BLOG ARCHIVE
Ibiza Town | Weekly Photo #61
This week’s photo was taken as the sun was setting across Ibiza while on a family holiday to the Mediterranean’s White Isle.
This week’s photo was taken a couple of years ago at one of my favourite places in the world. I’ve been going to Ibiza on and off for a few years now and up until just a few days ago, we had a two-week family holiday booked for August but due to the change in government advice and quarantine rules, we had to change our plans and are now heading to the Island of Kos in Greece for a couple of weeks but as I’m going to miss visiting the White Isle this year, I decided to go ahead and share a photo taken in Ibiza.
Fujifilm X-T10 | XF18-55mm | 18mm | 1/60th Second | f/22 | ISO320
This is Ibiza’s Old Town, perched on a hilltop in the south-east of the Island, it is a town of multiple identities as by day, the traditional Spanish streets are quiet and sleepy and by night, the Island’s capital comes alive with bars, music and street performers.
I love Ibiza town and whenever we visit Ibiza Town, we always make a point of visiting Ibiza Castle which is located halfway up the hill. Up there, you’ll be greeted with panoramic views of the town and marina and if you catch it right, you can be there as the sun sets over the horizon just like I did here. Using a small aperture to help capture those sunburst rays, I snapped a few shots as the sun was setting and this was the best of the bunch.
When we travel, we like to get out and explore, so, while we’re in Greece, we will hire a car as usual and get off the beaten track. I’ll be on the lookout for landscape photo opportunities and if I manage to capture any keepers, I will be sure to post a photo or two here in the coming weeks.
Although I am hugely disappointed that we won’t be returning to Ibiza this year (yeah yeah, first world issues), I am looking forward to our trip to Greece as I haven’t been there since before we had kids. I have scheduled a couple of weekly photo posts to be published here while I am away and look forward to writing again when I return.
Until next week.
Trevor
This post is featured in my Weekly Photo series where I post a new photo every Monday. To have this delivered directly to your inbox, you can subscribe to the mailing list here.
Starflyer | Weekly Photo #60
This week’s photo is one captured of the London Eye and the Starflyer as it spins around on London’s South Bank.
This time of year, I tend to slow down my photography a little as the days are long and there are only so many 3am sunrise shoots I can stomach before my sleep-deprived body says enough is enough but with three months of the year written off already, I’ve been making an effort to get out in the early morning and late evening to capture photos and it’s certainly taking its toll. With the uncertainty of a second wave lingering over us, I keep going because you never know if we might be told to stay home again.
Fujifilm XT2 | XF18-55mm | 46mm | 1/12th Second | f/7.1 | ISO200
Despite the late nights traveling home, I love to take sunset photos in London during the summer months. There’s always a great vibe around and the warmer weather makes the whole experience a lot more pleasant.
I took this photo of the London Eye while crossing Waterloo Bridge at sunset. I knew the composition well, but I wanted to capture the Starflyer whilst it was up in the air to help balance the composition and add a bit more life and activity to complement what looks like a party on the boat in the foreground. The Starflyer seemed to take an age to load between each ride and it took me a few attempts to dial in the right settings to capture the right amount of movement as the ride rotated around, so, what I thought would take just a couple of minutes to capture, turned out to be much longer. I did try to take the shot at a longer shutter speed but the swings and chains just blurred out completely, so in order for them to be a feature and show some movement, I ended up going with a shutter speed of 1/12th second.
I think I will revisit this spot when the sun has set and the lights are on as I think capturing the movement of the Starflyer and the London Eye while lit up with a long exposure could look pretty awesome and I don’t think I’ll have to wait too long as slowly but surely London is starting to open its doors once again.
Talk to you next week.
Trevor
This post is featured in my Weekly Photo series where I post a new photo every Monday. To have this delivered directly to your inbox, you can subscribe to the mailing list here.
On Location Photographing Ashdown Forest with the XF23mm F2
Here are some photos of Ashdown Forest, taken while I was on a walk with Holly (my dog) capturing photos of the forest with my Fujifilm X-T30 and XF23mm F2 prime lens.
A few weeks ago, I ventured out into the forest with my dog, Holly and Fujifilm X-T30 camera. Apart from taking Holly for a nice long walk, I wanted to try out my new Fujifilm XF23mm F2 prime lens I had recently bought to go with my other two 16mm and 35mm prime lenses. This line of Fujifilm prime lenses are fantastic. They are well made, fast focusing, light, and weather-resistant. All bases covered when needing a light-weight walkabout camera kit.
To test the camera, I decided to head into the forest and make a series of photos that told the story of the place I was in, the time of year and the conditions we had. I wasn’t looking for a portfolio worthy photo, I knew the conditions weren't great for some fine are woodland photography such as a recent image I shared here Forest Bliss | Weekly Photo #58. I just wanted to document my walk with Holly, play with a bit of depth of field, and have a bit of fun with the new lens.
I’ve not yet introduced you to Holly so here’s a little bit about her. Holly has been with us since December 2019. We’re not sure what breed she is but she is a rescue dog, brought over from Romania by a charity that looks to rehome dogs away from some quite awful conditions. Holly came to us underweight, riddled with flees and feeling quite sorry for herself but after a visit to the vets, the groomers, and a lot of love from her new family, she has settled in and is now loving her new life with us. Holly will undoubtedly become a regular feature on future posts.
After my walk, I wanted these photos to look like they belonged together. As I mentioned, none of these are portfolio worthy, alone they might look rather average but bringing them together as a sum of multiple parts makes the entire collection stronger in my opinion.
There were a few things I did in Lightroom to make them feel a part of the set. Firstly, I focused on colour and tones. I edited the first image in the set, played with the HSL sliders to get the colours the way I liked such as the deep, summer greens on the ferns, and the rich oranges and purples in the flowers. I then applied the same edits across all of the photos and tweaked each one individually to match the rest of the set. Next, I cropped each one to a square format, again, to help uniform the look of the photos and make them appear to be a part of this set.
With the sky full of dense cloud, light levels were really poor, especially amongst the trees in the forest so this was a really good test for how my new prime lens coped. Close focusing was a bit of a problem at the widest apertures but its far from a macro lens so that is easily forgiven. That aside, the camera and lens never missed a beat. Across all of the photos, the only setting I changed was the aperture. I set the camera to aperture priority, a target shutter speed of 1/125th second, and auto-ISO was set to a max of 800. I would then tweak the aperture depending on the light and look I was trying to achieve. You can select each image to get a larger view and see the settings that were used for each photo.
I’m pleased with the final collection of photos and hope to share more, presented in a similar way in the future. I would love to hear what you think about picture storytelling, this particular collection, or just to say you like dogs too!
Until next time.
Trevor
Square Mile | Weekly Photo #59
Here’s a photo taken from the top of St Paul’s Cathedral looking across the City of London during a warm summer’s evening in London.
One of my favourite places to take photos of London is from up high amongst the rooftops as I love the unique perspective of the city it can provide. This photo here, taken from St Paul’s Cathedral is probably my favourite of all London’s rooftop views, made even more special by the fact it was taken after sunset during the summer months which is not usually possible and I’ll expand on that a little later.
Like many cities, getting access to rooftop locations can be quite expensive but there are some parts of London that provide rooftop views for free. To help you, I recently wrote a post with My Top 5 Free Rooftop Locations to Photograph London so if you are visiting the city and want to take some rooftop photographs, I recommend checking this post out.
Fujifilm X-T30 | XF18-55mm | 18mm | 1/15th Sec | f/5 | ISO160
For those that don’t know, London is made up of 32 boroughs and 2 cities, one being the City of Westminster and the other being the City of London, also known as the Square Mile (it actually has an area of 1.05 miles but who’s counting?). Located in the Square Mile is St Paul’s Cathedral from where this photo was taken from and London’s first financial district which is the impressive cluster of buildings you can see in the photo.
I also featured this location to shoot from in my previous blog post titled My Top 10 Photography Spots in London
As I alluded to before, the reason this composition of the city during a summer’s sunset is hard to get is that St Paul’s Cathedral usually shuts around 5pm which is way before the best light starts to appear, but during August, the Cathedral opens later on Thursdays, so, if you are lucky enough to be available for just 4 nights each year; you can climb to the top of the Cathedral and capture some fantastic photos of the city.
I took this photo with my small Fujifilm X-T30 and XF18-55mm lens. Whenever I plan a trip to the very top of St Paul’s, experience tells me to pack as light as possible because the Summer Lates can get busy with other photographers and there is very little room up there so I try to avoid a big, bulky backpack and it goes without saying, tripods are a big no-no.
For this shot, the shutter speed was a little slow for handheld, so I rested my camera on the rail with my camera strap around my neck (just in case) and took this shot of the city with the last of the sun’s light reflecting beautifully on the then unfinished 22 Bishopsgate tower.
Unfortunately, St Paul’s will not open later this year due to obvious reasons but when they do, I will be there, in line to capture my favourite view of the city.
Until next time.
Trevor
This post is featured in my Weekly Photo series where I post a new photo every Monday. To have this delivered directly to your inbox, you can subscribe to the mailing list here.
Forest Bliss | Weekly Photo #58
After a slight shift in direction, I have started exploring my local woodlands and this is the first photo I took since the local lockdown started to ease here in the UK.
