Before the Royal Photographic Society headquarters was moved from the atmospheric Octagon Gallery in central Bath to the anonymous and characterless office on the outskirts of the city it was a magical place to visit. It was a big deal to take the train for a day out in Bath. There was a real sense of excitement and delicious anticipation as the train approached the city and the honey-coloured buildings in the valley were slowly revealed.

And the Octagon was the jewel in the crown, I would put off walking up the hill to the gallery for as long as possible, enjoying the anticipation. I would cross Pultney Bridge and walk a circuit back around to the Roman Baths, pause for tea in the square and join the audiences for the various buskers, knowing that the best part of the day was still to come. The magnetism of the Octagon would inevitably draw me up the hill though and with a genuine, spine-tingling thrill I would finally allow myself to walk into the narrow bookshop and two or more hours of real delight would commence.

The bookshop was so narrow that you'd have to squeeze in to let people pass but that small area contained a wealth of photographic books and postcards that I just would never have seen anywhere else. Having looked at probably every book in the small shop and selected my postcards to buy on the way out I would continue into the Aladdin's Cave of the gallery itself. I'm sure I must have seen lots of exhibitions with colour images in the Octagon but in my memory all of the photographs were black and white. The first exhibition I saw there contained stark photographs taken in Haiti. Dark studies of men holding severed pig's heads and carrying coffins down dusty tracks, photos of voodoo dolls and fat women with fearsome expressions. Oh God, it was divine.

Walking slowly around the eight-sided room, studying these outrageous images made you feel like you'd entered a special underground club. The knowledge that in the daylight outside, people were walking along the street, shopping, using the cash-point, waiting for the pedestrian crossing, only heightened the sense that you were one step removed from the rest of the world briefly.

I eventually joined the RPS and took the train to Bath more regularly, attending opening nights and private views of exhibitions there. I once saw Don McCullin open an exhibition in the Octagon and, at that time at least, I wouldn't have been more impressed if I'd bumped into Mick Jagger or Bono or the Pope. In fact, I'd have been a lot less impressed.

And now? A few years ago the RPS moved its headquarters to a small office building on the outskirts of Bath. It looks like an office for an Insurance Broker or an Estate Agent. Magic? It has none. Disappointed? I was gutted.

None of which has anything to do with what I started this post about so please forgive the rather self-indulgent digression. This post is actually about the Deutsche Borse Photography Prize and the fact that the Photographers' Gallery in London is relocating to a "£15.5 million, architect-designed, purpose-built address in Soho". I'm hoping that the Photographers' Gallery will offer some of the magic that was lost to me when the RPS moved.

I was going to write about the Deutsche Borse because it's a great competition and the shortlisted works are inspirational but instead I'll simply point you to this article in the Telegraph and suggest that you take a look at the work of Fazal Sheikh, the first of the shortlisted photographers featured.

Tags: photographer's gallery, exhibitions, photography

The Digital Photography Review web site, which is a great source of in-depth camera reviews, is launching a lens review section. The lens reviews will be illustrated by a fancy new widget.

"At the heart of the reviews is a unique interactive ‘widget’ has been designed to present the test results in a way that allows visitors to experiment visually with variables such as focal length and aperture and see immediately the effect such changes have on overall image quality, and to compare the performance of different lenses. The user-friendly presentation ensures that even those with limited technical knowledge of optics or digital imaging will be able to use the reviews."

What's great about the new widget is that allows you to set the focal length and aperture by sliders so you can see the relative performance of a lens across the entire range. There are only four reviews on the web site so far but I expect these to be added to pretty quickly.

Tags: kit, photography

There's something comically appealing about Rickshaws. I love them. They're a great way to get around, especially in big cities and places like New Delhi now have NPG-powered rickshaws so they're environmentally friendly too.

Sitting in the back of a rickshaw, you don't feel like you're removed from your surroundings in the same way that you do in a car. Sometimes that's a bad thing as zooming down a crowded city street at improbable speeds can make you feel a little vulnerable but mostly it's a good thing as it keeps you involved in what's going on. Also, rickshaw drivers are a hard-working but friendly bunch. In places like Agra, where there are far too many rickshaws for the numbers of tourists, the drivers can become a bit pushy bit in my experience they're never far from breaking into a smile and although they might trail behind you as you walk back to your guesthouse or hostel from a nearby eating house, they are rarely without a sense of humour.

