The doors are closed, the lights are off, last night saw the end to another fantastic Photokina show for another year. And what a fantastic show it was – surrounded by the latest innovations, technology and knowledge from some of the industry’s leading brands and experts – it’s easy to see why Cologne consistently retains the title as hosting the largest photographic show in the world. This year, I had the absolute pleasure of supporting Rollei […]
It’s the shot I thought had got away – the image of New Zealand’s Aoraki Mount Cook and its surrounding range, dusted in snow, with glacial icebergs floating in the river before me. Only 3 weeks prior, our initial trip to Hooker Lake ended in disappointment. The trek to the lakefront was filled with slips, slides, falls and bumps as the ice underfoot made a (normally easy) walk that little bit more interesting. Despite the clear […]
(Don’t) Look down! At around 1,000ft above the ground, Menara Kuala Lumpur (or the “KL Tower” as it’s also known) isn’t a record-breaker by any means, but hey – it’s still the highest place you can get to across the city. My usual plan when shooting nightscapes tends to specifically exclude photography from the iconic towers for one simple reason : that icon can’t be in the shot if you’re stood on it to take the photo! This […]
I need a tripod – but which one? In a market which is saturated with manufacturers and all their unique solutions, choosing the right tripod can be almost as tricky as the decision making process that went in to buying your camera. There are so many confusing options out there and I’m often asked “which is the best tripod?”, but the answer is never a simple one. The tripod that is best for me is […]
It’s a location that features on the bucket list of many photographers, and it’s a magnetic one at that. Having already visited both Upper and Lower Antelope Canyon 6 or 7 times since my first visit in 2011, I still have the urge to return every now and then to capture the other-worldly scenes of light-trails, stunning rock formations and shadows throughout these two natural wonders just outside of Page, Arizona. Sadly, there is a lot […]
What a view to wake up to (well, kind of “wake up to”, if you ignore the hour we’d already been standing there in the cold waiting for the light to pop through the clouds…!) This was the view I’d been hoping for – the ruggedness of the mountains and red rocks below, echoed by a powerful cloud formation that lifted just enough to allow the sun to pop through for a second or two […]
We did it! Opening the world’s most exclusive gallery – pr@hf – on the luxury island resort of PER AQUUM Huvafen Fushi is something we’re really proud of, and it’s now all set to grow in its brand new home. As the first ever photographic gallery that must be accessed by seaplane or speedboat, there’s something really cool about the new space, and guests are loving what we’ve managed to deliver. But I thought I’d take […]
As part of my post last year, I briefly touched on the growing number of “photoshop-ographers” in the industry – a worrying trend which is creating a void of necessary in-camera capture skills and knowledge. This is where people are instead opting to “fix things later” (often fabricating reality), publishing fake scenes while claiming them to be photographs. In this article, I want to explore the challenges we face as a result of this apparent shift in what […]
“Any tips for shooting sunset?” – was the start of the conversation with Time Inc’s reporter. As part of Jaguar Land Rover’s latest USA campaign, the guys were looking for tips and guides to help people get the best out of their travels to undiscovered places. “Sure”, I said, and rattled off a whole stream of quick concepts, easy to remember tips and tricks and a few “be careful when….” thoughts that would help the […]
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 […]
With lots of exciting news coming up, I’m delighted to finally be able to announce a new (amazing!) option to my workshop line-up for next year. Working directly with the team at Phase One, not only will I be running a direct workshop on New Zealand’s south island, but in June 2016 we’ll also be offering a longer, enhanced, PODAS (“Phase One Digital Artist Series”) trip this winter! The PODAS workshops really are something else […]
I sit writing this with a smile on my face, as I’m about to link to the most unique headline I’ve ever read: “A Frog Riding a Beetle: Is This a Real Wildlife Photo or a Bunch of BS?” Reading that article, as well as looking at the claimed “perfectly timed” shot from last year’s Sony World Photography Awards, it brings back the memory of a story I read recently about the cormorant fishermen in […]
“Hey Paul, OK, got it – I’ll bring two goats.” – That was the email I received two nights before my shot with Shangri-La Sydney‘s new Head Chef, Bo Sorensen. While not necessarily appealing to all the vegetarians out there, the resulting image is something I’m very proud of, all captured in a single frame with no “tricks” added later on! So, an image that includes two goats, flying bits of meat (don’t worry, they weren’t served to […]
A couple of weeks ago, after landing back to London Heathrow, my phone informed me that I’d been “mentioned” on an unknown app called “Steller“. As is normally the case with this kind of thing, I initially brushed it off as an invite to yet another useless social media/networking tool that will likely disappear after I’ve put effort into using it. However, something grabbed my attention with this one: It listed a company that I’d recently photographed for and […]
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 […]
At the time of writing, this is literally the highest platform that a Phase One system has ever been in the world – pretty cool! Being able to capture the view below in 80 megapixels of definition is amazing, and the level of detail I managed to record (despite the circumstances you’ll soon read about below!) still surprises me. This might even become my new desktop background for little while 😉 Looking down on two of the world’s tallest […]
Note: Updated August 2016 after a year of using NiSi filters, click to read below. “What filters do you use?” – It’s the question that most landscape photographers ask just after they’ve probed into what camera you’re using. And in the same way as the ongoing “Nikon vs Canon war” (which is amusing to watch in itself!) the so-called brand allegiance is fun to explore when you start asking exactly why a photographer has chosen a […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 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 […]
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 […]
