Blog

If you want to take better photos - whether with your camera, your phone or in Lightroom - you’re in the right place.

This blog is full of simple, practical tips to help you feel more confident, understand your settings and start creating photos you really love. You’ll also find plenty of food photography ideas and creative inspiration to try at home.

I’ve been teaching photography for over 17 years, and my aim is always the same: to help you feel less overwhelmed, more confident, and excited to pick up your camera.

Have a browse, learn something new, and start taking photos you love.

Tripod

Do I need a tripod?

Do I need a tripod? I get asked this a lot and I think it’s because people see professionals with tripods and assume that they, therefore, need one too if they want to take better photographs. I fell into this trap when I started out and between my other half and me we have either three or...
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pancakes with lemon

Pancake Day in photographs

  Pancake Day has fallen in the school holidays – yes! We’ve got time to do it properly, which means Abii indulging in a spot of baking, me in a bit of pancake photography and the boys (Nic, Sam, Ferb and Buster) in stuffing their faces! Mixing the perfect batter was down to Nic, with no...
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“Turn the garage into a studio?! You must be mad!!!”

6 months ago we decided to convert our garage into a natural light photography studio and office. Here’s the story in pictures. I still can’t quite believe we did it! I had a clear idea from the outset how I wanted it to look and used Pinterest to collect all the ideas. Click here to...
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what is ISO

How to shoot indoors without flash

We recently made a much anticipated visit to the Dr Who Experience in Cardiff, where fans get to take part in an adventure with the latest Doctor and then look at real props, costumes and prosthetics used in the show. Our kids are Dr Who crazy and were beyond excited and fascinated. All of the exhibits...
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10 things to photograph this Autumn – [4] – fungi

The wet and mild conditions of Autumn provide the perfect growing conditions for fungi and this exceptionally mild Autumn means that there’s lots around at the moment, without having to look too hard. They have their own kingdom completely separate to plants and animals and there are tens of thousands of different kinds. They are fascinating to...
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10 things to photograph this Autumn – [3] HALLOWE’EN

Like it or not Hallowe’en is growing in popularity every year and if your children are anything like mine, the opportunity to dress up and be allowed to accept sweets from complete strangers is the ultimate in fun. Their costumes get more elaborate each year, as do the decorations in our house, even spreading out...
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10 things to photograph this Autumn – [2] LEAVES

In the first of this series we looked at How to Photograph Trees (click on the link if you missed it). This time we’re going to concentrate on how to photograph Autumn leaves and capture their many glorious colours, shapes and textures. It’s all about the Light. Well of course it is as without light we wouldn’t have...
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10 things to photograph this Autumn – [1] TREES

I LOVE Autumn (or Fall, for our friends across the pond!). Summer is fab while it lasts but around the start of September I yearn to wear fleecy jumpers and knitted hats, to walk through woodland, seeing my breath as white clouds, kicking through fiery coloured leaves with my wellies, spotting weird fungi on tree stumps and...
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Holiday photos from Cornwall

We spent the second week of our summer holiday at my brother’s cottage in Marazion, Cornwall, with its famous landmark, St Michael’s Mount. Our accommodation is undergoing major refurbishment and we had been warned to have an “indoor camping” experience. It proved to be far more than this, with a beautiful kitchen, designer chairs in...
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