This article in the Guardian comes from a couple who have just driven a Rickshaw over 4000 miles through India to Nepal. There's more information about the Rickshaw Run over at the Team Snailpace web site.

Tags: guardian

I'm having some prints made by a pro printing company at the moment. And when I say "Professional", that's exactly what I mean. All the pro printers I've ever met have been passionate about their work. They eat, drink and sleep printing, know every pantone colour by number, can quote the weight of every paper stock ever made and can tell when you haven't included an ICC colour profile with your digital files just by sniffing the CD cover.

But none, I suspect, can quite compete with this guy:

Tags: printing, video, photography

This weekend was the annual RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch and inspired by Nic's annual report I decided to participate myself this year. In an hour our garden welcomed the following:

Blackbirds: 2
Blue Tits: 2
Chaffinch: 2
Collared Dove: 2
Great Tit: 2
Great Spotted Woodpecker: 1
Long-tailed Tit: 2
Robin: 3
Starling: 1
Woodpigeon: 2

Clearly the instinct to be part of a pair is strong in north Hampshire birds, except for the Starling and one of the Robins, who I suspect might be having an affair.

I was pleased that the woodpecker decided to visit during the "Birdwatch" hour as he's often around and I wanted to make sure he was included in the results. He duly obliged. The picture above is one that I snapped of him last year with the camera on a very long USB cable connected to a laptop in the kitchen. He was a bit punkier then with his spiky hair but he's much more sober looking now.

There were almost 42,000 results posted when I went to register mine and I imagine there will be a lot more in a couple of days' time. You can view the results online.

Tags: rspb

ephotozine announces the forthcoming AOP Portfolio exhibition. The exhibition will run from February 7th to February 28th at the AOP Gallery, 81 Leonard Street, London. EC2A 4QS and I'm hoping to have eight of my photographs exhibited.

Tags: exhibitions, photography

There can't be a travel photographer on the planet who isn't very familiar with Steve McCurry's photographs. I know that I'll be yanking one or two people's chains when I mention him but, for me, his biography and his photographs can be a valuable resource for anyone hoping to make a living shooting travel photographs.

There's an interview with McCurry at PDN Online, which makes for interesting reading. A couple of quotes stood out for me, "Just because someone’s wearing a turban, doesn’t mean it’s an interesting photo.", which a lot of photographers forget when they start photographing in unfamiliar locations.

Also, "Sometimes when I travel with photographers, there’s a distance between them and the people they see", which I think can also be true. Perhaps it's because the sort of locations that McCurry regularly photographs in, Thailand, Tibet, Burma etc., can seem so strange to western eyes that there's a temptation for photographers to look at local people as "subjects" rather than people. That's human nature I suppose but there's no doubt that my best photographs have been made after I've first made friends with the people I hope to photograph.

Lastly, "If you want to be a photographer, you have to photograph. If you look at the photographers whose work we admire, they’ve found a particular place or a subject, dug deep into it, and carved out something that’s become special. And that takes a lot of time and a lot of work – that’s not for everyone." is a comment that resonated for me. I know that being a "Travel Photographer" and being based in the UK is something of an oxymoron - but more about that later.

And whatever your opinion of Steve McCurry, I think you'd be hard pushed to say that his photograph of the four Burmese nuns proceeding down a rain-soaked street and dressed in pink robes isn't as yummy as the marshmallows that those robes put me in mind of (see the bottom of the PDN article).

Tags: interviews, photography

Canon have announced a new digital camera in their EOS range. The 450D will replace the 400D and features a 12.2 Megapixel sensor. Yikes!

With Live View, the EOS sensor cleaning system, 9-point auto-focus and 3.5 frames per second this is an entry-level camera that packs a lot of punch.

There's a full review over at dpreview.com.

Tags: canon, photography

I've wanted to have a go at producing one of these images of a smoky abstract for a while, since first seeing them on the Chromasia web site. They seem so other-worldy and the shapes produced by the smoke particles are often quite beautiful. It's also interesting how we tend to want to find recognisable shapes in the smoky curves. I've seen faces and bodies, words and letters, musical notations and all manner of other things. I quite like this one and if you're interested in my interpretation then I think that the top half resembles one of those political cartoon or Pink Floyd characters by Gerald Scarfe, there's a big "S" that starts about half-way down and the bottom shape is a woman with her bottom on back-to-front. God, I hope there are no psychiatrists reading this.

