Did You Receive A Gift Voucher?

Merry Christmas to you all and wishing you a very happy New Year.

Many of you will have received One-to-One photography tuition gift vouchers for Christmas, and may be wondering about the best way to go about using them. Now, assuming they're for tuition with me, here's what you do...

The voucher entitles you to a 4 hour tuition session, at a location of your choice. If it's in the Brentwood/Billericay/Chelmsford/Romford area, there are no further costs involved, if you'd like to meet outside these areas, I will make a small charge for travelling.



Have a think about what you would like to cover during your time with me, and start making notes of any questions you may have, to ensure you get the most from the session. Decide what time of year would suit you best, don't feel you have to use the voucher straight away. If you want to wait until Spring or Summer, that's fine - there's no expiry date for the voucher.



Give me a ring, or email me, to arrange a date, time and location for your session. Note that the voucher is valid for 2 years, so don't feel rushed into using it. Feel free to discuss anything at this time, as it's better that we both know what you would like to get out of the tuition before we get started. I am available any day of the week, but please be aware that I run workshops and also work for Essex Wildlife Trust on certain days, including weekends, so you may need to be flexible with your chosen date.



I can cover all sorts of requirements during these tuition sessions, whether it's getting to grips with the basics of your camera, or how to approach composition, or more specific themes like close-up or macro photography.



The whole point about 1-2-1 tuition is that you should get as much as possible from the time you have with me, so make sure you ask lots of questions, take lots of notes (even if they're just taken mentally), and above all enjoy yourself!

Last Minute Gift Vouchers

If you're considering buying a Private Photography Tuition Gift Voucher for Christmas, but think there's not time for me to post it out to you, don't worry, as I will email a voucher to you, as well as put one in the post.

So just pop along to the Gift Vouchers page, pay through Paypal, and be guaranteed to receive the voucher in time for the big day, even if you order at 8pm on Christmas Eve! :-)

Have a great Christmas, and I look forward to seeing you in 2012.

New Website Coming

I'm busy designing a new website at the moment, simply because my current one is somewhat out of date, with several areas that are less relevant to my business today, but also because my tuition leaflets bear little resemblance to my website.  I remembered this was the reason for changing to my current design about 8 years ago, my business cards were a new design, and they looked nothing like my website, so I spent the summer of 2003 have a major redesign.

My new website will be much smaller, with about half the number of pages, with much more emphasis on my photography tuition.  I'm having 'fun' getting to grips with HTML and CSS again, with the added joy of jQuery this time too, but it's coming together, and is now getting to the stages where I'm ready to fill it with content.

Anyway, here's a little sneaky peek at how the home page will look...

Another Cameraworld Day

For the last time this year, I'll be at Cameraworld in Chelmsford, Essex, for another free advice day.  Taking place on Saturday 12th November, I will be giving you the chance to try your hand at macro photography, as well as having tuition gift vouchers for sale.  Details can be found here

Free Advice Day - 8th October

I'm running another free advice day at Cameraworld in Chelmsford, Essex, on Saturday 8th October.  Details can be found here!

Macro Workshops

I have a few Close-Up and Macro Nature Photography Workshops coming up, the first at Hanningfield Reservoir this Sunday, a great location, and where I shot this Hawker Dragonfly egg-laying yesterday.


Pentax K-5, DA*300mm lens at F/6.7, 1/125s @ ISO400, handheld. (Click for larger version)

Be sure to book on and join me for a great day out, ring Hanningfield Reservoir Visitor Centre on 01268 711001 to secure your places.

Win Some 1-2-1 Tuition!

The National Trust at Hatfield Forest, Essex, are running a photography competition this summer, with the theme of 'Spots, Stripes and Spirals'. Photos need to be taken in the forest, so get yourself there, enjoy a walk in the woodland (there's over 1,000 acres to explore), try to spot some deer and take lots of photos.


What can you win?  Well, a 1-2-1 photography tuition session with me, which would normally cost you £100, so get snapping!

I'm just the prize, so for any questions about the competition itself, please get in touch with the NT at Hatfield Forest.

Nicholas Crane at the EWT AGM

On Saturday I was up at Walton-On-The-Naze to photograph the Essex Wildlife Trust AGM, which amongst other things had Nick Crane as guest speaker, and saw the official opening of the Crag Walk, a defence system to preserve the heritage of the Naze.