Now for something completely different. No, I’m not talking about Monty Python’s Flying Circus, I’m talking about my photography and what I’ve been shooting over the last few months.
In March, this year, I decided to spend a little less time photographing London and more time photographing closer to home. The first photo I took at the time was of a cluster of trees in Ashdown Forest during a foggy, wet afternoon, which I released back in week 50 of this series. You can check out this photo here: Misty Trees | Weekly Photo 50. This change of direction doesn’t spell the end of my cityscape photography, but more of a shift in focus at a time where being in open space and away from crowds makes a lot more sense. I will, however, be taking trips back into London, I have one planned this week in fact but I will choose my times and locations carefully to make sure I don’t contribute to the problem during these social distancing times.
Fujifilm XT2 | XF55-200mm | 55mm | 1.4 Seconds | f/13 | ISO200
In May, lock down rules started to relax and I was able to venture further than the end of my street for the first time in weeks, so with the bag packed and the camera charged, I headed back to the Ashdown Forest in East Sussex late one afternoon to explorer some of the more traditional woodland it has to offer. Although it’s called a forest, much of Ashdown Forest is actually open heath-land. Apparently, the word “Forest” had a different meaning back in the day and was used to describe open or common land with plants and trees, not like today where we associate the word with a large, more dense area of trees.
Anyway, after missing the best of the Spring flowers, I was pleased to find this area of the wooded forest still with plenty of colour created by these Rhododendrons. Woodland photography is still very new for me and looking back, I didn’t really have a clue what I was doing, I just searched for a scene by studying the shapes of the trees, using them to create the stronger compositional lines and used the colour from the fresh green foliage and Rhododendrons to add some interest. Don’t get me wrong, I put a lot of thought into finding a scene I wanted to photograph but I also know that to get really good and take great woodland photos takes a lot of time and patience to understand how to seek out nice compositions and how the elements interact with each other. I wasn’t going to kid myself that a woodland rookie like me could just rock up to a location and take a portfolio image. I should be so lucky.
After I found the scene I wanted to photograph, I set up my Fujifilm XT2 camera and 55-200mm lens, on a slight hill, against a tree (wishing hopelessly it would move out of my way) and began to compose the image. I ended up going with a focal distance of 55mm which could have been achieved with my lighter 18-55 lens but I find when shooting above 40mm, it’s not as sharp and between the two lenses, the 55-200 takes a slightly better photo and has a slightly wider aperture at 55mm. A lot of you will glaze over when talking about gear but I guess the message here is that to get the most out of a photo opportunity, it’s really helpful to know how your camera gear performs and what lens you should be reaching for in any given scenario. Once I found a composition I liked, the sun was just setting and the dappled light which I found very distracting disappeared and I was able to fire off a couple of shots.
Although I really like this final image, I need to be careful that this admiration isn’t driven by novelty which is why I tend to wait a while before sharing my work. I already know there are areas I need to improve such as I need to work harder to adjust my position to arrange the elements a bit more carefully, I need to learn what light works best for the given scene and I also need to ensure I have my circular polarizer filter with me for times I need to cut down the reflective light from the leaves.
I’m excited and energised to see where this shift in direction will take my photography and looking forward to sharing the photos I take along the way.
Talk to you soon.
Trevor
This post is featured in my Weekly Photo series where I post a new photo every Monday. To have this delivered directly to your inbox, you can subscribe to the mailing list here.
My Top 10 Landscape Photography YouTube Channels
I’ve cultivated a healthy list of great landscape photographers so I decided to share with you my top 10 landscape photography YouTube channels that I will always watch when a new video is released.
Over the last few years, I’ve drawn so much knowledge from some of the world’s most well-regarded landscape photographers by watching them go about their craft on YouTube. YouTube has become one of the world’s top resources for information about pretty much anything you want to learn. Type in “How do I do this?” or “How do I fix that?” and you can be pretty confident someone has already been there, made the video and posted it on YouTube.
I’ve cultivated a healthy list of great landscape photographers, some will post the occasional video that piques my interest enough to watch it, but there are just a few YouTubers that I subscribe too that I look forward to and for one reason or another, will always try to watch the content they release. I decided to share with you my Top 10 Landscape Photography YouTube Channels.
Before we dive in, do remember to balance watching videos about landscape photography with actually going out and practising it yourself. Try to use the videos you watch to inspire and motivate you and not replace your creative outlet entirely.
In no particular order, here are my Top 10 Landscape Photography YouTube Channels.
#1 Fototripper
Fototripper is a channel run by Gavin Hardcastle, a landscape photographer from the UK, now living in Canada. Gavin is a great landscape photographer, an excellent teacher, and a really funny guy. If you want a great mix of landscape photography and comedy, this is the channel for you.
#2 Henry Turner
Henry is a bit of a rising star in the YouTube/Landscape photography field. Henry is a natural in front of the camera and has an incredibly open and honest approach to the way he goes about making videos and taking photos. Although he doesn’t have the subscriber numbers of some of the big hitters in this list, I’m confident it’s only a matter of time until he does.
#3 Joe Allam
I’ve been watching Joe’s YouTube channel for a few years now and although not strictly a landscape photographer, his usual travel photography includes plenty of natural and urban landscapes. Not only is Joe a fellow Fujifilm shooter, but his videos are always nicely polished and have a nice mix of both travel photography and graphic design content.
#4 Kim Grant
I’m so pleased I was able to include a female landscape photographer in the list as there seems to be a shortage of them out there but make no mistake, Kim makes my list because she is an incredibly talented photographer, an accomplished YouTuber who makes some truly engaging videos covering her photography journey around her native Scotland.
#5 Nigel Danson
Nigel is one of the best landscape photography teachers on YouTube. His videos provide a great mix of on-location photography and studio-based talks and tuition. He is particularly good at examining and critiquing his own work so others can learn the same lessons he does.
#6 Simon Baxter
Simon Baxter has been an inspiration to me since I started to take woodland photography more seriously. I have watched his channel for some time now and he really is the master of seeking out compositions amongst the forests and landscapes and importantly, talking you through the scene, communicating his thought process.
#7 Thomas Heaton
Thomas should not need any introduction. He’s a bit of a superstar amongst the YouTube landscape photography community and for good reason. He has a huge following, an honest and unpretentious manner, and makes fantastic videos from all over the world. Thomas seems to be able to find a photo out of nothing and even when he can’t he is content to come home empty-handed due to his “good shot or not shot” approach.
#8 Andy Mumford
Apart from being a fellow Fujifilm shooter (I know, it’s not all about the gear.. blah blah), Andy is an incredibly talented travel and landscape photographer. Andy frequently visits the Dolomites and his photos and videos created there are both engaging and always polished. Andy doesn’t make videos as regularly as others but when he does, they go straight onto my watch list.
#9 Ben Horne
If you are after a pure photography experience, look no further than Ben Horne. He shoots wilderness photography on large format film at places like Zion and Death Valley National Park. Ben will regularly head out on a trip and document his journey as he seeks new and different compositions and to match his apparent minimalist photography. After the trip, he continues to present some image review photos in his usual chilled out way.
#10 Chris Sale
Last but not least we have Chris Sale. Chris is another up and coming landscape photography YouTuber who predominantly shoots in and around the Lake District. His videos are his own documented journey from amateur to pro landscape photographer and he is very honest about his ups and downs while he navigates his way towards making his business a success.
So that was my list. I’m currently subscribed to 111 photography related YouTube channels and I must admit, I skip many more videos than I watch but having a good selection of channels allows me to watch just the very best shows that peak my interest so you can’t have too many in my opinion. With that in mind, feel free to share your favourite channels in the comments.
Beacon | Weekly Photo #57
Here’s the first photo I took in London since the lockdown was lifted here in the UK of the blue beacon atop The Shard which pays tribute to the heroes that stood on the front line during some incredibly tough times.
A couple of weeks ago, I made my first trip back into London after the lockdown started to ease here in the UK. It was a slightly odd experience as the city was still quiet and void of commuters and overseas tourists. From what I could tell, those that were wandering about, enjoying the gorgeous weather seemed to be mostly made up of locals enjoying this rare and unusual time where they can have the entire city all to themselves.
Fujifilm XT2 | XF16mm F2.8 | 16mm | 1/60th Second | f/10 | ISO200
As I arrived at London Bridge Station, it was still pretty early so I decided to have a wander around the Square Mile with my Fujifilm XT2 camera and FX16mm f2.8 prime lens. So, off I went across London Bridge into the financial district and to quote the famous words of Björk, it was “Oh so quiet!”. If it were a Sunday, I’d think nothing of it as this part of the city is normally quiet on the weekend but on a Monday evening, this area should have been a hive of activity with city workers spilling out of their offices and either heading home or to the local bars and pubs. Snapping the odd pic along the way, I continued to St Paul’s Cathedral, then across the river, past the Tate Modern and arrived back at More London just as the sun was going down. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t thinking too much about making photographs while I walked, I was just soaking up the sunshine and enjoying being back in my favourite city after being away for so long.
On my way back along the river, I noticed The Shard had turned on its blue light in recognition of the NHS and keyworker’s efforts on the front line during the pandemic and it’s then that I decided that if I took just one good photo during this visit to London, it had to be of The Shard, with its blue beacon of light representing the heroes acting as beacons for all of us.
