Walks, Wildlife and Emails

The past six weeks have been an enjoyable blend of walking and emailing fantastic couples who’s days I am covering.

View of Lansallos from the coast path.

I’ve just photographed a wedding, and this coming season is busier than last year for me, which has caused an uptick in my office time. I am so excited for this year, it’s a good sign to need more time in the office!

This said, I live in Cornwall, the sun has finally been attempting an appearance and it would be criminal to not get out and about.

So between the office time, and days shooting, I’ve been doing some local walks, and spending a lot of time down by the river, watching the birds do their thing.

The Kingfisher’s have been challenging so far this year!

For me, photography is a passion, my camera is almost always with me. The world around me inspires, informs and sometimes it’s just that the light hits the landscape beautifully, and I know that if my camera wasn’t with me, I’d regret missing that moment.

This post is sprinkled with photos from a few recent walks, and moments on the river - because the other thing I love about photography, I can share the view, the moment and eventually look back on them myself.

Polperro, and on my way for a pint and Sunday lunch!

So life is taking a nice balance right now, between time with my partner, our cat, photography and getting out and about. This is something I’ve long wanted to achieve - balance, it’s why I moved to Cornwall in the first place, I want to work for myself, with goals to hit, things to achieve, and new things to try or improve upon.

Which is why I’m going to attempt shooting “reels” and other content for my social media! I’ve done this before, and some of you may well be familiar with “Chris reporting live…”. It’ll be that, but more time spent planning and editing.

Lansallos is a quiet, but pretty beach and home to a small waterfall. Always worth a visit.

It’s something I enjoyed, but also a truth about modern business - and being a photographer also means being a content creator. Don’t worry though, no dancing, or slowly lifting my camera to my face, to then suddenly blast twenty pictures I’ve taken to upbeat, but generic music…

My ethos with photography is authentic and natural, and I will try to keep that in my videos.

As I write this, the sun is out and I do have a video to shoot, so I’d best make a coffee, and attempt this.

Wide open rolling countryside and coast.

2024 Done, 2025 - bring it!

I know, I know… I missed December!

(Photos in this blog, are some of my favourites from 2024)

Honestly between you and me, I’m surprised I’ve managed to only miss one month, it’s been a busy year and I’ve never been able to keep a journal! (Part of me is glad about that, I suspect reading the thoughts of teenage me, would be extremely cringey now!)

So 2024 is over, and what a year it was! I met some amazing people, photographed memorable weddings, took headshots for customers of LinkedIn at their Talent Connect UK event, ran a headshot booth in the Excel Centre in London for monday.com/LinkedIn, photographed various local events, client events and even an amazing dance show in December.

A talented dancer, frozen in time, floating in the air.

I got to travel with the job, with several trips to London, and visited a lot of gorgeous local beaches and venues around Cornwall! Naturally I’m hoping for a booking that takes me to Europe, I do love Italy…hint, hint!

Still can not believe that this is my life now, I get to meet wonderful people, see lots of places and take photos!

Mother and son celebrating a beautiful wedding on the beach.

2024 was my first year back as a full time photographer - it was a big decision to make, and one I’m immensely happy to have made, this said, I’d be a liar if I didn’t tell you that I was incredibly nervous to make this move!

It had been some time since I last did photography professionally, and starting from scratch again - going from a comfortable job and risking it all, was, if not a little mad, certainly un-nerving!

Well 2025 is here now, and looking back, I know I made the right decision,, it’s been an amazing journey, and I am grateful to everyone I met last year, who’s days I captured, or those I connected with professionally, you made that journey possible, so thank you!

“Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” - Mark Twain

I resonate with this quote, though I don’t think he factored in the accompanying “paper work”!

There’s a risk with turning a passion in to a job, that it can take the sparkle out of it. This certainly hasn’t happened for me, indeed it’s given me more time to enjoy my “hobby” photography - such as my wildlife, landscape and astrophotography.

Watching this Kingfisher get its breakfast one morning, just felt magical.

I’m looking forward to enjoying more time with my wildlife photography in 2025, it’s wonderful taking pause, and finding peace whilst watching creatures go about their lives, I’m even learning a little bit about them to!

I’m especially looking forward to the weddings I’ve got booked in this year, there’s a wonderful variety of styles and themes, and some amazing locations, ranging from vineyards to gold-sand beaches, and some beautiful quaint churches to!

Taking a sneak peak at gathered loved ones before the big moment!

I’ve got some client headshots booked in, and I love getting to know the person I am about to photograph, it helps the client relax, me get a better understanding of that person to get the most out of the session and I get to have such interesting conversations with people - something I really enjoy.

Capturing headshots, and meeting new and interesting people is a real privilege.

Another exciting part to 2025, is simply taking my business and building upon last year, growing in terms of number of clients, building my brand, getting in front of the camera more to bring you videos, making connections and building my own skills, learning new techniques, and honing my style is a big driving force for me - and ultimately making this passion something I can do for the rest of my life!

