New year, New start?  Well maybe “Yes” as I have come back to doing some writing on Tumblr after many years.  But why you might ask as I have asked myself these last few weeks?  Well, this WordPress website that I’ve hosted my photography work on for many years has come up  for annual renewal.  And yes I do have an instagram, but really that platform doesn’t hold my interest.  Moving forward, I think it’ll be this WordPress site and my Tumblr account that will hold my interest. So whilst I still do some photography, it really doesn’t hold the passion for me as it once did.  Nowadays I’m more about music, both listening to and playing.  I learnt to play pretty well the dual-manual organ and keyboards 30-odd years ago and played it for about 15 years or so.   But now, I’m wanting to learn to play some new musical instruments ie.  guitar, piano and ukulele.  So certainly when it comes to learning piano, I’ve got to “unlearn” some organ techniques.  And for guitar and ukulele, that’s a totally new avenue to explore.  So I’m looking forward to the challenge of that. Also, I have for many years […]

I’m an advocate for minimalism in life and so that includes getting shot of clothes, furniture, and anything not essential in my home or provide me with “love” in the classic Maria Kondo style. So began a process to help move to that goal where I also started to rationalise and justify reasons for keeping … or selling …. some of my computer equipment and photo gear. I was not averse to getting new equipment if necessary if it would provide some longevity and stability over hopefully the next 5 years or so. So I’ll spend the next couple of posts on here describing my thoughts on: Computer equipment Photo equipment I have a 27inch iMac (2014) and a laptop, an Apple Macbook Air (2014), both top specification at the time of purchase and both have done really well doing photo and video editing, plus the general day to day activities of email, web browsing and web design, and producing documents. My iPad Pro 9.7 inch (2016) was well-specced at the time of purchase too, and whilst it could do a lot, it was not a tool to handle file management or complex photo management. So out of necessity I […]

Everyone should watch this feature-length film …. the factors that have caused global warming, the inbalance between rich and poor across the world, how fossil fuels are decimating life on earth and why much of the crops produced across the world are actually being used to feed animals rather than people. This message has to get across to global politicians and developing countries who are ignoring the scientific evidence. All good reasons too to reduce your consumerism by being a minimalist. And also reduce your consumption of meat. The photography, videography and aerial photography is truly astounding. Link to the film on youtube. Please share with all your family and friends. It’s important.

There was some discussion on one of the photography forums about what photo backup equipment someone should use. To me, it’s not just about the equipment. It’s also the methodology of how …. and where … you backup. So anyway it got me thinking that I’d write a bit about how I manage my files. Many people swear by them I know and they really do have their place in a corporate environment, but I have never liked RAID or NAS units for the simple reason some (maybe all) use a brand-specific bespoke Operating System (OS) and software backup programs which to me means the way they store files would be incompatible if I moved it over to a different brand either to upgrade or to recover a crashed unit. Maybe some don’t use bespoke OS and software but I have never bothered to complicate things by finding out which ones don’t, and only use those ones, which to me would be a vulnerable point if for whatever reason they were no longer available or supported. So I keep it all nice and simple and use external portable 2TB and 4TB hard drives formatted to FAT or NTFS, that way […]

I’m amazed at the number of photographers who do not stretch and challenge themselves or the model when they are shooting. Doing the same style time and time again may be in your comfort zone but really only makes for boring photos over time and certainly does not improve your skills. I’d had plenty of experience of photography having started when I was 17 shooting general topics such as landscapes and architecture, with a little street photography thrown in too, particularly around the city of York where I lived.  I went on to do weddings and more commercial work for clients but really hadn’t touched on working with models until probably about 20 years ago.  I look back on my photos at that time and think to myself, what the devil was I thinking.  Poses were wrong, ideas were lacking, lighting was rubbish and personally I thought my model photos were just generally pretty poor and certainly not to be proud of.  I gradually got a little better but it wasn’t until I met a wonderful young lady who I took on as my muse and, whilst she might not have recognised it at the time, she helped me with […]

Since the TV advert you probably know of the word “noseblind” – which according to Wikipedia means “The gradual acclimation to the smells of one’s home, car, or belongings, in which the affected does not notice them” Well, I’m sorry but I’ve gone photoblind. I really cannot “see” 99% of the imagery that pervade our social media, model and photographer portfolios, modelling sites etc. It all just seems that most photos are oh so bloody boring, lack feeling, imagination, have no excitement, no story and so does that mean that potentially they have no reason for being. Sure, they may be perfectly lit, exposed, posed, styled, post-processed, shot in a great location, obeys all the photographic “rules” etc. but really does it do anything for you … or me. And for many, as well as being boring, they can often be a repetitive clone of their own or others work. Rightly or wrongly due to the likes of instagram and tumblr particularly, I think that photography is so very different now than it used to be and for some people that’s a shock. Who cares if there’s big shadows, bright lights, the tops of heads cropped off, limbs cut off […]