Getting set up to produce these smoky abstracts isn't that tricky. It's just a case of getting a dark background, I have a piece of black card, positioning the camera about six feet away from it and placing an incense stick half-way between camera and background. As I don't have a remote release for my flash at the moment I just drew the curtains and set the camera for a 1 second exposure at f/22 (ISO 800). I needed a long exposure to give me time to manually fire the flash and to give plenty of depth-of-field. Keeping the smoke sharp is the biggest hassle as movement of just one or two inches backwards or forwards can take it out of focus. Having lit the incense, I took about 200 shots (thank God for digital), of which only about 8 or 9 are both sharp and have interesting shapes.

When I'd settled on a shot that I liked, I altered the white balance to make the smoke look a little bluer. Interestingly, although there was only a single light source the smoke varied in colour so there were various tones to play with. In Photoshop I applied a V-shaped Curve Layer which inverted the colours, changing the black to white and the brown tones to blues. Lastly, I used the "Replace Colour" option to introduce the pink hues although because of the inverting curves layer I had to select a green colour at the opposite end of the spectrum to the pink that I wanted.

Tags: photoshop, photography

"I don't give a damn what TripAdvisor says", declares the proprietor of the Nanford Guest House in Oxford, recently announced as the "Dirtiest Hotel in Britain".

I have used TripAdvisor quite regularly in the past when planning trips as it's useful to see what previous occupants have said about a hotel or guest house where I might be planning to stay. Visitors often leave helpful advice like "avoid the rooms on the ground floor" or "Room 6 has a fantastic view of the beach" so it's a bit like asking a friend to go and check out a place for you before you book.

However, the proprietor of the Nanford clearly doesn't share my enthusiasm for TripAdvisor and I can understand his reticence. It's hardly a glowing recommendation and if you check out the individual reports then you'll find unadulterated comments like "The entrance hall stank of urine, the staff were incredibly rude, the beds had ticks, the shower was a dribble, but best of all what came out of the taps genuinely looked and smelled like it had came from the toilet"

Every cloud has a silver lining of course and the proprietor is currently welcoming a string of journalists keen to check out the accommodation for themselves. The latest report comes from The Guardian and whilst the journos are probably staying at the nearby Randolph Hotel rather than the Nanford, their regular visits is at least giving the proprietor a chance to brush up on his reportedly rusty Customer Service skills.

Tags: guardian

I'm pleased to say that the Photo Workshop that I'm running in Dorset on April 19th has now completely sold out. Due to the levels of interest that we've received, I'm delighted to announce that we have added a second date on Sunday 20th April, 2008.

Further details can be found on the Workshop page of my web site and you can reserve your place online at Jason Friend's web site.

Please don't hesitate to contact me if you'd like more information about the Workshops, I'm always happy to talk through what we hope to achieve on the day and to answer any questions you might have.

Tags: dorset, photography

Concluding my uncustomary spate of blog posts, here is the nifty little MacBook Air and a link to where you can find out more about it. I see that it's due to retail at $1799 in the USA so you'd expect it to be about £900 in the UK. A quick look at the UK Apple store reveals that the Air is £1200. Why we have to pay so much more is a mystery to me but it seems to be an across-the-board situation that Europeans have to cough up more to satisfy their techno-addictions than our transatlantic cousins.

I also note that the standard MacBook Air comes with a 80Gb hard drive but that for an extra £900 you can replace that with a 64Gb solid-state drive. I guess the solid-state drive is more desirable because you there will be fewer issues with heat.

I'm amazed at the technology and the fact that it's possible to get so much into such a thin notebook. Having said that, there's not much to choose between a MacBook Air and a normal MacBook in terms of specification so you're really paying the extra cash for the size and weight reduction. I'll stick with my MacBook Pro for the time being although I guess that it won't be too long before Apple announce an "Air" version of the Pro.

Tags: mac

Well, surprise, surprise, Steve Jobs does indeed announce a new, weeny MacBook. It's called the MacBook Air, is wafer thin but has a full-size keyboard with 13.3" display. It boasts a 80GB drive as standard with Core 2 Duo at 1.6GHz or 1.8GHz.

My first impression is that it will be the product that further boosts the reputation of Apple for innovative design. I mean, he announced this shiny new notebook by sliding it out of an A4 manilla envelope for goodness sake. I feel a Magpie-like complex developing...