Also, I really want to photograph foxes this year, it’s on my bucket list!

So here goes 2025, it’ll be a roller coaster undoubtedly, with unknown challenges, but I find myself better equipped going in to this year and ready to take it on!

…one blog down, eleven to go, will I achieve 100%?!

Daisy

The year is starting to draw to a close, and I’ve got a lot of thoughts on how my photography business has grown, how I’ve developed as a photographer and how grateful I am for the people in my life, and once I’ve collected my thoughts together, I will blog about this in the coming weeks.

So for now, I’m going to talk about my cat, …because whilst I’ve only had her a little over a year, I can not imagine life without her, she’s been the subject of many photos, caused many laughs and brought a whole lot of love with her.

So meet Daisy.

Daisy awaits snuggles on the bed!

We learnt though friends that she was going to need a home, and my partner and I had discussed getting a cat for some time, and decided that giving one a much needed home was the right way to go.

She’s quite the character, she has a meow for fuss, a meow for food, a meow to wake us up for cuddles, a meow if she feels left out and a million more - she’s the most chatty cat I’ve ever known.

It causes some amusement when she’s halfway through a conversation with you, and yawns, leading to a Meeeeooo…aahhhh——ooow.

Her routines I’ve become so accustom to, that I can tell the time of day by where she’s sat, or if she’s sleeping, monitoring the garden, or in her hedge den.

She’s spotted something… I’ve spotted I should have cut the grass!

The Daisy Den, a little hollow in the hedge, which she naps in, and watches the passing cats.

Much like any cat, she loves finding the sunny spots in the house, like on my yellow IKEA armchair, where she’ll lazily purr at me as I head to make a coffee.

Ahhh, comfy chair! (I really love this armchair, it’s an IKEA classic and gloriously yellow!)

She also loves the rain, our lean-to makes a wonderful sound when it’s raining, the pitter patter can get quite loud, and when it does, Daisy likes to head out in to that space, sit on the doormat and listen to it, purring contently.

All tuckered out after playing with her favourite feather.

We have a large front window, where she can watch other cats pass by, or the birds playing in the bushes - she never goes to attack, she just watches, head tilted, making little noises, her tail swishing gently in the sunlight.

I’m sleeping, and keeping my nose warm!

Talking of other cats, she’s got a bit of a mixed relationship with the other locals (don’t we all?!) - most she gets on with, but a couple cause her grief. She’s only tiny, so there’s one she avoids at all cost, and one that’s friendly and playful - too playful, and she’ll bolt the moment that one comes running at her!

She’s spotted a cat, and is not amused!

I love my cat, she loves to sit on my chest, and paws at my nose if I stop giving her fuss, she knows if I am ill and won’t leave my side. This said, I love her, she loves my partner more, they’re inseparable - like a shadow, Daisy follows her everywhere, will sit on, or by her the entire day if given the chance.

Needless to say I’m a cat person, and this post is more about me sharing cute pictures of my cat, than anything particularly deep or meaningful. But as a photographer, and a cat owner, I’ve got to share pictures, it’s the law!

So if you need some cuteness in your day, I hope you’ll enjoy my cat photos.

…she melts my heart.

Capturing Ancient Light.

I can talk, at length about astronomy, telescopes and photography - so keeping this blog short, is going to take considerable effort on my part! I shall try my best not to tangent you in to black holes and neutron stars!

A section of the Heart Nebula (IC 1805), A region rich with dust, creating light year long structures.

As a kid (as with all children) I loved exploring, and learning about the world around me - its that interest in the world that led me to discover the sciences and become fascinated with dinosaurs, space and the natural world.

As I got older the love for science and technical things continued, though I’d added an interest in art and photography with trips to galleries and taking photos from an early age on my compact 35mm film camera. (A Ricoh YF-20, which I still have, box and all!)

Photography has obviously become core to me, but that love of science and exploration has shaped much of my life. That yearning for exploration turned in to years dedicated to travelling around the world, but also a constant desire to see what’s “out there”.

It would be around late 2010, early 2011 when I saw a photograph of the surface of the Moon, and my reaction was “What? You can do that? How big is the lens?!!”

I fell down a rabbit hole of research, and by the time the end of 2011 had come around, I had discovered you can use a telescope like a camera lens and I’d made my mind up - I was going to purchase a telescope, the Meade LX90 8” SCT.

My Meade LX90 - A beast of a scope for the Moon, Planets and distant galaxies. In this photo it’s been de-forked and put on an GEM mount, which made life a lot easier.

The Meade LX90 is a beast of a scope, fork mounted, and Alt-Az orientation - in hindsight, I should have done more research, because if you know anything about astrophotography, those words made you wince!

Upon it’s arrival, I fell in love - this was going to be the start of a steep learning curve and a life long passion. This hobby blends technical challenges, science and art together.

A basic principle of photography is focal length - this is measured in “mm”. Without getting to into the weeds on this, the smaller the number the wider the field of view and will capture more of what’s in front of you, the bigger the number, the narrower the field of view and the more “zoom” you get.

