Another visit to Dinorwic, this time taking in a few new locations, to be honest I thought I’d done pretty much all of it but the places continues to throw up surprises in directions that you have somehow missed before. An old truck maintenance facilty was found along with a few tunnels and a selection of rutsing away old trucks plus changes to the quarry the weather and rockfalls bring, The idea behind these visits is to put my own style and stamp on the images from this fascinating place. The customary very changeable weather was again in place and allowed for some rather dramatic images. Al ..read more

Mardale Green was a 17th-century farming village in Cumbria, it was evacuated in the 1930’s and most of the village was flattened by the Army then flooded, the area now forms what we know as Haweswater reservoir today in the Lake District. Normally, none of it can be seen but this year the water level in Haweswater has been that low (under 40% full) it has been revealed once more. All that remains of it is a bridge, remains of an old church, a pub, and roads, the remains of which can be seen in these images, also this year the remains of large tree stumps appeared out of the water, the last ti ..read more

Going back to the end of November 2019, And I find myself in the salubrious surroundings of a ‘Railway Graveyard’, in a suburb of Pristina, Kosovo. Granted, not your average holiday destination… but I don’t really do average. A very unusual place to visit, but I couldn’t miss this when in the Country, and as is usual on these types of things, it didn’t come without it’s challenges… The Kosovo War was an armed conflict in Kosovo that started 28 February 1998 and lasted until 11 June 1999. It was fought by the forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which controlled Kosovo before the war ..read more

Following the relaxation of the dreaded Covid Lockdown Rules, after what seemed an absolute eternity, I decided to head out , not too far up to one of my favourite spots, to just explore and to shoot a sunset if it happened, the trip was far more about getting out again, and getting back into using the camera equipment which has so sadly lain more or less unused for months with nothing inspiring me to go out shooting, and to get my hours up flying my drone, which is rapidly becoming a big part of my shoots. A fellow shooter, Mike Tonge, joined me for an Afternoon / Evening of what was more abo ..read more

Over 4 months since the my last blog post and in that time I’ve managed to get out just once briefly (to the Lake District) with friends for the day while we were allowed and apart from that hardly at all with the camera with any real sense of purpose. Living in Wigan doesn’t by default provide me with many local options for Landscape Photography, at least not the sort I like anway. But, when you don’t have a choice (due to Covid Lockdown) you can either not do any at all or start to really try hard to look around and shoot something local. A couple of times lately the weather conditions have ..read more

With the advent of Covid 19, travel has very much been restricted, and with it the photography options that come with travelling for imagery. Unusually for me to date (September 2020) I still haven’t been to the Lake District this year, although I’m looking to get up there really soon. On the spare of the moment I decided to have a few days up in Snowdonia to revisit Dinorwic Quarry, and also to scout out some new locations, one great thing about Dinorwic is that it really does suit cloudy and wet weather, so if the dreaded rain should roll in you can still achieve some great images up there ..read more

Pleased to say my image ‘Global Warming’ has been awarded an Honorable Mention in the International Photography Awards One Shot / Movement Photo Contest Pretty chuffed as I've had a cracking bit of news, just had an email telling me I've won an Award (HM) in the International Photography Awards One-Shot “MOVEMENT” Photography Competition. The shot was one from Jokusarlon in Iceland, taken in Jan this year, entitled 'Global Warming', I've attached the image below. Great to get another Award, and this time internationally! All the Winners can be seen here: http://www.photoawards.com/winner/ Inte ..read more

While I was up in Scotland a few weeks ago, a Company called Saal Digital - https://www.saal-digital.co.uk/ granted me a £100 credit to compile a Photobook, I had never used these guys before and it had been ages since I had compiled a photobook, literally years, so I decided to give them a go as their products looked very good. Outer Cover Saal market themselves as a ‘high end quality’ producer of Photobooks, so with this is mind I set about the task of picking the images I wanted to see in a book from my Portfolio. For anyone who’s ever done this who has a sizeable boody of work, you will k ..read more

Social media has quickly become a huge tool for creatives to share and promote their work. It can be used to build a following and create a community, both of which can help to increase sales and business.  Sadly, it’s not as easy as setting up an account and posting occasionally. It takes a little work to build and maintain your platforms, but the benefits can be well worth it if you put a little time and effort in. Social Media Platforms Let’s start off by taking a look at the social media channels that are currently recommended for photographers as of March 2020. Keep in mind, new p ..read more

Graduated ND filters, ND grads, (or GND’s as I’ll call them for the benfit of this blog post), a great subject to stir up a discussion… They serve one purpose, to darken one area of the image being taken, leaving the rest of the image untouched, 99% of the time this is the sky, as it’s 2-3 stops brighter than the land, they come in different strengths allowing you to darken the area by however much you need to stop it being too bright and becoming ‘blown out’ , giving you an overall balanced image. A brilliant bit of kit, but…. There are those who say they simply aren’t needed anymore with ..read more