News & Blog

Having decided that I would rather have the flexibility of a zoom lens, I'm selling my Zeiss ZE 18mm f/3.5. It's in mint condition, complete with the original box, lens hood and so on. This is a really good lens, and an excellent complement to the Zeiss 21mm. It costs £1,026.00 new; I'm looking for £850.00 ono. Please don't hesitate to Email me if you have any questions.

I'm really pleased to hear that my image of St Catherine's Chapel in Abbotsbury has been Highly Commended in the 'Breathing Spaces' category of the International Garden Photographer of the Year competition.

If I had to sum up the new year so in only one word, it would be 'grey'. For the last week or so, there has been a blanket grey sky over Dorset, broken only occasionally by spells of drizzle. This has, of course, been intensely frustrating, as I'd booked some time off before the next round of articles and workshops was due to begin, within the intention of taking some personal pictures.

It didn't really happen. Firstly, the weather was against me, and secondly, I had quite a tight deadline for a camera review, and needed to get out and shoot some test shots in the short spells of decent light we had. Of course, shooting pictures for myself and testing a camera are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but there were some specific shots I needed to get, which restricted me a bit.

The camera was the Sigma SD1, and I'm reviewing it for Landscape Photography Magazine. I can't give away too much detail before the review is published, but it's probably fair to say I won't be Ebaying the Canon gear just yet.

I did see some colour in the sky on two mornings, and these are the results. This one is at Swanage beach:



And this is of Old Harry Rocks:

It’s hard to believe, but 2012 is almost over!

It’s been an extremely busy year for me, especially the last four months, which have been jammed full with workshops, 1-2-1’s and magazine articles. I’ve had great fun visiting new places - notably the Lake District and Iceland - and playing with lots of new kit whilst doing reviews for Landscape Photography Magazine. Of these, the 5D mark III turned out to be a real revelation; I hadn’t expected it to be such a big upgrade from the mark II, but it really is a superb camera, and I’ll be adding one to my kitbag at some point in 2013.

The New Year is looking equally busy, with a very full diary in January, including another trip to Iceland at the end of the month, which I’m really looking forward to. I have a number of one-to-ones booked in for January and February to, and very limited space available before March, so if you’re looking to arrange a session in the first two months of the year, it’s best to get in touch soon.

I’d like to finish by wishing everyone a happy and successful 2013, and here are a few of my favourite shots from the last couple of months:



Jokulsarlon, Iceland



Winspit, Dorset


Durdle Door, Dorset

I’m a little shocked to discover that it’s nearly two months since I last posted anything on my blog. My excuse is that it’s been a frantic couple of months, with lots of group workshops, 1-2-1 tuition and magazine articles to write. I’m now writing for three magazines: Digital SLR, Photography Monthly and the e-magazine, Landscape Photography Magazine, for whom I’m doing equipment reviews. This has been great fun, with lots of new kit play with, including the Olympus OM-D, Canon 5D3 and Canon 1dx. The first of these reviews is now online - you can purchase individual issues or take out a subscription at www.landscapephotographymagazine.com.

This misty shot looking over Poole Harbour was taken with the OM-D:



Almost without my noticing it, the autumn seems to have already slipped into winter. In that time, I’ve been workshopping in Dorset, the Lake District and the New Forest. We were lucky enough to have fantastic conditions on all of the workshops, especially in the Lake District, where over the course of two back-to-back courses, we only had one morning of rain, and excellent light for the rest of the time. These are two of my favourite images from the trip, taken with the Canon 5D3:






Things were just as good on the New Forest trip, with just some light rain on the first afternoon, and clear weather the rest of the time, and a good sunset on the final day. I didn’t have much opportunity for my own photography, but couldn’t resist taking a quick shot of this New Forest pony silhouetted against the sunset. Shot with a Canon 1dx.



I'm off to Iceland at the end of November, with my friend and business partner in Dawn 2 Dusk Photography, Ross Hoddinott. We're leading a Northern Lights Workshop for Tatra photography. It should be an amazing experience, which I'm really looking forward to. There are two places left on the workshop - for more information and for bookings, please visit www.tatraphotographyworkshop.com

During mid-summer, I find my photographic activity slows down a bit; the light's often very harsh, the clarity isn't so good and in this neck of the woods, the sun doesn't really rise or set in a great position. However, come the end of August / start of September things start to get interesting again - heather starts flowering, turning certain locations into a sea of purple and as the nights start to get cooler again, there's always the chance of a misty start the following day.

I usually find myself heading into the New Forest at this time of year, and was lucky enough to get a couple of cracking mornings, when an early mist coincided with a breathtaking sky. I like to make the most of the colour in these situations and so get in as close to the heather as possible. However, if you just fill the frame with colour, it can be a bit overwhelming, so I prefer to find something to break up the heather if at all possible. In these shots at Rockford Common, some orange bracken and a bridle path did the job nicely.





