It’s been a long-running debate: “How much photoshop is too much photoshop?”. In the same way that the word “text” didn’t used to be a verb, the word “Photoshop” (obviously copyright Adobe) has become synonymous with retouching or “airbrushing” worldwide. As a digital photographer, it’s one of the key tools I use every day, and provides me with a truly “digital darkroom” when it comes to fixing those small imperfections that often appear when you […]
It’s funny – as photographers, we always tend to rule out “miserable days”. The sky is dull and grey, no warmth to the light and not even any direct sunlight to cast an interesting shadow. So, having pre-booked tickets to go and visit “Sculpture By The Lakes” – an exhibition at Pallington Lakes by artist Simon Gudgeon – it was with a slightly heavy heart that we set off into the depths of the Dorset […]
After a gruelling CES in Las Vegas, a free day in San Francisco was just what I needed, and the prospect of spending the day shooting with a great photographer friend of mine – Scott Marrs – was not to be missed 🙂 With my new Canon 16-35mm f/2.8 L II in my bag, it was time to get the tripod and ND filters out to go grab some images. We actually spent the day […]
Ashamed as I am to say it, given the amount of time I spend in and around Dorset, I’ve never once photographed Corfe Castle. It’s just down the road, and hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of photographers have captured it already, but for some reason, I’ve just never gone. So, with the sunrise now starting at a reasonable hour in the middle of winter, I decided to give it a try. The only problem […]
I must have been promising to upload more pictures from our trip to Thailand for about 5 months now – well, I finally got around to it! Since the first post I made about Maya Bay (on Koh Phi Phi Leh), I’ve been meaning to sort through the hundreds of images we took over the two weeks out there and it’s embarrassing to say that I have just managed to do that. That said, I […]
Shooting a couple in a way that looks genuinely intimate can sometimes be a challenge. Those in a relationship can, at times, get “giggly” during the photo shoot and two models who are effectively strangers can be a little hit-and-miss, depending on their acting abilities. That said, it does present an opportunity to deliver photographs with a lot more story and emotion than solo shots often can and every now and then I get a […]
For those of you who read about the trip I made in the summer to Antelope Canyon in Arizona, you’ll realise that I got a little bit fascinated with “Slot Canyons” as a result. So, with a rather frustrating start to a well-needed break in Sharm-El-Sheikh (without going into detail, I wouldn’t recommend the place, ever!) we took the opportunity for something a little different by getting int he back of a 4×4 and heading […]
It’s catch-up time again! After sorting out the second studio in Southampton, I took the opportunity back in September to give it a try with a model I’d never worked with before – Anna Smith (or Anna Marguerite, as she goes by for her nude work). Anna popped down from London for the afternoon, and after a little delay in getting things ready (it takes a bit of time to get comfortable with a new […]
It was only the other day that I realised I’d been updating my Facebook and twitter accounts with a lot more landscape images than I had been uploading on to here. Time to get that corrected! This first shot was taken in August – at Devil’s Golf Course in Death Valley National Park. What had started out as a really grey day soon burned off to reveal a deep blue sky. What you’re looking at is actually salt […]
Knowing San Francisco relatively well, I knew that when I tried to get a sunrise shot of the Golden Gate Bridge back in August I was really setting myself up for failure. Waking up before 4am, we drove to one of the lookout points to find we couldn’t see even the front of the car – let alone the bridge and the city! Disappointed, we drove back and caught up with some much-needed sleep, but […]
“Welcome to Amboy” – a phrase which I’m sure was used many times in the past, but not any more. Apart from the (randomly) fully functioning post office, Amboy is now very much a ghost town, around half way between Palm Springs and Las Vegas. Having checked it out before we headed there, I knew that “Roy’s Motel” is actually a bit of an iconic landmark, locally. Postcards are sold with the famous sign and […]
Ring flashes have been around for years. They’ve been in and out of fashion more times than checked shirts, but they DO deliver a very specific “look”, which I love, which you can spot a mile off. I’ve used a Lencarta Safari ring flash on many occasions, but it was time to give a different flash head a go. So, bringing Aaron (a relatively new model from Guildford) into the studio to shoot, we pulled […]
