This post is much later than I had planned so my apologies.

While I was working over in Italy this August I had my camera glued to my hand. This was my first trip to Italy and I had the pleasure of going to Malcesine on Lake Garda, just south of the Dolomites.

The town of Malcesine was very small but very beautiful with its tight winding cobbled streets, small boutique shops and all this was dominated by “Castello Scageri” The castle was incredibly picturesque and was where the wedding took place that brought me to Italy in the first place (pictures here).

I drove around the whole lake and each village looked as though it had come from a Disney film, the brightly colours buildings set against mountains in the background and a shimmering lake in the foreground.

I can highly recommend a stay in this part of the world if you haven’t already and if you have, maybe make another visit soon. Here are a few images from my travels.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I had been asked to help out at Chillington Hall’s open day this coming Sunday. We’re open to the public from 11am through to 3pm. I will be on hand to show people around the hall and to discuss their photography requirements. I will also have a few albums and the projector with me so you will have a great opportunity to see the hall and myself.


We are aware it’s mother’s day but what could be better than a Bride to be and her Mom spending a few hours together without the boys? We have arranged for a gift for each Mom that comes along.


I have been selected as a preferred partner for Chillington hall. If you haven’t seen the Hall, it is a wonderful venue in the middle of the country between Wolverhampton, Telford and Stafford. I am really excited about our partnership and look forward to shooting lots of weddings at this top class venue.


I managed to get up there today while the weather was so great and took a few shots. I hope to see some of you this Sunday.

I have been down on the south coast again this week, to be more precise Plymouth. I’m down visiting my second photographer Bryn. The idea was to spend all week taking landscape photographs but this morning has been the first day we have had dry spells!


I don’t mind storms or inclement weather, in fact, given I like my landscapes dark and brooding most of the time, I look forward to that weather but it’s just been dull, overcast and wet. That’s the thing with landscapes I guess, you can have a great location but if the weather doesn’t want you to shoot there isn’t anything you can do about it. When the weather forecast for today was showers we took the risk and got up with enough time to spare to get down to the coast about an hour before sunrise. Our optimism paid off and we were rewarded with about one and a half hours of useable light.


I have had a quick look through the shots I took and below are three of the best. I have been forced to process these on a PC using Picasa 3 and an un-calibrated monitor so if they are not up to the usual standard please forgive me and I will process them again once I get back to Wolverhampton.


* UPDATE *


The files did need a little more work, Im quite glad actually, at least I know all that time and money invested in colour correct monitors, calibration equipment and software was worth while! Updated phots have replaced the originals.

Happy new year to everyone. To start the year off on a high I thought I would post some pictures I took today.


We had some snow overnight so I decided to tread the same towpath as I have on a number of occasions to show what the canal looks like in winter. It wasn’t very cold but I only managed a two hour window between cloudless sky and fully overcast! still, it helps burn off all that turkey ;-)


I am really starting to get into my landscapes, it takes quite a mental shift from the hustle and bustle of weddings to the relative tranquility of landscapes but one that I am thoroughly enjoying. I don’t think these three images could be any more different even if I had tried.

The UK was particularly cold last week and as a result there were a couple of really foggy days here in the Midlands. I have been looking forward to the fog as I really wanted to get out and take some shots for ages but managed to either miss it or be too busy. Last week was different. I got out for around three hours and got a handful of shots. I was really surprised by how different things look to the camera. I had noted a few places that I thought would be good locations but when I got there the images seemed very flat but other places that I stumbled upon came out quite nicely, tell me what you think..

After my last post I was left feeling quite inspired with all this moonlight photography. I have been keeping an eye out for a nice clear night and last night was perfect (although very cold) I went to the same canal but walked north this time, away from the houses. I was looking for a cleaner, more simple composition (thanks for all the feedback)

At first I tried to get the moon in frame but it was SO bright last night I was getting worse flare from the lens than I have ever got shooting into the sun. I decided instead to go for a fairly classic landscape shot just shot with moonlight.

As ever, comments are always appreciated.

While we had a full moon I decided to do a little experimenting with long exposures. I took a walk along the tow path near my home in Wolverhampton, I have posted two of the images below. What was really surprising was the quality of the digital images. Each exposure time was in excess of 4 minutes and the noise levels are incredibly low, to the eye the tow-path was almost pitch-black!

I find it amazing that we can be in such awe over foreign landscapes and buildings when we can so easily disregard what is on our doorstep. I am guilty of it myself, I was overjoyed with my photographs from Yosemite Valley. I think I had done a reasonable job for a first visit but it wasn’t until a went walking with a friend of mine through Cannock chase I realised that right on our doorstep was this beautiful scenery. Fortunately we had gone out with our cameras and I was able to capture these images.

After looking at the website in my last post for what must be the 10th time I was spurred on to posting my own Yosemite photos taken on my honeymoon. They are not quite to the same standard as Ansel Adams but it was my first time there!

I took a few days out at the beginning of this month and visited a friend at his home in Plymouth. We took our cameras and had some fun.
Here are just a few of the images.