To get the photo I wanted, I had to time it right. I wasn’t necessarily after a night shot but taken too early and the blue light against the blue sky wouldn’t stand out enough so I waited for another 10 to 15 minutes after the sun had set before I took the shot. I chose a composition I know works quite well with the wider 16mm focal length as it takes advantage of the sweeping lines of the rail which leads the viewer around the image to The Shard and up to the light on top.
The biggest challenge I had was the light on the pole in the centre of the frame (I’m sure it has a name). With a well-exposed photo, the light was so bright, it was totally burnt out of the frame and I couldn’t recover any detail at all in post. Knowing this would be an issue, I decided to take a separate, underexposed image and during the editing stage, blended just the light into this frame so it didn’t look like a bright white blob in the centre of the image.
I really like how this image has turned out. The slightly desaturated tones, the strong lead-in lines, the subtle light reflecting on the rail and most importantly, the way this photo is my own small tribute to the heroes that stepped up during these difficult times.
Until next week.
Trevor
This post is featured in my Weekly Photo series where I post a new photo every Monday. To have this delivered directly to your inbox, you can subscribe to the mailing list here.
Basin de San Marco | Weekly Photo #56
A sunrise photo of some moored gondolas and the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore across the Basin de San Marco.
Before the pandemic took hold, I was starting to consider how I could diversify my own photography so it wasn’t so focused on London or urban scenes. I wanted to spend more time exploring my local area but while working in the city, I guess it was just easier to continue shooting where I spent most of my time. Fast forward a few months and things have obviously changed quite a bit. Since the lock-down started to ease in the UK, I’ve had some great fun researching and scouting locations to photograph here in the South East of England, from castles and lighthouses to ancient woodlands and rolling hills, I have certainly taken advantage of this opportunity.
I will of course share some photos of my recent outings here on my site soon enough but you can keep up with what I’m doing in real-time by following me on Facebook or Instagram and checking the stories I post while out in the field.
Fujifilm X-T10 | XF10-24mm | 17mm | 14 Seconds | f/7.1 | ISO200
This week’s photo is one taken on my first trip to Venice back in 2017. My sunrise shoot was coming to an end and this was the last shot on my list I wanted to take.
This is a frequently captured composition of the moored gondolas on the edge of the Basin de San Marco but it’s a classic for good reason. It shouts Venice and most people that visit to take photos will try to capture this scene for their own collection and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that in my book. I’d already spent a few days seeking out new, unique compositions of the city but I wasn’t going to leave without getting my own versions of the hero shots of Venice such as this or the famous view from Ponte dell'Accademia which you can see here: The Glass Canal | Weekly Photo 28.
Compositionally, it took me a few minutes to find the best spot along the water and arrange everything how I wanted. Using my wide-angle 10-24mm set to 17mm, I composed the boats so that they would be pointing up and inwards towards the centre of the frame which mirrored the triangular shape of the clouds that also appear to point to the centre of the frame and towards the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore which was basking in the warm morning light across the water.
I also liked the way the light was falling onto the wooden poles in the foreground and wanted to make a feature of these but had to stay mindful and avoid them obscuring the view of the bell tower across the water. I purposely kept the camera level to minimise any distortion and keep the wooden poles straight which avoided any significant correction and cropping while editing the image.
Lastly, I wanted to capture the movement in the boats but there was too much ambient light to do this by adjusting camera settings alone so I used a 10-stop ND filter to get the longer shutter speed of 14 seconds which was enough to capture the movement, soften the foreground a little but still allow the boats to be a feature and remain recognisable in the image.
If you want to see more of my photos from Venice, you can see them here: A Weekend in Venice
Until next time
Trevor
This post is featured in my Weekly Photo series where I post a new photo every Monday. To have this delivered directly to your inbox, you can subscribe to the mailing list here.
Foggy London | Weekly Photo #55
Here’s a photo I took from London Bridge on a very foggy morning in London while on my way to work.
Another week goes by which means it’s now been 14 weeks since I last took my camera to London. Photographing the city was relatively easy for me before the pandemic as I work in London but due to the ongoing social distancing in place, the company I work for has told us our work-from-home policy will continue until 2021, meaning, if I want to take urban landscape photos again anytime soon, I will have to just bite the bullet and jump on the train. So, that’s what I plan to do.
Since the lockdown has started to ease here in the UK, I’ve enjoyed photographing my local area and while I continue to be predominantly based outside the city, I will continue to do so, but from next week, I a plan to be in the city with my camera and face-mask at least once a week.
Fujifilm X-T10 | XF35mm f2 | 35mm | 1/200th Sec | f/4 | ISO200
“Without the fog, London would not be a beautiful city. It is fog that gives it its magnificent amplitude...its regular and massive blocks become grandiose in that mysterious mantle.”
Here’s a photo I took in February last year from London Bridge, looking east along the River Thames. I was looking forward to the shoot as my weather app had predicted some misty conditions which can create some awesome. atmospheric photos, but as I left the station, it quickly became clear to me that getting a shot wasn’t going to be easy. What I expected to be misty conditions turned out to be dense fog with visibility of just a few feet which doesn’t make for great conditions for landscape photography.
As I crossed London Bridge, I started to think I should just carry on, past and head into work as there was no way I could take a shot in these conditions. but as I got further across, I noticed that as the fog moved along the river, it occasionally cleared enough for me to get a faint glimpse of HMS Belfast just down the river, so with about an hour before I had to get on the tube and head to the office, I dialled in my camera settings and waited….and waited some more.
Subtle breaks in the fog came and went but it was around 30 minutes or so before the fog eventually cleared just enough for me to capture this photo where HMS Belfast was visible enough, providing the focal point the shot needed. So, with only a few seconds before the scene disappeared again, I fired the shutter.
Back in Lightroom, I needed to adjust the white balance, bringing it closer to the cooler tones I witnessed while out on that bridge but other changes such as adding or removing contrast and specific tone adjustments were made selectively to specific areas using the radial filter. Apart from the above-mentioned edits, not much more was done to the image.
This is a far cry from the high impact sunset, city skyline shots I often capture and probably won’t stop many in their tracks while scrolling through their Instagram feeds but I really like the muted, minimal, atmospheric feeling the photo has captured and I’m happy I stuck around long enough for the fog to clear for just a few seconds that morning.
Cheers
Trevor
This post is featured in my Weekly Photo series where I post a new photo every Monday. To have this delivered directly to your inbox, you can subscribe to the mailing list here.
Translucent Tower | Weekly Photo #54
Taken on my last trip to London before the UK went into lockdown, this week I have shared a photo of the city skyline in London taken from the viewing level at Tate Modern.
Not too long ago, I was guilty of being a bit of a fair-weather photographer. If the weather didn’t show a significant chance of good light, I probably wouldn’t head out with the camera. To me, grey cloudy days were boring and uninspiring and I was pretty confident that if I went out and the light didn’t improve, then I would be sure to come home with nothing. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
These days, things have changed. I look back on that time with a touch of regret due to all of those missed opportunities as I realize that it wasn’t the light or the conditions that were the problem, it was me. Back then, I was an impatient photographer with unrealistically high expectations. If I didn’t get at least one good shot while out on a shoot, I thought the time was wasted and if the light was good and I didn’t capture a great photo, I had somehow failed.
Fujifilm XT2 | XF55-200mm | 74mm | 1/1600 Sec | f/3.7 | ISO200
As I have matured as a photographer, my whole approach has changed. First off, I no longer think that getting a photo is the be-all and end-all. Yes, of course, there is still no better feeling of heading home after a shoot knowing you have a potential banger saved on the memory card but the sooner we landscape photographers realise that getting a portfolio worthy photo every time we head out is just not going to happen, the sooner that pressure is lifted. We can relax and just enjoy taking photos, letting the conditions and subjects guide us rather than forcing our own preconceived ideas onto the landscape. We can decide the subject we shoot, the composition we create but the conditions we shoot in are down to mother nature herself.
The other change in my style is that I now shoot in pretty much any weather. I’m no longer confined to the golden hour at either end of the day. These days, when there’s plenty of cloud cover, I see an opportunity to photograph throughout the day as long as I can find the right subject for the conditions I find myself in. I still try to avoid bright, sunny, middle of the day shoots as I struggle to be inspired by the harsh light but who knows, this might be another change to my photography that is yet to come.
This is a photo I took on my very last trip to London before the world went into hiding. I knew before I set out that this was probably going to be my last visit before we would have to stay in our homes so I decided to head up into town early on a Sunday morning knowing the city would be quiet and social distancing would not be too difficult. After wandering the city for a while, I found myself across the river up at the Tate Modern viewing gallery which provides some great views of London. What struck me was how the newest addition to the city skyline, 22 Bishopsgate stood out amongst its neighbours and how the glass, which was reflecting the sky made the building appear translucent.
For more rooftop photography suggestions, check out my recent post MY TOP 5 FREE ROOFTOP LOCATIONS TO PHOTOGRAPH LONDON
With my 55-200 telephoto lens on the Fujifilm XT2, I positioned the building centrally in the frame, flanked by the smaller, darker buildings on each side. I kept some of the small buildings in the foreground as it helped anchor the composition and provides some scale to the overall image. Shooting handheld, I needed to keep the shutter speed high so I chose a wide aperture. Without anything in the immediate foreground, I knew there wouldn’t be any depth of field issues and it allowed me to keep my ISO low. With the settings dialled in (1/1600sec, f3.7, ISO200) and the image composed, I took the shot.