After last year's AGM, when Chris Packham was the special guest, I was really looking forward to this event, and it turned out to be a great one again, with even more people and an equally enjoyable talk by Nick.  It was especially nice to see so many people down on the beach after the Crag Walk opening too.

Here are a few photos from the day, many more have been forwarded to Essex Wildlife Trust for their publications.


Pentax K-5, DA*300mm lens @ f/4, 1/250s, ISO400, handheld.


Pentax K-5, Sigma 105mm lens @ f/4, 1/350s, ISO400, handheld.


Pentax K-5, DA*300mm lens @ f/4, 1/250s, ISO400, handheld.


Pentax K-5, DA16-45mm lens @ 16mm, f/9.5, 1/180s, ISO100, fill-flash, handheld.

And for something a bit more normal for me, the day before I was providing some 1-2-1 photography tuition at Hylands Park in Chelmsford, and took this photo of a Echinacea flower.


Pentax K-5, DA*300mm lens @ 6.7, 1/125s, ISO200, Tripod.

One thing I noticed when sorting this flower photo for the web, is how much better Firefox is for viewing images than Internet Explorer or Chrome.  The colours look just as I want them, whereas they're a bit intense with the others.  One of the problems with design for the internet, so many variables...

Recommended Camera Shops

I'm often asked which camera shops I would recommend, so I thought I'd pop a few down here.

Cameraworld (Chelmsford)

Found in the High Chelmer shopping centre, this (like the other shops mentioned here) is a proper camera shop, with friendly, knowledgeable staff, and decent prices.  They also have a good stock of secondhand cameras and lenses, which is nice to see.  They've been very good to me over the last few years, happy to promote my tuition and host my free advice days, but I wouldn't be happy returning the favour unless I thought they were as good as they are.

My only reservation is that they don't stock Pentax anymore, which means customers don't have a full choice of DSLRs, but most camera shops these days seem to not stock at least one of the major brands.

London Camera Exchange (Colchester)

A little tucked away along Eld Lane in Colchester, LCE is a small shop (I think my lounge is bigger), but it has a good range of equipment, and that all important friendly atmosphere.  It's where I bought my Pentax K-5, and when there was a problem with it that meant it had to be sent away, I couldn't have asked for a better service, which I think is the true measure of a good supplier.

SRS Microsystems (Watford)

A bit further away from me, but still local to many of my customers, SRS is the place to go to handle Pentax gear (even stocking the 645D digital Medium Format camera), but they carry most other main brands too (not Sony).  Like Cameraworld, SRS are internet retailers too, and you can be confident buying from either online.


So those are the main shops I tend to recommend, simply because I know them and can vouch for their service and integrity.  You can almost certainly get some things cheaper from other retailers, especially online, but I'd much rather spend a few pounds more and know that if there's a problem, I can get it sorted with little fuss, talking to real people.  I also remember the day when nearly every town had an independent, good camera shop on the high street, and I think we have to help the ones we have left before we lose all chance of handling goods before we buy them.

If you have any other suggestions, perhaps for shops in your area, please leave them as a comment!

Attention All Customers!

Unfortunately, in the heavy rain yesterday my mobile phone got a drenching and has now died a death.  The big problem is that it stores my calendar, which I regularly back up to my computer, but I've taken several bookings for 1-2-1 tuition since the last back-up, and I now cannot access these bookings.

If you're booked in for a private tuition session with me, please give me a ring (01277 233448) to confirm the date, time and location.

Apologies for the inconvenience.  It's a timely reminder to everyone to back-up anything they don't want to lose, whether that's appointments, contacts or photos.  I'm now off to see if I can find a decent waterproof mobile...

EDIT: My phone has now been revived enough to retrieve all appointments, so all is well!

New Tuition Leaflet

I've finally completed the update for my new tuition leaflet, and they've now been printed (all 2500 of them) and will be with me on Monday, all being well.  First to receive them will be Cameraworld in Chelmsford, as they've run out of the old version, and I don't have any more myself now.  I'll pop some into Hanningfield Reservoir on my way back from Chelmsford too.






The hardest part about the design was choosing the photos for it, and although some, such as the driftwood shot and beetle, were quite easy choices, others were a more drawn out affair, especially that of the cover image.  As I'd spent so much time choosing them, I thought I'd run through what I'd picked, and why I'd decided on these ones.


Pentax K10D, Pentax DA16-45mm @ 26mm, 1/250s, f/4, ISO200, handheld.

