Photography

UPDATE:JANUARY 2023

I recently upgraded my phone to the iPhone 14 Pro which incorporates a fabulous 48 megapixel camera.

As I always have my phone with me on my travels, I decided to part company with the somewhat cumbersome GoPro and just use the iPhone for my photography.

Also, instead of using the default Apple camera app, I use the excellent Halide II camera app which gives me total control of all aspects of the sophisticated camera system on the iPhone 14 Pro.

All photographs taken since the beginning of 2023 were taken by this means.

So far I’m delighted with the results as I continue to discover the full potential of this camera system.

UPDATE:MARCH 2022

I have recently acquired a new GoPro Hero 10 Black digital action camera.

All images from 22nd March 2022 are taken with this camera.

I am not a photographer by any stretch of the imagination.

Maybe ‘enthusiastic snapper’ would best describe my efforts & since the arrival of my first digital camera in 2001, I have taken tens of thousands of images, many of which ended up in the virtual bin.

That’s the best part of digital photography: being able to take as many photo’s as you like, no film to develop & surely the balance of probability is that some decent images will emerge from the dross?

So far I have over 20,000 photographs in my digital archive, hosted since 2002 by those fine people at SmugMug. 

This is a premium online photo & video hosting platform which is totally free of advertising & spam.

I’ve fully customised the design & layout of the portal to seamlessly work alongside my blog posts.  Any post with associated images in SmugMug displays a clear link at the bottom of the post taking the viewer to the relevant gallery, in a new browser tab. Clicking on the featured image in any post has the same effect.

For photo editing I’ve always used Adobe Photoshop; it’s complicated, takes ages to learn, but I’m getting there & wouldn’t dream of using anything else.

I’m still using my first digital camera, which has proved to be ultra-reliable, versatile and perfect for taking on my travels.

My Canon Digital Ixus 50 only has a 5 megapixel sensor, but adequate for online imaging & is easy to use: just point & shoot!

Despite my ancient camera I’m constantly trying to improve my photography. There are endless online photography & editing courses to help with this.

Instead of just snapping away, I tend to slow down, just a little, to select my subject more carefully and then to compose the image more accurately with an idea of how it will finally appear in my galleries.

Of course, with digital photography, I get a second chance at composition during the edit in Photoshop.

In a nutshell I’m just trying to accurately record my travelling adventures pictorially and present them in an appealing way for anyone interested in viewing them.

Unless otherwise credited, all images here in this blog and my SmugMug galleries, including the top banner images  and post content images are my own work as are the design & execution of this entire blog, including all graphics, logos and other non-photographic imagery.

All images taken by me from 1st January 2020 and displayed in my SmugMug gallery will include the watermark shown below.