Tag Archives: photography

Brighton Starling Murmurations

Every year between between the end of October and the start of March tens of thousands of starlings can be seen flocking around Brighton Pier. I am lucky in that my office is only a 3 minute walk from the pier, so if the weather is good I will often wander down to the pier 20 minutes before sunset to watch and shoot one of nature’s wonders. That said they flock no matter what the weather, it’s amazing to watch the move in unison even in very strong winds. Below are some of video and photos of Brighton’s starlings that I have shot over the years.

Shot in January 2016 on a Samsung NX1.

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Samsung NX300 hands on review

A few weeks ago I was invited by Samsung, along with 30 other european bloggers, to join them for two crazy days to test out the new Samsung NX300. We spent the our time putting the cameras though it’s paces at various speedy events like speed boat rides, horse racing and a whistle stop tour of London. The outcome of this event is that some of the 30 are going to be sent to Paris to meet the equally speedy Usain Bolt and shoot him with the NX 300. There is also a possibility of you being there, courtesy of Samsung, if you check out this Facebook page. After spending two days with the camera I wrote a full review of the NX300 which you can read below.

Samsung NX300

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Posted in Cameras, Reviews | Tagged , , , , | 104 Comments

Snowy England January 2013

In January the UK got a decent amount of snow, like most times we get snow the South East gets the least amount. When it first started snowing I was in the New Forest with my family where we got a decent amount of snow, as soon as we got back to Brighton it started show here to, lucky us, double whammy! I tried to document as much as I could. Below are some of my pictures from those few days. If you want to see more pictures of swimmers in the snow from previous years check out this portfolio.

Hardy fisherman in the snow

Lindy launghing in the snow

First  real experience of snow

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Posted in Brighton | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Cheap photography accessories / photographic gift suggestions

Photography as a hobby can be expensive but it does not have to be, which is great news for people looking to get a camera related gift for a photography obsessed acquaintance. I have put together a little list of cheap camera accessories and photography-related items. Everything on the list is under £14 ($20). For your convenience I have added links to Amazon’s UK and US sites for most of the items. If you wanted to spend a little more you could of course look at some of my books or prints. You could of course go crazy and send someone on one of my photo courses, but if you budget won’t stretch that check out my bargain suggestions below:

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5 Lightroom tips (one for each year it has existed)

Update November 2012: Since writing these tips Lightroom 5 has been realised and I am happy to say all the tips below still work in Lightroom 5 and 4. The next two paragraphs might not be that relevant anymore so to get to the tips just click here.

Lightroom is Adobe’s flagship photo processing and organizing tool which celebrated its 5th birthday in February 2012 (I am a little late in posting this!). What better way can there be to celebrate this other than giving you my five top Lightroom tips? I started using it when it was version 1 with a G4 Power Book in April 2007. Its use is widespread amongst photographers now and I know fewer and fewer people using alternatives. I for one can’t image working without it. I don’t start up Photoshop anymore unless I want to combine two or more images or move things around in an image.

Lightroom 4 was released in March 2012 and one of the hottest features was the price drop. It’s now just £99 for the full version and £59 for the upgrade. I am pretty sure that when I got version 1 it was £250 or more. It’s one of the only things I really try and push on people that take my photography course is to get this software as it will make you life so much easier.

Read on if you want to get the low down on: Split toning, Target adjustment tool, Solo mode, Rejecting & Brush resizing

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Brighton Open House 2012

During every weekend in May, I will exhibiting at an Open House exhibition at 21a Brunswick Square in Hove along with ten other artists. As usual I am exhibiting with my wife Rockcake who will have jewellery on show. Most of the work in the show is of a photographic nature to it but there is print making, illustration and sculpture on show too.

I am not going to go into details of everyone’s work but write about a few. Rob Orchard is showing a limited edition poster of his Brighton Pub project. On Sunday the 13th and Saturday 19th there will be an opportunity to get Dollerized by Lisa Bamford. Check my Dollerized portrait below to see what that entails. Lisa and I are also showing large range of block mounted prints.

Lomokev

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Interviewed for BBC article on Instagram

Instagram has been all over the news recently with the announcement that it’s being purchased by Facebook for one billion dollars. If by some small chance you don’t know what Instagram is you can read a review I wrote here. Stephen Dowling wrote a piece for the BBC online magazine titled “Has Instagram made everyone’s photos look the same?”. I was one of the Instagram users he interviewed, you can read the article in full here. I thought it would be nice to post my responses to Stephen’s questions in full in case you’re curious for more.

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Lomokev judging Create In Brighton competition with £1000 cash prize

Are you a creative type living or working in Brighton? Then you could enter Create in Brighton. It’s a graphic design, photography and illustration competition in association with Know the Not Known and Tiger Beer.

I have been asked to judge along with Lawrence Zeegen and Sarah Arnett. The theme of the competition is “discover” and the top prize if £1000 cash. Work must be submitted by Sunday 22nd of January 2012. For more details and how to enter check out the website or the competition Facebook page.

Even though I am a little biassed I can say it’s a great competition to enter as its free, its quite common for comps to ask for an entrance fees sometimes £15+. Also the £1000 is in cash, other comps will often offer vouchers. So what are waiting for get involved. Continue reading

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