I’m really pleased with how this photo turned out and even happier that I now embrace conditions like this as it means many more photo opportunities are to be had going forward.
Talk to you next week.
Trevor
This post is featured in my Weekly Photo series where I post a new photo every Monday. To have this delivered directly to your inbox, you can subscribe to the mailing list here.
Remnant Tranquillity | Weekly Photo #53
Choosing the correct exposure time can make all the difference when trying to portray a certain mood or feeling in a photo. This week’s photo is a calm, tranquil seascape of the West Pier in Brighton, UK.
Who else has a favourite, local photo subject that you revisit time after time to capture it in different light and conditions? Well, the West Pier in Brighton on the UK’s south coast is one of mine. I’m a little obsessed with what little remains from this ill-fated Victorian structure. In its heyday, the West Pier would have been a hive of activity, full of locals and day-trippers enjoying a day by the sea, but having suffered fire and storm damage in the past, very little remains, but the structure is still popular to the extent it now takes on a new life as a kind of historic art sculpture, rather than the derelict remains of what was a thriving seaside attraction.
Fujifilm X-T10 | XF10-24mm | 15mm | 30 Seconds | f/16 | ISO200
This is the third image I’ve shared in a series of photos of Brighton’s West Pier. I’ve taken both long and short exposures of the pier, both offering something different that complements the striking shape of the structure.
With the shorter exposure which you can see in this previous post titled "Skeletal Remains” I tried to capture some of the movement and energy in the water, which also provided some foreground interest in the composition. What the long-exposure photo such as this one here or the black and white rendition I shared last year called “The West Pier” brings is the simplicity of the composition and plants the viewer’s focus directly onto the structure without the busy distractions of the ripples in the water and this photo here was my first successful attempt at capturing the West Pier in this style back in April 2017. With the central composition and minimal look created by the long exposure, it takes on an entirely different feeling of calm and tranquillity compared to a photo showing more of the energy and life in the sea.
For me personally, it’s a lesson I try to remember when considering the exposure length when photographing both natural and urban landscapes as what mood I’m trying to portray in the photo can be significantly affected by the exposure time, especially if there is water in the scene. I ask myself the question, am I trying to capture a photo that is calm with a tranquil mood? If so, I might use an exposure of 30 seconds or longer to calm the water and smooth away distractions. Alternatively, I might be trying to capture energy and movement. Then a shorter exposure of under a second might be required. The important thing is that I don’t reach straight for the 10-stop ND filter before I have considered what I’m trying to communicate with the photo.
Until next week.
Trevor
This post is featured in my Weekly Photo series where I post a new photo every Monday. To have this delivered directly to your inbox, you can subscribe to the mailing list here.
My Top 5 Free Rooftop Locations to Photograph London
I showcase what I consider my top 5 rooftop locations to photograph London. For each location, I will showcase some photos, location information, and top tips to get the very best photos during your visit.
As a photographer, I am always on the lookout for fresh, unique views of London and one of the best ways to achieve this is to get up high and photograph the city from the rooftops.
With the pressure now on property developers to incorporate public spaces into new developments, getting up high to enjoy these rooftop views of London has never been easier but the majority of these locations come at a cost or are not very photographer friendly.
With this in mind, I have created this list of my top 5 free rooftop locations to photograph London that are both easy to find and photography friendly. In this post, you will read a bit about each location, see a few photos and find a Google Maps link to help you get there.
My Top 5 Free Rooftop Locations to Photograph London
#1 One New Change
Number one on my list of rooftop locations to photograph London is the 6th floor at One New Change, a shopping centre located right next to St Paul’s Cathedral. Although this location isn’t particularly high compared to some of the others listed below, once up there, you will see why this is such a popular spot as you are greeted by some of the best, close-up views of St Paul’s Cathedral and its famous dome.
Google maps location: One New Change
booking required? No
Nearest tube station: St Pauls (Central Line)
Tripod rules: No tripods allowed
Opening hours can be found on their website https://onenewchange.com
#2 Sky Garden
The second rooftop location I recommend to visit is the Sky Garden which sits atop the Walkie-talkie building, over 30 stories high at 20 Fenchurch Street and provides some of the best rooftop views of London you can get for free. Apart from the countless photo opportunities the Sky Garden provides, it’s a great place to have a drink or enjoy a meal while enjoying some spectacular views of the city. Of the 5 locations listed here, it is the most popular and for good reason but that does mean you will need to book your visit on their website but it is free to visit.
See a previous sunrise shot from this location here: Good Morning London | Weekly Photo #37
Top tip: The glass can get rather dirty and to avoid the dirt showing up in your photos, set your aperture as wide as you can as this will render the dirt invisible when shooting through the glass.
Google maps location Sky Garden
booking required? Yes
Nearest tube station: Monument Station (Circle and District Line)
Tripod rules: No tripods allowed
Opening hours and booking information can be found on their website https://skygarden.london/booking
#3 The Garden at 120
A relative newcomer to the party, the Garden at 120 opened in 2019 and is located upon the 16th floor over at 120 Fenchurch Street. Nestled amongst the taller buildings in the city, this particular location is a breath of fresh air when it comes to photography as they take a more pragmatic view of the use of tripods and as long as you are sensible and keep out of the way of the other visitors, they can be used.
Here’s another photo that was taken from this location featuring the building at 20 Fenchurch Street mentioned above: Rooftop Reflections | Weekly Photo #30
Google maps location Garden at 120
booking required? No
Nearest tube station: Monument Station (Circle and District Line)
Tripod rules: Tripods can be used but be respectful of other visitors
Opening hours can be found on their website https://www.thegardenat120.com
#4 Tate Modern Viewing Platform
Number 4 in this list of top rooftop locations to photograph London is the Tate Modern viewing gallery. Positioned to the rear of the famous turbine hall is a 10 story tower that provides 360-degree views of the city. The highlights are the unobscured view of St Paul’s Cathedral and the high rise buildings over in the city.
While up at the viewing gallery, you can grab a coffee from the cafe and wander around the outer edge out in the fresh air and take in the different views on offer.
Top Tip: During the warmer months when the days are longer, you can grab a great sunset shot of the city by visiting on a Friday or Saturday night as the museum closes later.
Google maps location Tate Modern Viewing Platform
booking required? No
Nearest tube station: Blackfriars (Circle and District Line)
Tripod rules: No tripods allowed
Opening hours can be found on their website https://www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-modern
#5 No 1 Poultry
The last but not least location in this list is the garden terraces atop No 1 Poultry building in the city, right next to Bank Station. This relatively modern building is liked and loathed equally but what it does offer is a great view up towards Bank with the high rises of the city providing an epic backdrop.
Up at the roof terraces is a bar/restaurant called Coq D’Argent which hosts live music events in the summer which creates a great vibe if you're looking for a bit of music to accompany your photography but if this isn’t your thing, make sure to check their website below so you know the best time to visit that suits you.
Google maps location No 1 Poultry
booking required? No
Nearest tube station: Bank (Central Line)
Tripod rules: No tripods allowed
Opening hours can be found on their website https://www.coqdargent.co.uk/find-us/
Those were my top 5 rooftop locations to photograph London but if you are looking for more and happy to book or pay, there are countless others such as The Shard, The London Eye, St Paul’s Cathedral and the list goes on, so, next time you are in London and looking for some inspiration, try one of these rooftop locations as I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.
Cloudy Dawn | Weekly Photo #52
The Weekly Photo series has been running for 1 year now and I’m so please I reached this milestone. This week, I have shared this photo of Tower bridge taken at sunrise on a wet, cloudy day.
I started these weekly photoblogs for a few reasons. Firstly, I wanted to limit the number of photos I would be posting online which helped to take the pressure off how many I needed to go out and take. One photo each week seemed an achievable number. Next, I wanted to write more. I felt that if I could write a bit of a story to accompany each image, be it behind the scenes, some useful tips or just some additional context, bit by bit, my creative writing might improve. Lastly, I wanted to drive more traffic to my blog by producing content people would enjoy as I absolutely love having my own corner of the internet, untouched by social media algorithms where I can share my best work to whoever wants to see it. With my readership steadily growing and my photography improving, I’m really pleased with how the Weekly Photo series is going and ecstatic that I’ve managed to release this, my 52nd post in a row without skipping a single week. That’s right, a full year! Where has the time gone?
At times, it’s not been easy. I’ve suffered writer’s block, wrestled with a busy schedule and on occasion got stuck thinking of a title for the post, but by giving myself a deadline each week, it meant I had to get the post finished, by hook or by crook
Who knows, I may even write about the experience in an upcoming blog post. We’ll have to see about that. but for now, I’m just please I’m still going and continue to enjoy the experience.
Fujifilm X-T10 | XF18-55mm | 18mm | 1/3 Sec | f/10 | ISO200
Back to this week’s photo.
When I left my house, early on this particular morning, my objective above all else was to capture this composition of Tower Bridge from beside the Thames and right in front of the Tower of London. I had tried and failed to capture this scene on a previous visit but the weather wasn’t ideal at the time so with only a limited amount of time before work, I marched straight from London Bridge Station, across the river to this spot.
