Advisory
There is a quick and incredibly easy way to reset your Godox AD1200Pro battery and get it to charge again - and it does not involve screwdrivers, grounding, electrical clips and anything else, just a slightly longer-than-usual fingernail.
Read MoreUpgrading or changing your tried and tested computer setup can be a daunting task, especially if you find yourself needing to embed new hardware to meet new project/client requirements. You have to balance the demands for the job, your budget and what’s available out there - not a simple equation at the best of times, an almost impossible one during these times of hardship. Because my work demands have recently ballooned I had to go through this exercise and thought you might benefit from my experience.
Read MoreThe Z9 (and the Z system in general) works very well in terms of the sheer technicalities of image creation. The files are superb, noise and dynamic range handling are better than the D5 and D6. Processing an image in CaptureOne is a pleasure and while I did not create any images which required a lot of processing, the images literally popped out of the screen almost immediately. However not all is rose gold in the land of the mirrorless and there are some key takeaways from this first assignment every travel photographer should be aware of.
Read More
Ladakh has been a part of the world i’ve wanted to visit for years - after all, why wouldn’t I? There’s amazing monasteries perched on hilltops against dramatic background scenery, there are monks and novices, there are beautiful valleys and rivers small and large and there are, more importantly for me, tribespeople to meet and photograph. And all that in a small area - relatively - easily accessible from New Delhi and, from rumours, relatively inexpensive. So, this summer, I actually went - found a really good guide and fixer who claimed to be able to do everything I wanted to do and we were good to go.
Read MoreFew things in life are as easy or creative as photographing the Huaorani - apart from the fact they’re simply amazing and wonderful to photograph, they inhabit one of those truly blessed places in the world where, despite it’s challenges, photography can take a hundred different turns and expressions.
Read MoreThere have been a number of articles and arguments lately on people attempting to visit and photograph remote, previously unreachable, tribes, be that in the Amazon or the Andaman Islands or any of the other places such tribes still live. The arguments against it are many but they essentially filter down to: “live them alone as the modern world will only bring about the destruction of their innocence and their way of life”.
Read More
As photographers we live a sort of charmed life - we get to travel the world and, in exchange for loads of effort and exercising our art, we get to experience incredible people and amazing places. It’s not an easy life - certainly gets harder every year - but it can be magical. But despite that, we are, really, not very nice people - we are selfish, most of the time ignorant of the world around us, inconsiderate of others and, more and more frequently, downright nasty. I have always known that, but it was only recently that I felt, for the first time, its effects!
Read MoreIn these days where “wanderlust” has been replaced by “travel advice”, “travel restrictions”, “traffic light countries” and all those negative connotations, sometimes it’s worth stoping and thinking about the bigger picture. In fact, it may be worth thinking a little bigger than we used to - going outside the usual parameters, looking at places we have always discarded.
Read More
Travelling during a pandemic can be extremely challenging, more hassle than travel ever used to be (or, between us, ever should be) and it entails risks. Yet, at the same time, with just a bit more careful planning, it not only allows the cautious traveller to continue doing what they want but also presents a lot more opportunities for better trips (and better photography).
Read MoreEven the best laid plans…(or why I completely failed during my last trip!)
…and yes, I am fully aware of what I’m saying: my last photographic foray was a failure. Maybe not complete in the absolute sense of the word, but certainly miles away from what I had plan, what I had envisaged and what I wanted to achieve. Even to this day, more than a month later, it fills me with anger and bitterness that I don’t know how to overcome. But maybe its better if I explain.
Read More
Images have been processed since the dawn of photography - even the most die-hard street photographer or film aficionado, more often than not, make creative choices about how to interpret the images they captured. This can be as simple as pushing or pulling the film sensitivity or cropping, others may extend to dodging and burning and more. These techniques - which are by no means simple - have resulted in the amazing pictures the previous analogue generations have bequeathed us. Jump to today and what do we find?
Read More
Let me start by explaining exactly why I chose to write this “Photographer’s guide to the Mt Hagen Show” - especially since this is not something I usually do. Believe it or not, I did not put this together because I know better or I’m a better photographer, but because after searching for months for any article, blog post - anything really - which describes what happens during the show, what visitors should expect and so on, I came up with absolutely nothing. All I found were a few vague descriptions, some shaky videos but nothing to give a photographer enough to adequately prepare for what happens.
Read More
How would you react if you were a passionate amateur photographer and someone told you that, despite your $60,000 worth of equipment and your recent trip to India with a “professional photographer guide”, not ALL your images are actually worth something? Probably you’d be disappointed and might even react badly - right? The thing is you’d be wrong and if you want to improve, you need to take a moment and think of what I’m trying to say here - the truth is 99% of your images are NOT great. In fact, chances are they’re not even good. No matter how much you like them. Or your friends like them and heart them in Facebook or wherever.
Read More
We all come across images which awe and inspire us - in fact I’m willing to bet that every image which stops you dead in your tracks inspires something within you! This is true for everyone in the world, but even more for us photographers, because sometimes these images drive us to try and get some equally good ones. So we pack our bags and travel to exactly the same destination, at exactly the same time as the original image and…guess what, nothing - absolutely nothing - is like we imagined or planned and, even worse, those images we were 100% certain we would capture are nowhere to be found. How can that be?
Well, the images are there - trust me - but sometime (actually, most of the time!) you need some help to get to them. And that help is a professional fixer.
Read More
In this day and age of information, where thousands of images, articles, opinions of all types and quality literally bombard us every waking moment, we become, more and more, exposed to both ends of the quality spectrum - from the amazing and awe-inspiring to the truly, beyond-words, awful. True, that has always been the case, but in the old days (and yes, this does show how old I am!) awfulness had the tendency to be filtered early, discouraged and, eventually, stamped out.
Today, where every single person can build a site or a blog, post anything they way and share it with the world (and, through that, find people who will like it and agree with it), more and more failed experiments reach us and, for me at least, make me wonder: why? Why would someone allow themselves to share something bad when there is such a plethora of incredible resources (for free for God’s sake!) to help them. Of course, the answer is obvious: today people crave attention, affection and validation of their view of the world that they don’t read, they rarely learn and, worse than all, they don’t accept opinions or criticism.
Read More