(read more at macworld.com)

Tags: mac

Further to my previous post about the possibility of Steve Jobs announcing a new, scaled-down laptop at this week's Expo, one accessory manufacturer keen to keep ahead of the game has already made their own announcement: "Expect a press release late Wednesday night regarding a new laptop case to ship this Friday if Steve Jobs announces a new laptop at MacWorld tomorrow".

Do you think they know something we don't?

(Original article on macworld.com)

Tags: mac

In last year's Macworld Expo keynote speech, Steve Jobs announced the arrival of the iPhone. If you want to hear what the "must have" Apple product for 2008 is going to be first then you can find live blogging from the event at macworld.com.

If you wanted to put money on a new, scaled-down MacBook Pro being announced (ideal for travel photographers, for example) then you'd get short odds around here as the rumours of such a device have been rampant in recent weeks. I hear that the mini Mac notebook will retail at between £800 and £1000, won't contain an optical drive and will rely on flash memory. Let's see what Mr. Jobs has to say.

Tags: mac

I'm not entirely sure of the significance of the news that Digital Railroad is to cut staff. Charles Mauzy, CEO, has said in a statement to stockphototalk that Digital Railroad would be concentrating more on the Marketplace feature in future. Marketplace is a recent development in Digital Railroad's history and allows members to see images directly to buyers and gives buyers a central place to buy members' images from.

It's been suggested that Digital Railroad might be saying goodbye to over 20 employees, which would be almost half of its work force. Either those people have genuinely become surplus to requirements as the company moves its focus or something more problematic is afoot. It seems strange for a company that's received so much investment and which is supposed to be rapidly growing should feel the need to shed so many staff.

Time will tell I'm sure but I'd watch this space.

Tags: digital railroad, photography

The British Journal of Photography has an interesting, albeit brief, summary of what it draws photographers to shoot travel these days. There is mention of further discussion of Travel Photography in this week's edition and although I'm not a subscriber I will look out for this issue and see what else is said.

Tags: bjp, article, tpoty, photography

The Association of Photographers has a tradition of showcasing the work of new members and presenting their work to the photographic industry.

"The annual 'Portfolio' exhibition has become immensely popular with agents and buyers giving those in the photography industry an opportunity to review work from a new generation of AOP members"

I'm hoping to exhibit a panel of photographs in the 2008 'Portfolio' Exhibition and will provide more details here as they become available. For now though, make a date in your diary:

P O R T F O L I O 5th Feb - 28th Feb, 2008 THE AOP GALLERY 81 LEONARD STREET LONDON EC2A 4QS (map) Admission: Free The image on the right, taken at Angkor in Cambodia, has also been exhibited at the AOP Gallery as a finalist in the AOP Open Competition.

Tags: exhibitions, aop, photography

Tewfic El-Sawy's blog regularly carries news and reviews of the work of inspiring travel photographers. He's beginning a series of occasional interviews with travel and editorial photographers and I'm delighted to be his first interviewee.

Tags: tewfic el-sawy, photography

If you're looking for a slightly cynical and tongue-in-cheek, yet often worryingly incisive, review of the Commercial Photography year in 2007, then the EPUK Golden Cameraphone Awards are for you.

Tags: epuk, photography

One thing I wanted to do on the blog was to post my favourite photo of 2007. However, this has proved to be more difficult that it initially seemed it might be. Firstly, what criteria should be applied to select a "favourite"? Should it be the photo that's proved most popular in terms of sales? Well, no, I didn't choose that one although this photo of the Statue of Liberty (below left) has sold a lot recently so has built a certain fondness in my heart (and the heart of my Bank Manager).

What's interesting about this is that for all the photos taken of the Statue of liberty, and there must be millions, this dead straight and, if I'm brutally honest, pretty uninspiring image shot beneath an overcast sky has outsold many others that I took a great deal more time and care over. Having said that, some of my more "creative" shots of the statue (below right) have sold too so they were obviously worth taking as well.

So, if not the best selling shot then which would be my favourite from 2007? It really has been impossible to choose and so I've selected the following five shots based purely on how I was feeling an the moment I took them.

Shooting portraits of people in Morocco is all but impossible so I was pleased to eventually get an opportunity to photograph a local man against a typically "Moroccan" backdrop - although he did scowl when he eventually turned to see me.

The photo of the church was taken in Dinan in France and was just a joy because of the light flooding through the stained glass window. Equally, the final picture of the Danube in Budapest is included simply because of the quality of the light at the time I took it.