Incidentally, due to a cancellation, a place has become available on the Dawn 2 Dusk New Forest workshop at the beginning of November. All the signs are that it's going to be a colourful autumn, so if you're interested in this workshop, please visit the Dawn 2 Dusk website.

I also went to photograph the heather at Arne. It was looking really good there, too, and having a view over Poole harbour is a bonus. The sky was completely clear first thing, but as the sun reached the horizon, some clouds drifted across in just the right place, and at the right time to catch some colour which matched the tones of the heather, and reflected perfectly in the water.



I've been incredibly busy with one to one workshops this year and have very little availability left in September and October, especially with all the group workshops as well. However, November is a great month for photography in Purbeck, so if you're interested in some tuition at a time when the light round here can be at its best, please contact me . This could also be the perefect time to catch the autumn colour.

I love misty mornings. For me, nothing beats being on top of a hill looking over a mist-filled valley - it brings such an atmosphere of romance, and trumps a moody seascape every time.

It's unusual to get much mist at this time of year, but the conditions have been perfect for it: periods of heavy rain followed by a couple of clear, still nights. I have a few favourite vantage points I head to when I think there's going to be a layer of ground mist, one of which is, inevitably, Corfe Castle.

I've taken a lot of pictures of Corfe over the years, and even though I sometimes feel like screaming just at the thought of climbing up the hill again, and think I'll just end up repeating pictures I've already taken, differences in conditions do lead to different - and occasionally, better - shots.

This was certainly the case when I was there two or three weeks ago. Usually, when there's a ground mist, the sky above is clear, but on this occasion, there was also some interesting cloud cover, which caught the caught the pre-dawn glow and sunrise colours beautifully.

I took quite a number of shots as the conditions were changing constantly, but these are a couple of my favourites.

I have added a new option to my 1-2-1 tuition days - a 'Capture to Print' workshop, in which the day will be split between a few hours' shooting & 'in the field' tuition, followed by time spent processing the images, and learning post-processing and printing workflow and techniques. Finally, we will print and mount your favourite shot from the day for you to take home with you. For more information, please see the 1-2-1 tuition page.

A few weeks ago, I spent the day with Matt Bennett from Digital Photographer magazine, as part of a feature on coastal landscape photography. We had a couple of false starts due to the appalling weather, but eventually managed to pick a really good day.

Essentially, the day took the form of a 1-2-1 workshop, which Matt then wrote up into an 8-page article. We met in Swanage for sunrise and finished up at Kimmeridge Bay, visiting Studland, Old Harry Rocks and Lulworth Cove in between. It was a long, but very enjoyable day, and Matt came away with some cracking shots, which he's used to illustrate the article, which is in the current issue of the magazine.

I took a few shots along the way, two of which are below:

May has been an exceptionally busy month... lots of 1-2-1 clients, writing, and moving house - or to be precise, moving back into my home after over 4 months of renovation work. It's great to be back, but sorting everything out has been rather time-consuming, to say the least.

With all this going on, the time I've had for going out and taking my own pictures has been rather limited, and it's quite a few weeks since I had the opportunity to take any pictures for myself. However, I made it out yesterday morning, meeting up with my friend and business partner, Ross Hoddinott, for a dawn shoot at Old Harry Rocks.

Things didn't look too promising when we met at around 4.15 in Swanage; the sky was completely clear overhead, but with a thick band of cloud on the horizon. Resisting the urge to just head straight back home and go back to sleep, we headed over to Old Harry anyway, which turned out to be the right decision, as just before sunrise, heavy rainclouds drifted across and a gap opened up on the horizon. The stormy clouds, lit by the rising sun, created a dramatic, moody atmosphere, which had been impossible to predict, just 30 minutes earlier.

We both took a number of shots, but these two are probably my favourites.

It's easy to forget about the photographic opportunities on your doorstep, even if you're lucky enough, as I am, to live in a beautiful part of the country. Based in Purbeck, I often find myself rushing off to Kimmerige Bay, Corfe Castle, Durdle Door and other photographic icons, and ignoring the possibilities just a couple of hundred yards from my front door.

I realised what I was missing when I took a couple of comparison shots for a magazine article, to show the effect of different apertures on depth of field. The shots didn't have to be aesthetically stunning, so I simply chose a scene across the road that had a strong foreground. I hadn't expected the results to be up to much, but when I processed the pictures, I was pleasantly surprised... enough so that I then set myself a little project to spend some time with camera a little closer to home than usual. All the shots below were taken within walking distance of my house.

