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Hey, photographer! Does social media make you feel inadequate? 

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After speaking with some friends it seems like I am not alone. The pressure to create and produce work has never been greater. Never before has it been faster or easier to immerse ourselves in a world of images. Sometimes, we can get lost seeing how easily other people make it look, while we struggling to just get by. We, as creatives, can risk burning out and being cynical about our work and the community around us. 

While doing research (about personal projects for a book I’m writing, I was talking to Aakaash Bali. He explained about a project called  The Shadow District . The concept is amazing, and the technical execution is perfect. I know these things should inspire us, but it just left me feeling inadequate.

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30+ apps for photographers and image-makers

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Recently my phone died, unfortunately, there is no app to fix water damage, so I had to buy a new one. Re-installing all the apps and settings was very simple. You just log in to everything and away you go. When I logged into Google, it simply started to download all my apps. The same sort of process is on the iOS-based systems.

However, there was a problem

I didn’t have room on my new phone for all my old apps. This prompted me to have a good look at which apps I wanted to keep and which app I no longer needed. It was time for a cleanup, an update and a fresh look at what is out there for not only my phone but my iPad Mini too. You can continue to read about my experiance or jump right into the list of the 30+ apps that every photographer needs. 

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What’s the slowest shutter-speed you can shoot hand held?

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Back in 2018, I wrote an article that said that ‘Tripods are not just for landscape photographers, they can be useful tools for all photographers.‘ and I still stand by that.

The other week I was invited over to the UK to help Sigma with a photography event. I was doing a short talk and demo about portrait photography. The question about kit came up and I was asked: “what is the most important bit of kit you carry?” During my answer, I mentioned tripods. This caught a few people off guard. I went on to explain why. I can not remember word for word what I said in London as it was a busy day with lots going on, but this paraphrased quote from the article sums up my thoughts well.

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The complete guide on photographing in harsh sunlight

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With a heatwave rolling over America & Europe, photographers are going to be dealing with some pretty direct light. Here are some tips about dealing with harsh shadows and high contrast.

This blog is pretty good timing, as I have just come back from a shoot in the UK. 10 lucky winners in association with Sigma UK and Amateur Photography Magazine, had won the chance to come down to London and photograph two traditional Geisha (Mai Watanabe and Chiyono Watanabe.) I was asked to set up the shoot & help with the lighting as part of the day.

Photographing Geisha’s on a London Rooftop with the direct & bright sun was not ideal. But with some thinking, we worked out a set up that was pretty good. The main objective of the shot was to show the color of the face and keep the flat color tones. I wanted to show the makeup as much as possible. Getting the image as soft as possible while still showing the colors in the silk was another objective. The bright sunlight was very overpowering and creating deep shadows.

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Help! I have so many camera bags

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I have been searching for over a decade,  I am pretty sure there is no perfect bag for all photography uses.

Recently I have changed the way I been traveling and shooting, which has lead to some change in the kit I use and how I carry it. I have ended up with a few different bags which fit together in some kind of ‘bag eco-sphere’. Let me know in the comments which bags I might check out next, or if there are better options to choose from.

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Am I using Instagram wrong?

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Recently, I set up a new page for my travel/motorbike adventures, I was trying something different until someone told me I was using Instagram wrong.

It worked for a while!

For many years, I have been a portrait photographer and either the square or portrait crop worked ace for me. Then, I moved to Ireland and really got stuck in my landscape and travel photography. The crops that IG offered, just like my portrait stuff worked perfectly fine for most of the images I make, such as my abandoned houses project. All was good!

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