On the previous visit, it was toward the end of the day with plenty of people still around and the sky lacked interest so when I was greeted with the scene free of people on this cloudy, wet morning, I knew right away I had a better chance of coming away with an image this time.
I arrived, I set my camera up onto the tripod and composed. Looking through the viewfinder, I knew there was a shot to be had here. The ground was wet, adding texture to the cobbles, there was a touch of colour from the sunrise piercing through the clouds and the lamp was still on. I love the ornate lamps that line London’s streets and I think the lamp being on in this image adds a touch of mood and makes all of the difference.
Short of time, I dialled in the settings (18mm | 1/3 Sec | f/10 | ISO200), tweaked the composition and took the shot. I was incredibly lucky as after only a few minutes, the lamp turned off and that meant the shoot was over but I had the shot in the bag so I headed off to work.
The photo is processed in Adobe Lightroom. Apart from some of the usual tonal adjustments, I added some clarity to the cobbled road and tried to bring out a bit of the drama in the cloudy sky. In Photoshop I removed some of the discarded chewing gum from the path in the foreground and finished up with the high-pass filter to sharpen the image a little.
The Weekly Photo series is still going strong and I have plenty more photos to take and share so, here’s to the next 52 Weekly Photo posts!
Until next week.
Trevor
This post is featured in my Weekly Photo series where I post a new photo every Monday. To have this delivered directly to your inbox, you can subscribe to the mailing list here.
Westminster | Weekly Photo #51
With a little more time to review some of my older work, I revisited this long exposure photo of Westminster Bridge and the Elizabeth Tower in an attempt to finally get the look I was originally after.
I’m not fortunate enough to be out with the camera taking photos every day and building up an image backlog that I will never have enough time to go back and edit. Having a full-time job and only getting out with the camera once a week, twice if I’m lucky means I’m never more than a couple of months behind on my post-processing.
With movement restricted for so many people due to the global situation, opportunities to head out with the camera have been near impossible over the last couple of months and without regular photography trips, I eventually ran out of new photos to process. To make the best of a bad situation, I’ve been spending a bit of time looking back at my library and editing some of the photos that I feel needed a bit more work.
Fujifilm X-T10 | XF18-55mm | 18mm | 28 Seconds | f/9 | ISO200
Since I took this photo back in 2017, I’ve tried and failed to get the edit right, in fact, this might be the third version I have created from the original raw file. When I captured the photo, it had all the hallmarks of a good long exposure shot. It has interesting clouds, a great subject, and nice light but in the end, I think I lacked the right tools and editing knowledge to get the particular look I was after.
In a previous post, I wrote about three reasons why photographers should revisit their older work and one of the reasons was that editing tools and skills will improve over time and I think that’s the case with this photo. Back when I first edited this photo, I struggled to control the dynamic range and I was frustrated because as much as tried, I couldn’t realise the photos full potential. That was then and a few years have passed. My technique has changed, my Lightroom skills have improved, and with tools such as range masking now available in Lightroom, I was finally able to edit the photo and achieve the look I wanted.
I’m still not fully sold on the crop. It might be better in a panoramic 2:1 ratio but for now, I’m happy with the final image and looking forward to revisiting a few more photos that I have previously struggled to process.
While I continue to avoid travelling to London for the next few weeks, I’ll shortly be heading to the UK’s South Coast and providing I come back with a keeper, I’ll be sure to share it on this Weekly Photo feed in the future.
Until next time.
Trevor
This post is featured in my Weekly Photo series where I post a new photo every Monday. To have this delivered directly to your inbox, you can subscribe to the mailing list here.
Misty Trees | Weekly Photo #50
It was wet, cold and I was heading back to the car but on my way, I spotted this composition though the mist and had to capture it.
Things over here in Blighty are changing. it’s been about 7 weeks of lockdown while working through the dreaded Covid-19 peak, but things are finally looking up. We in the UK, have started to have the shackles loosened just a bit which now means I can get that camera charged and prepped ready to head out to capture the world once more. The only difference is that for the next few weeks at least, I won’t venture into London for photography to avoid adding to the public transport issues. Instead, I’ll be heading south from where I live into more open landscapes and seeing what this part of the world can offer me and my photography. I’ll be honest, with so much time spent capturing London over the last few years, I’m really looking forward to this fresh, new challenge.
Fujifilm XT2 | XF18-55mm | 39mm | 1/20th Second | f/9 | ISO200
This photo was taken on one of my last photo outings before the lockdown started, in a local woodland called Ashdown Forest, so, it’s only fitting that as I prepare to head out again, I use it for my latest weekly photo story.
On this particular early morning in March, the rain was relentless and I spent most of the time wandering the soggy heath in search of some inspiration. As time went on, my hope for a shot was dwindling and I was starting to consider this more of a scouting trip. After a good couple of hours of rain-soaked rambling, I started to head back to the car and along the way, I spotted this small cluster of trees out in the open and torn between a nice warm, dry car and spending longer getting rained on, I resisted the urge and went to investigate.
By now the rain had slowed just a bit and the mist was sweeping through and that made all the difference. The mist brought mood and depth to the scene and although the trees are on a slope, the arrangement and empty space make the scene look well balanced. I put the camera on the tripod and went about composing the shot. I used my XF18-55 standard zoom at 39mm on my Fujifilm XT2 camera. Although the camera is weather-sealed, this lens isn’t so I had to be careful and was a little relieved when the rain eased off. Once composed with the settings dialled in, I took the shot.
This photo is not intended to be high impact and probably won’t wow many people but that’s not what I was going for here. When I arrived at the scene, I was drawn to the composition of the trees and the melancholic atmosphere created by the grey, misty conditions and I think I captured that well enough.
I’ll keep you posted on how I get on over the next few weeks and along with my usual London cityscape photos, depending on how well it goes, I might also share a few more local shots in this weekly photo series.
Until next week.
Trevor
This post is featured in my Weekly Photo series where I post a new photo every Monday. To have this delivered directly to your inbox, you can subscribe to the mailing list here.
My Photo Backup Workflow
Having a reliable backup workflow for your photos is critical if you want to ensure they are protected and, in this post, I talk about why the 321 backup method is still considered one of the best to get started and how I have adapted it to back up my own photos.
Whether you take your photos professionally or for fun, how many of you out there can truly say you’re are happy with your photo backup strategy? If a drive was to fail, will you lose any photos? If you have a house fire or was to be burgled, do you have a copy elsewhere? As a photographer, I want to spend as much time as I can actually taking photos but the more photos I take, the more data I generate and subsequently need to store and protect and I for one would hate to lose any of them because I didn’t have a robust backup workflow.
For those of you that don’t know, I am an IT Professional and with the help of my team, we manage large enterprise-grade storage systems with petabytes of creative data and I have to ensure this data is backed up. I am employed to ensure all of this data is fully secured, redundant and protected from all types of threats and I take this incredibly seriously as I know without data, no company can function. Just as my company’s data is important to them, my photos are important to me so I employ a similar approach to ensure my pictures are protected throughout my own workflow allowing me to sleep easy at night knowing my most treasured data is safe and secure.
I get it. Getting your backup processes in place is a bit boring and not very creative but the more seriously you take your photography, the more you need to have a robust workflow in place. So, in this post, I want to run through my own strategy, explain a bit of the geeky jargon and suggest a few different backup options you could adopt, depending on time and budget.
If you’re already familiar with backup technologies and jargon and want to skip directly to my backup workflow, click here. Otherwise, feel free to read on.
The 321 backup strategy
You can’t research photo backup strategies online without coming across references to the 321 Backup Strategy. Put simply, the 321 backup strategy provides an easy to remember approach to how many copies of your data you should have and where those copies should be stored in order to protect against the most likely threats to your photos such as drive failure and house fire, etc.
Before we get stuck in, it’s worth noting that there is no such thing as a perfect backup system. It is impossible to predict and protect against all possible eventualities but this is a great starting point for anyone be it individuals or small businesses to get a solid workflow in place in order to protect their photos.
3 (copies of your data)
Including your working copy of data, it is recommended having at least 3 separate copies of your photos. Why 3 copies? 3 copies are the minimum number needed to be able to fully adhere to this 321 strategy. You will see why as get to the following points but it’s important to note that having 3 copies is just the minimum, which means you really don’t have to stop there. If you can manage more, and it gives you extra peace of mind then go ahead and create more but just be careful around creating an overly complex system as you’ll read a little later, keeping things simple is the name of the game here.
2 (different media or hard drives)
This point is important to avoid what we in the business call a “single point of failure” which means the last thing you want to do is store all copies of your photos on the same drive, only for that drive to fail and take all your photos with it. So, what you should do is ensure that all three of your copies of data are stored on separate devices so that if one fails, the remaining copies are completely unaffected.
1 (copy of your photos in another location)
So far, you’ve created 3 copies of your data and stored them across separate, individual hard drives but all of that means nothing if they are all sitting on the same shelf when a nasty burglar breaks into your home and takes all of your valuable electronics, including all copies of your photos. It’s for this reason, it is recommended to have at least one copy of your data in another location. This might seem a little difficult to achieve but I run through a few simple options further down in this article.
Let’s break down the jargon
As much as I want to keep this post as simple and jargon-free as possible, there’s no way to fully avoid including some of the technical components involved in creating a good photo backup workflow so to help those less familiar, I have tried to explain some of these in the simplest way I know.