I’ve been extremely busy with workshops over the last month or two - both group workshops with Dawn 2 Dusk Photography, and one-to-one tuition - plus a number of magazine articles to write. While it’s good to be busy, it hasn’t left me with very much time for my own photography, so it was good to have a week free from workshops and writing. For once, the opportunity to do my own thing coincided with a spell of decent weather, although really it was too nice - lots of clear blue skies and little drama... photographers are never satisfied!

I was out for a dawn shoot every day, mostly around the River Stour, where there were some lovely misty mornings. I had a couple of frustrating shoots when I wasn’t quite able to find the viewpoint I wanted to really make the most of the conditions, but it all came together near Wimborne one morning, with a low mist above the flood plains and the twin towers of the Minster rising above the mist in the background. Just as the sun was breaking the horizon, a swan swam into frame, and the resulting picture made me think the series of early mornings may have been worth it.



On Saturday, it was the Dawn 2 Dusk north Devon coast workshop. I went down a day early and visited Hartland Quay in the evening. It wasn’t the most spectacular sunset I’ve ever seen, but there was enough interest in the sky to make it worthwhile, and the tide was perfect for making the most of the rocky ledges on the shore.

I spent yesterday in and around the New Forest on a 1-2-1 workshop, and we had some really interesting conditions. There was a widespread radiation fog at the start of the day, and getting on to some high ground near Bolderwood allowed us to make the most of it. The shot below was taken just as the sun rose above trees; there was just enough mist at that height to diffuse the sun enough to avoid flare.



A couple of hundred yards away, this silver birch was crying out to be photographed - the lone tree against a misty backdrop was a wonderfully romantic subject.



We also visited Lepe, to shoot some long exposures of the groynes and the remains of the WWII piers, and finished the day at Milford on Sea. The mist stayed with us for the whole day and started to thicken up again towards sunset, where it hid the background and made it hard to distinguish the boundary between sea and sky - a disorienting effect. Shooting the groynes using Big Stoppers enhanced this, making it look as if the groynes were floating in space.

Just returned from leading a 3-day workshop in North Cornwall. Among the places we visited were Sandymouth Bay, Boscastle, Bude and Crackington Haven. We were very lucky with the weather, again; good light on all 3 days, though it was pretty blowy on the first day. The highlight of the trip was the fantastic dawn on day 3 at Tamar Lakes; I was itching to get my camera out, but was too busy helping our participants get the best out of the conditions.

As usual, I took very few pictures myself, but did manage to shoot a couple - this one is a long exposure of the sea bathing pool at Bude.



I also managed to snap a few frames at Porthcothan. Porthcothan is one of my favourite locations on the north Cornwall coast, with some fabulous rock formations and a dramatic headland. The tide was falling but was not quite low enough for us to get round to my favourite spot. However, the wet sand and tidal pools left by the receding sea were still pretty photogenic. This was taken at the very end of the day, just as everyone was packing up.

Really busy with workshops at the moment and have just got back from the Dawn 2 Dusk 2-day workshop in west Dorset.

We had a great group of participants, who were good fun and really enthusiastic about their photography. The locations as always were stunning, including Burton Bradstock, Portland and West Bay and despite the weather forecast, we ended up with some really good light.

The met office had forecast low cloud for all of the first day, but luckily this turned out to be spectacularly wrong, as things cleared up from around mid-day and we were treated to a lovely mackerel sky at sunset. We were shooting Pulpit Rock at the time, which was as good a place as any to make the most of the conditions, and the only difficulty was keeping sea spray off the filters.

Off to north Cornwall at the weekend, hoping we get conditions as good as this...

Pictures of Corfe Castle shrouded in mist have become some of a cliche, but with some interesting conditions forecast last Monday, I couldn't resist a visit.

I arrived pre-dawn, with a thick ground fog swirling around the castle. Unusually, it was also overcast, and I thought that if the mist cleared around the castle, there could be the opportunity for something slightly different. After a bit of waiting around, the castle started to become visible, and I took a series of shots, with this one probably being my favourite.



About half an hour after sunrise, the sun began to break through the clouds above the castle, so I took a few more shots. It was quite contrasty, so I bracketed shots to blend later. This was the result; there may be a few more to come from this shoot, as I haven't finished editing all the pictures yet.

The workshop season is now underway... Dawn 2 Dusk’s first workshop - one of most popular, in west Cornwall - is just two weeks away and I’ve got a number of one-to-ones booked for late winter and early spring.

The first of these took place today, based in the Purbecks. We started off in Swanage, where the north easterly blowing across the bay cut through allegedly wind-proof coats and numerous ‘warm’ layers... However, it was a decent sunrise and some good pictures were taken.