This silver birch trunk, surrounded by ferns, was in the Birkett Long Millennium Walk at Marks Hall, near Coggeshall.  The estate at Marks Hall is wonderful for photography, with formal planting, woodland, a walled garden, lakes and a river.  I like the rich colours and the stark contrast between the tree and the surrounding foliage, and the composition fitted the placement in the leaflet.  It was the last of the three 'inside' shots to be chosen, so the colour was a factor for me too.



Pentax K10D, Pentax DA*300mm, 1/90s, f/5.6, ISO100, tripod.

Shot on the beach at Minsmere, this was taken when we stopped over whilst on our way up to Norfolk last Spring.  It was a very wet day (you can see the rain in the photo), so it limited me to using just my 300mm lens, the only weatherproof one I had at the time.  I like the simplicity of this image, and I can almost see an odd figure in the wood - it just appeals to me.



Pentax K10D, Sigma 105mm Macro, 1/250s, f/3.5, ISO200, handheld.

Taken at Colchester Zoo last year, this has been converted to a high contrast black and white image, with the background burned in quite strongly to concentrate the view on the Lion.  I wanted one monochrome photo on the leaflet this time, and this is one of my favourites, and fairly eye-catching too, I think.



Pentax K10D, Sigma 105mm Macro, 1/10s, f/6.7, ISO200, handheld.

Whilst running a macro workshop at Thorndon Park in May 2009, I noticed there were several of these Longhorn beetles around.  They had the advantage of freezing whenever you got close to them, making composition and focusing relatively easy.  I like to include at least one high magnification macro shot on the leaflet, as that's particularly relevant to what I do.



Pentax K10D, Sigma 105mm Macro, 1/2s, f/11, ISO100, tripod.

Again, shot at Thorndon Park, this time whilst I was providing some 1-2-1 tuition, I was attracted to the hole in this fallen leaf, and knew it would record as a deep black due to the contrast range exceeding the capabilities of the camera sensor.  Choosing this image was largely due to needing one that would make a good background for the text whilst remaining interesting in itself.



Pentax K10D, Sigma 105mm Macro, 2/3s, f/13, ISO100, tripod, polariser.

The choice that caused me most problems, I was keen to have something other than an insect or an animal on the cover of this leaflet, so spent a lot of time looking through fungi and plant shots before finally settling on this fern.  I particularly wanted a clean, simple image for the cover, yet some of the choices (including this Orchid) seemed too stark.  I eventually remembered this fern photo, taken by Llyn Geirionydd in July 2007.  It has been one of my favourite images ever since, but for some reason, didn't immediately spring to mind when I was picking a photo for the leaflet.

So those are the photos and why I chose them - keep an eye out for them in a camera shop or EWT visitor centre near you!

Sunday Telegraph Feature

Back in March, Deborah King, a freelance writer commissioned by the Sunday Telegraph, came along to one of my workshops at Thorndon Park, and the feature she wrote as a result of that has finally been published in today's 'Life' supplement, on page L17 (click for a lager version).



Many thanks to Deborah for the great write up, it's lovely to have such a positive review in a national newspaper. If this has inspired you to join me on a workshop, then have a look at the workshops page and get yourself booked on!

Cameraworld Tuition Day

Once again, I will be at Cameraworld in Chelmsford for a free advice day, so if you have any questions of a photographic nature, just pop along to the shop in the High Chelmer shopping centre anytime between 9.30am and 5.30pm on Saturday 14th May and ask away!


I will have 1-2-1 Tuition Gift Vouchers with me too, so if you want to get one for the photographer in your life, you can get one on the day (of course, you can always order one through my website here).

Details of the day can be found here.  See you in 3 weeks!

How Do You Do It? Part 2

Some time ago I was asked “How do you do it?” with regard to a particular image, and although it was later clarified to mean “I've got the same equipment, but my photos never look as sharp as yours”, I answered that in this blog post, and promised that I'd return with the actual thought process behind the image, and nearly two years down the line I'm finally getting round to it! It is of course the ideal time of year for this post too, as the bluebells are now coming through again.

If, like me, you photograph bluebells every year, and often visit the same favourite woodlands to do so, you may find, also like me, that after a while it feels like you're taking the same photos every year. With this in mind, I was conscious of the fact I needed to look for something different, and the addition to my kit of the Pentax DA*300mm lens, which allows me to focus down to less than 5 feet, opened up new possibilities. All the photos in this blog post were shot using it, and all were taken at Swan Wood, in Stock, Essex, which has huge swathes of bluebells.