What’s an internal hard drive? (Internal HDD)
When referring to internal storage, this means the hard drive which is installed inside your laptop or desktop computer. When you buy a new computer, you normally choose the size such in either gigabytes or more likely these days it will be Terabytes and when you save files onto your computer’s desktop or “My Documents” folder, that is normally stored on your built-in/internal storage.
What’s an external hard drive? (External HDD)
To expand your computer’s storage capacity, you can buy external drives which plug into your computer’s USB, USB-C or Thunderbolt port. These days, external drives come in in terabytes rather than gigabytes.
HDD (hard drive) vs SSD (solid-state drive)
Although I don’t really talk too much about SSDs in this article, it is worth knowing the difference when deciding which to buy. Here’s a simple comparison.
HDD: Hard drives are an older technology and with a spinning drive inside, are more prone to physical failure but being an older and more developed technology, they currently have more capacity and cheaper to buy. With the advantage of being able to store more data, HDDs are still the go-to technology for backing up your data.
SSD: Solid-state drives are the modern equivalent to the HDD. The main advantages are that they read and write much faster and with no moving internal parts, are less prone to failure. The downside is that for now at least, SSDs are considerably more expensive than HDDs. With less capacity, SSDs are not widely used for high capacity backup locations but rather with their superior read/write speed, they are more commonly used as a computer’s main drive where speed is much more important than capacity.
What’s a NAS? (Network Attached Storage)
NAS stands for Network Attached Storage and that’s essentially what it is. Instead of having your files and folders on a locally attached drive that only one computer can access at a time, a NAS can store your files somewhere on your home or office network and providing they have access, anyone on your network can edit and store files on it.
What’s RAID? (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks or Drives)
This is where things get a little technical but stay with me here. Most people do not need to know how a RAID works but when you buy a NAS which can hold multiple drives, you have the option to configure the drives in a way which means your data will be protected even if you suffer a failed drive. The two most common options to use are either a RAID5 or RAID6.
RAID5 - This option protects you against a single drive failing but of the two means you have more usable space on the RAID to store your files.
RAID6 - With this option, you can lose up to 2 drives and your data will still be safe so it is more resilient but the trade-off is that it will eat into your useable space on the RAID meaning not as much space to store your photos and other data.
So, depending on how much space you need and the size of the drives you can afford, you need to choose the best option that fits your needs from a capacity and protection point of view.
What’s Cloud Storage?
Simply put, cloud storage is a place on the internet where you can store your photos and other data away from your home and as long as you have a good internet connection you can essentially access your files from anywhere. You can get a small amount of space for free with services like Gmail or Outlook but if you take lots of photos and want to store them in the cloud, then you may need to pay for the amount of space you need. Although paid cloud storage services tend to require a monthly subscription, these days it can be pretty inexpensive.
In addition to services that just offer space to store your files, there are also dedicated cloud backup services such as Backblaze and Carbonite etc. These will install software on your computer and automatically upload your files to the cloud for you. Each offers different options so these should be studied carefully to make sure they fit your individual needs.
How I Backup My Photos
Hopefully, you are still with me and I didn’t bore you too much so far but what I want to do now is run though how I backup my photos. I won’t go into too much detail and to avoid too many words, I have created a simple diagram for you but if you need me to expand on anything I talk about here, just pop a question below in the comments.
Although this approach follows the 321 backup workflow, for my own peace of mind, it goes a little further by having 4 copies on 4 devices but as I mentioned previously, the 321 backup system is a great starting point but once in place, there is nothing to stop you going further to make it even more robust. To help read the diagram above, I have summarised each copy in the process below.
Copy 1:
Once I get home after a shoot, the first thing I do is copy my photos to my working drive. This is an external 4 Terabyte Lacie Rugged hard drive (the orange and silver device you can see in the photo above) which I use to store and edit my photos.
Copy 2:
As soon as I have the photos stored on my working drive and in Lightroom, I immediately make a clone of my working drive to an exact replica 4TB Lacie Rugged drive. I clone the drive daily from that point to ensure any new edits and new photos I export are quickly protected just in case my working drive fails.
There are so many tools out there for Mac or Windows to help copy your data and as I edit on MacOS, my tool of choice is Carbon Copy Cloner. It’s inexpensive and easy to configure and importantly, it just works.
Copy 3:
Next up, using Carbon Copy Cloner, I make a daily copy over my network to my NAS storage. I use a 6 bay QNAP device with 6x 6TB (terabyte) drives installed. I have configured this as a RAID5 which means I lose the space of one of the 6TB drives resulting in 24TB of usable space on my NAS.
So, at this stage of my workflow, I now have 3 copies of my photos and only now will I go ahead and format my memory cards that held the original photos.
Copy 4:
Copy 4 is my offsite backup. I don’t pay for a dedicated backup software but instead, utilise the 1TB of space in OneDrive I get with my Microsoft account and unlimited photo storage Amazon offers their Prime members.
Top Tip: Many people subscribe to Amazon Prime and know that they offer unlimited photo storage with the subscription but what you may not know is that they count RAW files as photos too, so I automatically sync terabytes of RAW photo files with no additional costs to my standard Prime subscription.
If you own a NAS drive, take a look at the features it has as many will allow you to set up and schedule copy tasks that will sync your photos to your cloud storage automatically for you. I have a daily task that synchronises a selection of my folders from my NAS up into OneDrive and Amazon Photos. That way, I never have to worry about forgetting to do it. The more automation you can introduce, the more reliable your backups will be.
Alternative 321 Backup Options
That was a quick run-through of my workflow and I accept with the 2x 4TB drives and the 24TB NAS, it’s not a cheap one so I have also come up with a couple of workflows below that don’t require the purchase of the NAS system but will still be robust enough to protect those precious photos following the 321 backup approach.
Alternative option 1 - Backup drive rotation
A fairly simple backup strategy is to make a copy of your photos onto a separate external drive and storing it at a family or friend’s home and every now and then, bringing it back to update with your new photos. This process only needs 2 or 3 backup drives which are relatively inexpensive these days (depending on how large your collection is) but is very manual so you would need to adopt a disciplined approach to ensure new photos are protected.
Alternative Option 2 - Cloud Backup
You can still achieve the 321 backup workflow by having a local copy on a separate external drive and a remote copy synchronised to cloud storage or an inexpensive cloud backup service such as Backblaze. This option is dependent on your internet speed and cloud storage space, especially if you want to send large amounts of data over but is a great option with a small amount of upfront cost.
The reason I suggest Backblaze is that they have an inexpensive unlimited plan which also allows you to back up a connected external drive. Many providers don’t offer this so it’s worth looking about for the best option for your needs.
Backup Workflow Top Tips
To finish up, I wanted to leave you with a few tips that may help you create and maintain a successful backup workflow.
#1 Keep your files organised
The reason this is important is that if your files are all over the place, some of them might not be included in the backup so try to keep your entire photography workflow in just one location so you know all of your precious files are safely protected.
#2 Keep it simple
Keeping your workflow simple and introducing as much automation as possible will help you stay on top of the process. If backups are time-consuming or you need to retrain yourself every time you attempt it, the reality is, it just won’t get done. Trust me, I’ve been there.
#3 Don’t just think about your photos
I have many other files that I need such as templates, fonts, spreadsheets etc, all relating to my craft. Consider all the files you will miss if lost when choosing what data needs to be protected. Everyone’s needs are different so protect the files that are important to you.
#4 Buy enough memory cards
As I mentioned previously, I don’t wipe a memory card until the photos are protected so I need to make sure I have plenty of cards so this can happen. Cards are cheap so make sure you have enough so you’re not forced to format them until you are happy your photos are protected.
#5 Test Test Test!
How do you know your backups will save you if you don’t test them every now and then? Make sure you check the backups are working and on occasion restore some files so you can be confident it will all come together when you really need it.
There are many different ways to back up your photos, from the basic process of swapping drives to the more involved, technical workflows, full of automation and scripts, but the most important message I can convey is to find the right approach that suits your workflow and skillset so you can be confident that your system works and your most important photos and data are protected.
I hope you found this article useful and I was able to introduce you to a few different backup concepts or maybe it helped you re-affirm your confidence in your existing approach but please do leave a comment below if you have any other tips and tricks to help others with their own backup workflow.
Archway to Venice | Weekly Photo #49
As I wandered the winding streets and canals in Venice, I nearly missed this view that appeared over my shoulder but I’m glad I didn’t as it quickly became one of my favourite photos of the trip.
I did have a trip to Amsterdam scheduled for the end of this month which we have had to cancel. I was really looking forward to going as it was my first visit to Amsterdam and I’d already started to prepare my must-see places to photograph. I don’t travel as much as I would like so when this trip was cancelled due to the wretched global situation, it was frustrating, but I do appreciate why it had to be done. I think all travel plans this year will be impacted in some way from cancellation to significant disruption while social distancing needs to be observed. I have tried to move the trip back to late August but we will have to wait and see how that goes.
One trip I did take was to Venice in 2018. It was my second visit and after travelling to this beautiful city just a year earlier in 2017, I fell in love with the place and wanted to return so, not long after I got back from my first visit, a return trip for the following year was booked and it then that I captured this week’s photo.
I have created a page on my website where you can see some photos and stories I wrote from my first trip in 2017 here A Weekend in Venice.
