, The Guardian, Metro and many others who over the past month have picked up on the images which were submitted to the Society of International Nature and Wildlife Photography’s panel earlier this year. Sadly, being in China (and hearing about this double-page […]
Can a £50 compact digital camera really hold its own against a full-frame DSLR? I was contacted somewhat “out of the blue” a few weeks ago by Lucy at MoneySupermarket.com, the UK-based financial comparison and advice site, asking if I’d be willing to take on one of their challenges: to use a £50 camera (which they would provide) and write a comparison between that and my own (slightly) more expensive gear. How could I say […]
Welcome back to the W 🙂 That stunning view, above, was part of what prompted me to write about the W Retreat Koh Samui in February, after I returned from an amazing stay there. Realising that what made the place so special was in no small part down to the the talent of the staff at the retreat, Nick (the general manager) and I got talking… W Hotels pride themselves on being cool, hip, and vibrant […]
Well that was a nice surprise – I went to check the forecast and my images popped up in Yahoo!’s new Weather App for the iPhone (and yes, it’s also available for Android…) 🙂 Granted, it wasn’t a complete surprise as I knew they had been “tagged” by the Yahoo! team on my Flickr account with words such as “clear”, “night”, “cloudy” etc. but I had no idea of when they might appear. The app itself caught […]
Olloclip – as the website states – is “a quick-connect lens solution for the iPhone that includes fisheye, wide-angle and macro lenses in one small, convenient package that easily fits in your pocket”. Having seen something similar at CES 2012 – the iPro Lens – which seemed promising, I wasn’t too surprised to see something like this for sale in the Apple Store in Shanghai. So, I bought one (¥548 / £59) to try out […]
Now there’s something you don’t get to see every day – the top of what was once the tallest skyscraper in a country (the Jin Mao Tower), from above, at night 🙂 By day, it’s spiky architecture is a defining part of Shanghai’s Pudong skyline – indeed, it was the key focus for another shot I took from the same building (if a little lower down) – the SWFC. This image, however, was unplanned… I’d […]