There’s a jetty that sticks out into The Fleet in Dorset which has featured in many, many photographs but I never quite got around to finding out where it was. That is, until a friend of mine – Nick – asked to go out shooting for the afternoon to try out his new Canon 5D/II on some landscape shots around Dorset. Given the choice of more retouching, or maybe getting a nice new sunset shot, […]
“Bryce Point” – Print available to buy now Welcome to Bryce Canyon National Park – the last of the 5 parks and canyons I visited in August, including our trip to the amazing Antelope Canyon in Arizona (yes, I’ll upload those photos soon too!). Last year, I visited Joshua Tree National Park in California, and captured images that are now in use by the National Park Service (NPS) for their brochures and guides. So, following […]
The latest in the 2011-12 series of underwear adverts for Lick is just about coming out of Photoshop, but this month, there’s a little bit more time to make some adjustments. So, we’re back to the shoot we did with Nathan a few months ago – this time for the “fashion/style” edition of Attitude that’s coming up. Keeping it simple (and not quite so obvious as the previous jockstrap campaign) the current proposal is to […]
Who’s up for winning some FREE Baskit products of their choosing? If that’s you, read on… 😉 My sample pack of their new range arrived this week, ready to shoot with some cool new models – along with an idea from the boys at Baskit : Let’s get some ideas from customers for the photo shoot, and reward them with some free products of their own to keep! Born in 1999, Baskit is a clothing […]
It’s been a long time coming, it has to be said. For well over a year, I’ve wanted to shoot Antelope Canyon, having seen a few random photos of it on the web some time ago. The problem is, flying to Arizona purely to shoot one Canyon is a little bit over the top, so this was my opportunity to combine it with a US National Parks shoot – cool 🙂 With around 30GB of […]
Every now and then I get an email from a model asking to shoot a “couples series”. A lot of the time, things just don’t work out – there are way too many things to go wrong last-minute but sometimes (just sometimes) things come together to make it work. Enter: Mark Sharman & Jemma Perry, two London models. A couple of weeks back, with some spare studio time and some rather last-minute arrangements, Mark and […]
Many of you will know the history to “bing” – Microsoft’s evolution to their original MSN search page. Granted, a lot less people would ever say they’re “binging” something than those who “google”, but hey – it’s used by a surprising amount of people. Last month, Microsoft launched a competition in association (rather randomly) with Dizzee Rascal – called “Your Britain”. What’s unique about bing is that it displays a different image every day […]
It’s that time of year again – the “awards season”. Ready with my entries for both the BIPP and RPS, I have decided this year that I won’t be submitting anything into the UK “Landscape Photographer of the Year” and instead divert that time, energy and money into a different (and in my view) more substantial competition: The International Photography Awards 2011. While the UK Landscape competition is strong, when I look at the panel […]
During the past few months, I’ve been test shooting several new male models with a range of underwear and swimwear from Ken Loo at Baskit – a very successful Australian underwear and swimwear brand. So, having shot a reasonable amount of the range they sent in to the studio – I figured it was about time I introduced the world to some of the models along with a small selection of Baskit’s range 🙂 Without delay, here […]
As part of my “flying visit” to New York, I shot three male models at the Empire Studios – ran by its fantastic owner Romeo, who is also a very accomplished artist. Working with Chris as our session’s makeup artist, and Ben assisting, we shot from 10am through until 4. First up – PJ: Shooting a mixture of images on the roof as well as the studio – we worked with a variety of setups […]
Back at the end of March, I decided to shoot some personal projects that I’d been considering for some time. The only problem is, when you shoot a lot in the same studio or same surroundings, you end up with images that can look very similar. To make sure my own projects didn’t end up looking the same, I wanted to try something : shooting in another studio across town. Enter: The Chocolate Factory Studios […]
Great news – some of the images I captured when visiting Joshua Tree National Park last year are now being used by the US National Park Service themselves in their 75th anniversary brochures. The shot below being used on the first page of their new visiting guide… This is the first of several that were shot, hopefully it brings a little bit of colour to all of their visitors to Joshua Tree during this year […]