Fujifilm XT2 | XF35mmF2 | 35mm | 1/850 Sec | f/2.8 | ISO1250
One thing I like to do in Venice is to wander the streets and side canals without any particular destination in mind but to just see what I find. With so many twists and turns, it’s easy to get lost but every so often, you turn a corner and a new surprise greets you such as a beautiful church or basilica or a bustling square with bars and restaurants. As I wander around, I’m always on the lookout for a photo opportunity and whereas I will typically have a subject and composition in mind and work a location until I have the photo I'm after, sometimes the photo opportunities are spontaneous and I only have a split second to capture the shot and this photo is a great example of that.
As I crossed a bridge over a small side canal and descended down a flight of stairs, the light from this archway behind me caught my eye. It was just over my shoulder and looking back, I could have easily ignored it but thankfully I didn’t and turned around to see what was there. The gondola was being framed beautifully by this brick archway but was disappearing fast and I could instantly see the story, even mystery of the image. Without any time to check my camera settings, I switched it on and framed the composition the best I could and only just managed to take the photo before too much of the gondola had passed. After a quick check on the screen, I knew I had the shot but being Venice, I couldn’t dwell and had to keep moving to see what the next corner had in store.
I like this photo a lot. I like the pastel shades in the water, contrasted against the reds in the brickwork and I love the green of the foliage hanging down from the top of the arch. There are, however, some things I would like to change. First, I would have included a bit more of the archway, but this wasn’t possible as just to the left of the opening, there was some discarded building rubble that would have been too distracting if included. I also find the gondola cover a little messy, but you can only work with the subject you are given and I suppose in a way, having it there makes the gondola look a little more authentic.
Technically this photo isn’t perfect, but technically Venice isn't perfect either. It's about capturing the essence of the city and even with some rustic brickwork, an archway, and the stern of the gondola, you clearly know what this is and where it was taken. It’s subtly obvious.
If you want to see more photos from this trip to Venice, check out a post I wrote that features a set of black and white photos I took after the weather turned the following day. Photographing Venice in Black and White.
Until next week.
Trevor
This post is featured in my Weekly Photo series where I post a new photo every Monday. To have this delivered directly to your inbox, you can subscribe to the mailing list here.
Circle of Light | Weekly Photo #48
In this week’s post, I talk about the time I was finally able to re-take an old favourite photo of mine from back in 2015 and recommend a great landscape photography book I’ve been reading.
Like most people, life gets quite busy, and rarely do I get time to sit down with a cuppa and enjoy a nice book but in the last couple of weeks, I have taken advantage of the time indoors and done just that. I love to read about the story behind the shot and the photographer’s personal thoughts about a particular image. It’s why I write these weekly posts after all. The book I’m reading at the moment is called “Masters of Landscape Photography” (Amazon UK link) and I think this is a great book for two reasons. Firstly, it features some stunning photos from 12 of the world’s top landscape photographers such as Joe Cornish and Art Wolfe. Secondly, each photo is accompanied by a few words written by the photographer about capturing and processing the respective image. Understanding the thought process and motivation to take a given photo helps understand the wider story that surrounds the image and for me at least, creates a deeper connection to the photograph itself. The book also includes some great questions and answers and includes some of the settings and equipment used for every photo shown. If, with everything that’s going on right now, you need some landscape photography inspiration, this might be just what the doctor ordered.
Fujifilm X-T30 | XF16mm F2.8 | 16mm | 15 Seconds | f/13 | ISO160
Around 5 years ago, back in my Nikon days, I took a similar-looking long exposure image of the London Eye which is still one of my favourite photos from back then and over the last couple of years, I’ve been trying to capture an updated version with my Fujifilm camera so it was sod’s law that the day conditions were good and the photo was on, I didn’t have my tripod with me.
To get a night-time long exposure photo like this a few different elements have to come together. Obviously, it needs to be dark and the lights on but still early enough that the London Eye is still running so the spinning movement can be captured. Next, you want to avoid a high tide so anything floating in the foreground is low enough to be out of shot. If not, you will need to point your camera higher, creating more distortion to correct later. You will also have too much sky and a lot less foreground meaning you would lose the lights and colour reflecting in the water.
I was heading out from Westminster Station to take some night shots of London with my Fuji X-T30 and newly acquired XF16mmF2.8 prime lens (which you can read all about here) and just before the heavens opened, I noticed that this photo was on but without a tripod, my only option was to rest my camera on my camera bag, shuffle it around a bit until the image was level and pointing in the right direction and once in position, I dialled in the settings (f/13, ISO160) and took the shot. The full list of settings can be seen underneath the photo.
Back in Adobe Lightroom, I needed to straighten the photo, adjust the white balance to cool down the orange tones created by the city lights and sharpened the photo using the high pass filter in Photoshop.
Stay safe, stay inspired.
Trevor
This post is featured in my Weekly Photo series where I post a new photo every Monday. To have this delivered directly to your inbox, you can subscribe to the mailing list here.
Sunburst at More London | Weekly Photo #47
This week’s photo is one taken of The Shard during a Spring evening in London just as the sun was dipping behind the city’s skyline resulting in a cool sunburst effect.
What makes this whole lockdown experience just about bearable is the nice weather we’ve had in the UK throughout April. Just getting out for a walk in the sunshine each day is a welcome relief from the hours we have to stay indoors and if it was cold and wet outside, I suspect the whole mood would change and patience would be wearing a lot thinner than it is already.
With the nice weather comes some beautiful sunsets and I will often be caught staring out of the window longingly like a pet waiting to be let outside just to go and explorer and experience the great outdoors once again. Thankfully, over the last few years, I have taken advantage of as many opportunities as possible to head out and photograph this special time of day and it gives me some comfort to look back on these photos and appreciate some of the sunsets I have been fortunate to capture.
Fujifilm X-T30 | XF18-55mm | 18mm | 1/90th Sec | f/13 | ISO160
Without any new landscape or cityscape photos in the last 5 weeks, I continue to mix in a bit more of my previous work into these Weekly Photo stories. This shot of London was taken early last year during what was a glorious springtime evening. I had spent a few hours trying to make the most of photographing a clear, blue sky day in the city by looking for strong shadows and harsh light with little real success and as I wandered along the Thames I was keeping my fingers crossed that some interest in the sky would appear during the golden hour.
As it was nearing 6pm, I hadn’t yet settled on a composition and time was running out. The sun was starting to dip close to the horizon and the golden hour was in full swing. As I crossed Tower Bridge, I managed to get into position to capture this classic view of the Shard behind More London and City Hall just in time before the sun dipped out of view behind the buildings.
Normally, when capturing photos looking directly at the sun to create this starburst effect, I will take a number of photos to get the very best from the scene. For instance, I will bracket the shots and merge them in Lightroom later to recover some shadow detail as when shooting directly into the sun, with only one exposure, those buildings would almost certainly be rendered as a silhouette. Also, I will take an image with a smaller aperture (larger f number) to maximise the sunburst effect which would result in extra-long light streaks and add more wow factor to the final image.
Unfortunately, as I arrived the sun was disappearing fast and I had no time to take all of the different photos I mentioned above so, instead, I set the camera to bracket mode, the aperture to f/13 and just began shooting. Although I do feel with a bit more time on location, this photo could have been even better, I’m still really happy with how it turned out.
This photo is also included in my recently updated London Sunrise and Sunset gallery.
I do hope this nice weather continues here in the UK and wherever you’re reading this article from, I hope you are managing to find some positives throughout your day to help get you through these crazy times.
Stay safe, stay inspired.
Trevor
This post is featured in my Weekly Photo series where I post a new photo every Monday. To have this delivered directly to your inbox, you can subscribe to the mailing list here.
My 10 top tips for photographing London
In this article, I list my 10 top tips for getting the very best photographs of London from the ideal locations to essential techniques for capturing some epic pictures of this great city.
London is one of the most photographed cities in the world and with so many inspiring views from epic cityscapes to ornate details, after just a short time out with your camera, you will be hard beat to come away without a good crop of photos. That being said, with just a few useful pointers that will help you plan and inspire while out in the city, you can increase your chances of going from taking a few OK photos to taking a few great photos of London.
One thing to note before we dive in is that although some of these tips are specific to photographing London such as some of the locations I mention, most of the tips can be used in any city or town you happen to be in so just because you might not be photographing London, it doesn’t mean you can’t take some of these ideas and apply them locally to you.
So, let’s not waste any time and jump into my 10 top tips for photographing London!
#1 Check where and when you can use a tripod in London
This photography tip is an important one because the use of tripods in London is to some, a contentious topic. Experiences and therefor opinions of when and where tripods can be used will vary so although I won’t be able to say definitively what is or isn’t ok, I will be able to give you some general advice to help you manage this ambiguous subject.
There are some well-known areas of London that have some very strict “no tripod” rules such as the area around County Hall and the London Eye near Westminster Bridge as well as More London and City Hall over by Tower Bridge, as these are all technically private land. There are, however, plenty of places you can still use a tripod to capture some great shots along the Thames. Directly in front of the Tower of London on the north side and the areas around Tate Modern and the Millennium Bridge are good examples to start.
My personal experience has overall been positive. I have taken my tripod into London countless times and can count on one hand how many times I have been approached about the use of my tripod. I tend to stick to the rules and I’m aware of the absolute no-go areas so, overall, I have learned to work around the restrictions avoiding any necessary telling off from the local security guards. Check my advice below so you can be as informed as possible when heading into London with your tripod and remember, the vast majority of outdoor places are ok with tripods providing you act responsibly.