The first 'proper' shot I took there this visit is shown below, taken with my 300mm nearly wide open. It's still my favourite bluebell shot, and for me the shallow depth of field highlighting the texture of the focused areas makes it stand out amongst my other bluebell images.


Pentax K10D, DA*300mm f/4 @ f/4.5, 1/15s, ISO 100, Tripod, Polariser

A nearby bracken shoot caught my eye, and careful positioning of the camera allowed me to isolate it against a dark background. I love bracken shoots for their texture and patterns, and increasingly I found myself looking at these, rather than the bluebells.


Pentax K10D, DA*300mm f/4 @ f/5.6, 1/60s, ISO 100, Tripod, Polariser

Use of the polariser really helps bring out the vivid greens of the bracken, taking shine off the foliage. It reduces the light entering the lens though, so shutter speeds drop right down, in this case 1/6s, so a tripod is essential.


Pentax K10D, DA*300mm f/4 @ f/4.5, 1/6s, ISO 100, Tripod, Polariser

At its minimum focus distance, the 300mm will fill the frame with a subject such as this. I was simply walking around looking for interesting shapes amongst the bracken, here I carefully placed the camera so that focus could be achieved across the upper and lower elements of the shot.


Pentax K10D, DA*300mm f/4 @ f/5.6, 1/30s, ISO 100, Tripod, Polariser

I had the idea of shooting across the bracken with out of focus bluebells in the background, but this first effort didn't really work for me, so I continued looking for a better subject.


Pentax K10D, DA*300mm f/4 @ f/5.6, 1/30s, ISO 100, Tripod, Polariser

This subject was better, with a simpler shape and a less fussy background, and and I explored it in several shots, after the first photo using a reflector in different positions to bounce extra light in and help it stand out.


Pentax K10D, DA*300mm f/4 @ f/5.6, 1/6s, ISO 100, Tripod, Polariser


Pentax K10D, DA*300mm f/4 @ f/5.6, 1/6s, ISO 100, Tripod, Polariser


Pentax K10D, DA*300mm f/4 @ f/5.6, 1/6s, ISO 100, Tripod, Polariser

I still wasn't happy with the subject or composition, so I continued to look for a similarly shaped bracken shoot, and saw this one, which being much shorter and with a more open curve to it, allowed me to include some foreground vegetation (Wood Anemone leaves), 'grounding' the subject. My Manfrotto 055ProB tripod allows me to position the camera flat on the floor, and the 300mm gives me great control of what's in the background – small changes in camera position can alter the background quite significantly. I used a reflector again to bounce some light into the subject.


Pentax K10D, DA*300mm f/4 @ f/8, 1/6s, ISO 100, Tripod, Polariser

Essentially the same shot again but in a landscape format, I find this one a little more cramped than the one above, so prefer that one as a final image. I shoot in portrait format about 75% of the time, so it's no surprise to me which one I prefer.


Pentax K10D, DA*300mm f/4 @ f/8, 1/6s, ISO 100, Tripod, Polariser

So hopefully that in some way answers the question “How do you do it?” It's very much a walk in the woods, keeping an eye out for potential subjects, and being open to how those subjects may suggest the ways in which you can photograph them.

New Subject Matter

I haven't posted much on here over the last couple of months, so as a brief explanation, I offer 3 photos I took today. :-)


Pentax K-5, FA50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, 1/180s at ISO 400.


Pentax K-5, Sigma 24mm f/2.8 lens @ f/2.8, 1/90s at ISO 400.


Pentax K-5, Sigma 24mm f/2.8 lens @ f/2.8, 1/90s at ISO 400.

She's 11 weeks old now, but I'm still having trouble managing my time effectively, so please bear with me if I don't answer your emails or return phone calls as quickly as you'd like - feel free to chase me up!

Much as I love taking photos of her, I still relish the challenge of outdoor photography, but I guess as time goes on, there's going to be a different subject in my outdoor photos than just beetles, flowers and trees. :-)

Private Tuition Price Increase

For bookings of 1-2-1 photography tuition made after the 1st April 2011, the fee for a 4 hour session will be £100. Bookings made and paid for, or gift vouchers purchased before this date (for tuition at any time) will be at the current rate.

I do also provide one-to-two tuition at £150, one-to-three tuition at £180, and one-to-four tuition at £200, all these again for a 4 hour session. Larger groups can be accommodated, for these shorter sessions or a private workshop, please get in touch for pricing.