This article first appeared in Cheshire Life magazine November 2023.How to take beautiful winter photographs“Wow! That’s a great photograph, you must have a really good phone…” A seemingly innocuous comment and well-intentioned but consider this instead: “That’s a delicious cake, you must have a really good oven…”. I know this isn’t exactly a like for […]
Boco do Inferno, Cascais, PortugalLong exposure photographyI love long exposure images of moving water, especially when there’s dramatic scenery. They look otherworldly because we never see water like this in reality. But long exposure photography is often seen as technically difficult and not something the relative beginner would attempt.One of these images was taken super […]
Discover how I learned how to photograph long exposure sunsets and, even better, it doesn’t matter that I can’t quite afford the filters yet! A couple of weeks ago I went to the Lakes and had a go at long exposure landscape photography under the expert tuition of Melvin Nicholson. We had a fascinating half […]
Polarising filters are a useful addition to your kit if you enjoy photographing landscapes. They reduce atmospheric haze and reduce reflected light, which can be helpful to your images in a number of ways: They give you more detail in the sky, revealing clouds and darkening the blue areas. In the images below you […]
Tips for photographing moving water, such as fast moving rivers and waterfalls As you will need to use a slow shutter speed you should avoid bright sunshine, so overcast days are better, or at sunrise and sunset. You will need to shoot in manual (M) or Shutter Priority Mode. Set the ISO to 100 and use a […]
I’m taking a slightly different approach with this post and not taking you through all the classic composition rules for landscapes. I’d like to concentrate on WHY you are taking the photograph and what you should CONSIDER before you press the shutter. I’m a huge advocate for slowing down and thinking before you click away and end up with […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Our little cornish break came to an end all to soon, but I managed to squeeze in a quick trip to Glendurgan, a National Trust garden, on the last morning. Miraculously I was able to drag Abii out of bed and persuaded her to come with me (anything was preferable to packing). This is a garden more about […]
Helford Passage is a lovely spot on the Helford River, offering everything you could want from a little seaside hamlet, a decent pub, boat hire, ice creams, crabbing, a tasteful gift shop and a dozen gigs! These are fast, narrow rowing boats and there’s obviously a thriving community of them in Cornwall, judging by the […]
340 miles door to door… seven hours (including stops to collect a teenager from a sleepover and obligatory leg stretching, Costa coffee buying and loo breaks) in the car with an over-excited dog. All made well worth while when we saw the view from the living room window of our home for the next few days. The two […]