Research the location
Before you travel, do your research. Check the owner’s website if they have one or ask the photography community. Knowing the rules can help if you get approached by someone less informed and in some situations, enables you to reasonably and respectfully stand your ground if you know tripods are allowed.
Look out for the tripod police
If you are unsure of the rules and there are no signs, go ahead and set the tripod up but always be ready to be approached and told to put the tripod away.
Avoid confrontation
If approached, just be polite and respond appropriately. The guards are just following instruction and even if you come across a wise guy, the best thing to do is move on and avoid any unnecessary confrontation.
Be considerate to others
Even if tripods are allowed, remember that you have no right of way over anyone else so try to keep out of the way to avoid your tripod being bumped or worse, someone tripping on one of the tripod legs. Photographers have a hard-enough rep and we certainly don’t want it to be made any worse.
#2 Embrace the grey weather when photographing London
You may notice as you read this post that all the photos have a common grey, almost monochromatic look to them. This was a deliberate choice I made to keep the images consistent but also show that London can still look great in what most consider bad light. London gets cloudy. I mean, like, all the time and anyone who visits the city has a pretty good chance of experiencing this pretty dull weather for themselves. So when heading out with your camera, you have to keep an open mind as to the style of the photos you will likely walk away with and instead of being put off or unmotivated, try to embrace the weather, seek out some interesting shapes and lines and let the darker clouds give your photos a sense of mood rather than let them defeat your inspiration.
In this previous blog post, I talked about how a wet, miserable day in London turned out to be a surprisingly positive shoot: Capturing London on a Cloudy Day.
#3 Photograph London’s financial district on the weekend and don’t forget to look up!
Like most major cities around the world, London has a financial district, well actually it has two. One in the Square Mile (The City of London) and the other over at Canary Wharf just east of the city. The thing about most of these financial companies is that they tend not to work weekends and as such, this part of London pretty much shuts down over the weekend which for street photographers is less fun but if you want to capture some of these cool skyscrapers and empty London streets, it’s a great location to spend a few hours having the place nearly all to yourself.
While surrounded by all these tall buildings, why not have a go at some “Look Up” shots like this one here. Not an original idea but with the ever-changing London skyline, there is always a new view to be captured and best yet, you can take these types of photos any day of the week!
#4 Get out early to photograph London’s popular tourist hot spots
London can get really busy, particularly at the weekend around the popular tourist hot spots and if you are looking to capture the location free of too many people, then you really must avoid daytime and evening visits. Instead, set your alarm for 4 or 5 am and get out to these popular locations before most of the tourists have even sat down for their hotel breakfast.
London’s great for an early start as public transport will be running and you can get anywhere quickly enough. In addition, you get to be out during the very best time of day for photography as the light is always best in the morning, it’s so much quieter and you have the entire place to yourself for a short while.
#5 Get up high for free, without booking and photograph London’s rooftops
Although there are plenty of opportunities to get some cityscape photos from high up above the streets of London, many come at a cost for entry or requirement to buy food or drink but there are a few rooftop photo spots in London that don’t cost or even require advance booking and you can just rock up on the day and take advantage of some of the epic views of the city and start shooting. Below are my top three to get you started.
One New Change (Find it on Google Maps)
Great for fantastic high-up and close-up shots of St Paul’s Cathedral.
Tripods allowed? No.
Tate Modern Viewing Platform (Find it on Google Maps)
Great for elevated views of the modern financial district in the city and fantastic views of St Paul’s Cathedral from across the river.
Tripods allowed? No.
The Garden at 120 (Find it on Google Maps)
Great for a framed view across West London like the one posted above. Also, there are great rooftop views of Tower Bridge, Canary Wharf and St Mary Axe (aka The Gherkin).
Tripods allowed? Yes.
#6 Photograph the London skyline by walking the South Bank
My absolute favourite thing to do with my camera in London is to walk the South Bank between Westminster and Tower Bridge. This stretch of the Thames Path is popular for good reason as you get to experience some of the best views of London’s skyline available. Although the walk itself isn’t too long, you do need to allow a couple of hours at least if you visit for the first time as you will no doubt stop to capture all the great views as you go.
Along with the classics such as Big Ben, St Paul’s Cathedral and the high rises over in the city, the South Bank offers some great opportunities to capture some street photography and architecture too so, like much of London, it has something for all types of photographer.
Bonus Tip: If you have time, walk back along the North Bank. Although a little quieter, you can still grab some great cityscape photos of The Shard, Tate Modern and the London Eye.
#7 Walk London’s streets and photograph the hidden views
Next up in my top tips for photographing London is to get out on foot and find some of the hidden views of London. They are dotted all over the place and provide great opportunities to take cool, framed photos of some of London’s architectural icons.
The centre of London isn’t a huge place and if you're prepared to get your walking boots on and wander the streets you can be rewarded with some great views of the city. Unless I have a planned shoot and need to get somewhere in good time, I would rather wander the streets with my camera instead of missing potential opportunities by rushing across the city on public transport. If you’re short of time, I’ve listed a few of the more popular backstreets that provide great views of London which also include links to Google Maps to help you find them.
Lovat Lane (Find it on Google Maps)
This cobbled street provides a great foreground for this fantastic view of the Shard from across the river.
Watling Street (Find it on Google Maps)
A great view of St Paul's Cathedral where you can make use of the buildings that flank the street to frame the cathedral and the yellow painted lines which provide some great lead-in lines.
St Helen’s Place (Find it on Google Maps)
This is a cute little street hidden amongst the high-rise buildings in the city and provides some classic London architecture with a great view of St Mary Axe (The Gherkin) which towers over where you stand.
Those were three of the more popular hidden views of London but there are so many more which can be found as you wander the street so if you have time, grab some comfy shoes and head out to explore.
#8 Shoot London, whatever the weather
Number 8 in my top tips for photographing London is a bit of an extension of tip #2 as it also talks about the weather conditions but this time, it’s all about having some fun and shooting in the rain.
“Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass...It’s about learning to dance in the rain.”
Just like the grey, cloudy weather, there’s always a good chance that you’ll get rained on when in London so my top tip is to embrace the conditions as much as you or your gear will allow so you can capture some really cool shots during or just after the rain.
The photo below is a great example of how the scene changes in the rain. The wet cobbled street in front of the Tower of London provides this cool reflective surface making for a much more interesting foreground.
After mistakenly leaving my weather-sealed camera at home, I took a chance and went for a walk into London after dark to take photos in the rain which you can read all about here: On Location | Photographing London With The Fuji XF16mm F2.8.
There are endless opportunities to get creative by taking photos in the rain such as reflections in puddles or shooting through streaky wet windows so don’t let it put you off and grab your raincoat and hit the streets whatever the weather.
#9 Add people for interest and scale when photographing London
London boasts some of the tallest buildings in Europe but it can sometimes be challenging for those taking the photos to portray the scale and “epicness” of the city to those viewing the image, so, tip number nine is to try including people as a familiar point of reference that will allow the viewer to grasp just how big (or small) the objects in your photo really are. Including just one person, like in the photos below, can add just enough interest, mystery and scale to your cityscape photos without them looking overly cluttered and distracting.
Referring back to previous tips in this post, including just a single person in your composition in one of the busiest cities on the planet can be a tad challenging so as per tip #3, hit the city at the weekend when there are fewer workers around or tip #2 by getting up and out early when most people are still waking up. By doing this, it gives you the best chance of avoiding the crowds and capturing that solitary figure to help you portray the scale in your photos.
#10 Do your research before heading out to take photos in London
This final tip is about what to do before a shoot. Whether you have a particular location and type of photo you want to capture, or you like to just head out into the streets to see what photo opportunities jump out at you, you can always increase your chances of coming away from a shoot with a few good shots if you prepare to some degree.
Scout the location to get the best compositions
If you are after a specific shot of London and have limited time, research the location online before heading out. Use Google Maps, Flickr or Instagram to understand the best place to stand so you don’t miss the best light wandering around searching for that killer angle and not being able to find it fast enough. My website also has lots of London based articles to view and gather useful tips. Check out two of my articles below.
Check the venue information
Check opening times and like in tip #1 above, check the rules and regs they have. Not everywhere is photographer friendly and knowing this before you head out may well save a wasted trip.
Check the weather and conditions
Check the weather before you head out! The conditions, wind direction or angle of the sun can all affect the final image and, in most cases, can make or break the shot. Also, knowing the weather conditions will help ensure you head out with the right clothing and camera gear so you’re not standing there soaked through because you didn’t bring your raincoat rushing your shots so you can get back inside.
Bonus Tip: Stay safe and have fun
It should go without saying but please do not take your safety for granted. Photographers tend to carry quite a bit of valuable gear and not all areas of every city are safe to wander alone so, whatever you do, be discrete, take care of yourself and where possible, take a friend with you, especially at night.
That’s it. My top 10 tips for photographing London has come to an end. I do hope this article comes in useful for anyone looking to come and photograph London in the future or as mentioned earlier, using the transferable tips to photograph your local town or city wherever you live.
If you have any tips you would like to share, feel free to drop them in the comments below so everyone can take advantage and get the very best images when out photographing London.