We visited a few locations during the day, finishing up at Kimmeridge Bay... it’s been photographed a lot, but it’s a great location for teaching purposes, so worth visiting on workshops.



There was no cloud cover at sunset, which was disappointing, but it was low tide and the ledges were exposed nicely, and the light, even with a clear sky, was excellent at the end of the day.

I ventured out with the camera yesterday, for the first time this year, and headed down to Dancing Ledge. This is one of my favourite locations in Purbeck, with its dramatic cliffs, and the large, flat rocky ledge, complete with ammonites its surface, leading down to the sea. There’s also a small bathing pool in the ledge, which was blasted out of the rock by headmaster of one of the local schools around the beginning of the twentieth century, and which makes an excellent foreground for a wide angle shot.

Access isn’t easy, which means that there aren’t often that many people there, but photographically speaking, opportunities are limited by the fact that for most of the year the sun rises and sets over the land, though at this time of year, it rises over the sea.

Pre-dawn there was some colourful cloud in the sky, but this had largely cleared by the time the sun broke the horizon. This picture was shot just as the sun rose above the low-lying cloud, and is a blend of two exposures - one for the foreground and cliffs, and the other for the sky.

My quest continues for a decent sunrise over the Pinnacles, the jagged chalk stacks sticking out of the sea just outside Swanage, on Dorset’s Jurassic coast.

Encouraged by the weather forecast, I walked up to Handfast Point yesterday morning. The clouds were thickening towards dawn, but there was still some pretty intense colour, though it lasted for no more than 5 minutes. But still enough time for a couple snaps, both of the Pinnacles and Old Harry Rocks.

This is probably my favourite, composed with plenty of space to left of the cliffs, to make the most of the colourful sky and the reflected colours in the sea below.

It's at this time of year that photographers gather at dawn on the beach at Durdle Door, hoping to get a shot of the sun rising through the arch. Of course, a successful shot depends on being there in exactly the right conditions, so more often than not, shoots end in disappointment, and unless you're really lucky, it can take multiple visits to get what you want. This is one I managed last year:


It's a reasonable shot, and the starburst effect works well, but there's clearly room for improvement - in particular, more interest in the sky would be nice.

I've been back a couple of times so far this year, trying to get a better version of the shot, but with no success so far. This morning, a thick bank of cloud on the horizon meant that not only was the sun covered as it rose, but also there was no colour in the sky whatsoever.

My fallback position was to shoot some long exposures, with simple, bold compositions, such as these:




In the end, I went for total minimalism, and this turned out to be my favourite shot of the morning.



December 7th 2011

Even though I take pictures for a living, I don’t manage to get out with the camera as often as I’d like, as photography still has to be fitted around other commitments - in my case, mostly writing, the admin that comes with self-employment, and family commitments - mainly consisting of the school run and ferrying my son to and from swimming training. And although I’ve managed to get out with the camera a fair bit over the last seven days, it’s never been when the light has been at its best.

I’ve been after a decent sunrise looking over the Pinnacles towards Swanage for a while now, and had hoped that this morning was going to be it.... However, despite what the met office had promised, the light really wasn’t great. Eventually, a little colour crept up through the cloud, so I took a couple of shots, with this one probably being the best of them.



The colour also found its way into the sky above Old Harry Rocks, so it was worth a shot with the camera pointing north as well. A ten second exposure, combined with pastel colours has resulted in something of a painterly look.




November 29th 2011

Hello and welcome to the first instalment of my new blog - keeping people up to date with what I’ve been up to and also featuring the occasional ramblings about wider issues in photography and life in general.

The last couple of weeks have been a bit of a frustrating time photographically, with the weather, family commitments and equipment failure all conspiring to prevent me from venturing out as much as I’d like to get new material....

However, on Sunday morning I took a trip to Mupe Bay with a couple of other local photographers. Mupe is hard to access, being a fair trek across the Lulworth Army Ranges, with quite a portion of that being a steep climb. It’s very isolated and there’s iffy phone reception, so it’s generally a good idea to go with others. It’s worth the effort to get there, though, being one of those locations, like Porth Nanven in Cornwall, which seems to have been made specifically for photographers; a really dramatic stretch of coastline, with rocky ledges leading in to the picture towards distant focal points, and craggy rocks poking out of the sea.

Having made such an effort to get there, it was disappointing that the weather wasn’t more favourable; we were met by a grey and stormy dawn, with huge amounts of spray making any attempt at photography difficult... Perhaps at an easier to get to location, we might not have bothered at all, but we were determined to make the trip worthwhile.

Out of the few shots I took, this was probably the most successful. It’s certainly not a great shot, but it shows that photography is possible even in really challenging conditions.