I've included the photo of the bridesmaid just because wedding photography is not really my thing so I'm always apprehensive when I take on the responsibility of shooting a couple's wedding photos. But I remember knowing that I probably had this particular wedding day under my belt when I snapped this beautiful and charismatic bridesmaid on the stairs at the bride's house.

Lastly, the photo of the Independence Statue in Budapest is included because it's a statue that I was absolutely enthralled with when I saw it and because it made my pre-dawn journey across Budapest to get to the Citadella for sunrise well worth the effort.

It's far from being a definitive selection and I could easily select another five pictures that I'm equally pleased with. These five do, however, offer a small representation of what was a mostly rewarding year in photographic terms. I've never been one to dwell though so must admit that I'm becoming much more excited about the prospect of my 2008 photos. Let's hope they exceed my expectations.

Tags: photography

Congratulations to Wink, winner of the 2007 Photoblog awards. Congratulations too to our friends at Chromasia for making it to the final ten and for scooping the title of Best European Photoblog.

Taking a look through the finalists' web sites will give you a real treat, there is some really creative and quirky work being presented. One thing I did notice is that the photoblogs do seem to increasingly rely upon post-production effects. I've no argument against that, it's all part of the production process and I admire the skill of those people who can manipulate their images in Photoshop to get the very best out of them.

It did strike me though that there seem to be fewer photographs that work purely on the subject matter and composition alone. I may have seen a skewed selection of pictures as I flicked briefly through the nominated web sites and it's really just an observation in passing. There's a certain, very obviously "Photoshopped" style that seems to be prevalent in Photoblogs these days. I'm not saying that's a good or a bad thing, it just is.

One site that did buck that trend (to immediately contradict myself) was The G8 (pronounced "The Gate" not "Gee-Eight"), which has some lovely portraits.

There are some lovely, atmospheric pictures at SHOTZZ, some stunning black & white surfing shots at Shazeen Samad and some evocative landscape photographs at the photo-passion web site.

Each of the finalists' web sites is thoroughly engaging and whatever the arguments about the relative health of the commercial side of photography, photography as an art form can surely never have been healthier or more popular. The ability for any photographer to so easily publish their work to a worldwide audience will undoubtedly continue to make photography an increasingly popular pastime, both for the takers and for the viewers. And Hurrah for that say I.

Tags: photography, blogs

Magnum in Motion, producers of some amazing web-based AV slideshows, would also like to wish you a Happy New Year. This slideshow is a great example of how photos are being used on the web in ever-more dynamic and entertaining presentations.

Tags: photography, magnum

Firstly, I'd like to wish you a very Happy New Year. 2008 promises much and I hope that your year is an enchanting and rewarding one.

The start of a new year is always welcome from the point of view of the fresh start that it offers, the opportunity to clear away any cobwebs and to set off with fresh resolve (that's "resolve" as in the state of mind not "Resolve" the hangover remedy). I'm particularly excited about 2008 as it seems to promise much. There are, of course, many trips planned for me personally and I'm very excited about the new places that I hope to be visiting and the new photos that I hope to be taking, more of which later.

I'm kicking off 2008 in a great position professionally, with contracts with my top three stock photo libraries in place and knowing that each is keen to see new material so I'm hugely enthusiastic about the prospects on the stock front.

The Photo Workshops that I'm planning with Jason Friend are filling up fast. The Dorset workshop in April has already sold out and so we're hoping to add a second date on April 20th. There will also be another Dorset workshop in October and I'm joining Jason and Jo Sparks in Cumbria in February and we also have plans to tackle Hadrian's Wall. Watch this space for future plans for overseas workshops in Morocco and locations in South East Asia. The Photo Workshops are something that I've been keen on running for several years so it's nice to feel that they are now coming together.

For the Techies among you, I've spent the period between Christmas and New Year doing a complete uninstall on my Mac, replacing Tiger with Leopard, and re-installing all the software necessary for running a successful Travel Photography business. Apple claim that Leopard brings 300 new features to their OS and although they count some new desktop wallpapers as "features" there is enough in the new system to make the time upgrading well worth it.

If you're interested in the software that I use, you can find a complete list under my profile at iusethis.com. I have nothing against Microsoft but you'll see that we're now a Microsoft-free zone at Gough Towers, which I guess is something of a rarity these days.

Finally, on the techy front, I see that the tablet Mac is well on the way. I'll be interested in seeing how that works from a practical point of view as I suspect that it might be simpler to use than a laptop, especially when much of your work involves processing and cataloguing photographs.

Tags: mac