A landscape photographer might use a 20mm lens, a wildlife photographer might use a 400mm lens for example. Some camera lenses in the 400-600mm range are perfectly good at getting a photo of the Moon, my telescope however is the equivalent of a 2032mm lens!

This focal length allows me to see mountains and craters on the Moon, cliffs and plateaus, you can see the very shadows cast by the mountains and crater edges, and the first time I saw the Moon in that light, I knew, to my core, that this was something I’d do forever.

This view never fails to amaze me, but before you ask, no you can’t see the Apollo landers, they’re the size of a van, those craters are tens of kilometres across and several deep!

Now the Moon is very bright, so with a little effort and an adapter I was able to plug in my camera and snap some photos, the results where amateurish, but immediately gratifying and I’d soon pick my next target - Jupiter!

I told the camera to take a shot, and …oh dear, it’s a blurry blob, that resembles almost nothing. I’ve got some learning to do.

…I mean you can sorta see it right?

I got better! The moon Io casts a shadow!

The years pass, and I’ve run in to innumerable hiccups like the Jupiter blob situation, discovering the bane of light pollution, or learning I’d just picked the worst possible scope for taking photos of nebulae.

Turns out that a lot of things in the night sky are huge, and a telescope with that much “zoom” makes a complex process like astrophotography even harder, as it means every object takes even more photos to capture (imagine trying to take a panorama, but each photo takes hours to capture!).

So time for scope number two, a gorgeous 550mm focal length scope, suited to shooting nebulae - which in my opinion are frankly the prettiest thing in the night sky with galaxies taking second place to me!

Scope two! All the cables aren’t plugged in yet - it gets much more complex!

Now if you’ve ever tried to photograph stars with your camera on a tripod, you realise that you need a fairly long exposure to capture the faint ones, you crank the dial to 2 seconds, and get a nice shot, so you try 4 seconds, maybe 10 seconds, and soon see the stars turning in to streaks - your tripod is stable, but the Earth is spinning in space and you’re now starting to see that motion in your photos.

The effect of us spinning, shown here by stacking many shots together!

Nebulae are even fainter than the stars, so you need absurdly long exposure times to photograph them.

The longer your focal length or exposure, the worse that star trail effect gets. So how do I shoot images that are at 550-2032mm that are also made of exposures often over 10 minutes in length?

You need a mount, and a good one - one that can balance your scope, your cameras and rotates very precisely using motors to counter the spin of the Earth! Not only that, it has to be aligned perfectly, balanced to a high degree, oh and having a secondary camera helps! One that tracks a star to counter any errors you made using software that then feeds back data to the mount …yup, this stuff escalates fast and I told you I love a technical challenge.

Another issue with capturing ancient light from distant stars is light pollution. The longer you expose your camera sensor, the more light bouncing around our atmosphere from street lamps, security lights etc is captured by the sensor.

You can see this easily if you take a camera on a cloudy night and take a 10 second shot, the clouds will appear yellow in colour, because of the glow from human lights.

This light from us blocks the view of faint stars and annihilates the view of galaxies, however with many nebulae, there’s a way to get around the pollution we’ve created - filters.

M63 - The Sunflower galaxy, the pinks and reds within it’s spiral arms are nebulae, forming new stars and worlds.

Most nebulae shine in specific frequencies on the spectrum, so a filter can block out every other frequency except the one we want, and the ones we want are thankfully rare on Earth as the processes that make them occur almost exclusively in space. This effectively deletes 99.99% of human made light pollution, allowing me to see the things I want - however this adds even more complexity.

The Monkey Head Nebula - photographed from my back garden in Looe.

So that was the next expensive rabbit hole to fall down. I go from shooting with a digital SLR, to buying a specialist cooled (for reasons, that I won’t get in to) black and white CCD camera, that then captures light through multiple different filters with a secondary camera tracking the motion of the stars, all plugged in to a laptop, and I then have to blend the data from multiple filters to produce an image… yikes!

Many things in space are red, pink or purple, due to the nature of what many nebulae are made of (hydrogen gas and sulphur come out as shades of red, and oxygen blue through my filters).

The Elephant Trunk Nebula. (I see a woman with long hair walking away…)

No doubt you’ve seen fantastical shots with vivid greens, oranges, teals etc, so what gives?

From a science point of view you want to show what a nebula is made up of, and where that “stuff” is whin the object. If you show sulphur as red and hydrogen as red, it’s not going to be super clear, even with different shades. So most scientists will colour Hydrogen green, Sulphur red, and Oxygen as blue, this leads to photos that let you see the interaction of these gases easily and where they reside.

The Pac-Man nebula, the rich dust clouds giving it amazing dark regions, the centre is a strong mix of Oxygen and Hydrogen, with its outer layers having an abundance of Sulphur gas.

From a photography point of view, it becomes more “art”, you’ll choose pleasing colours to show off the subtle structures within the object, with dust and stellar winds sculpting these vast clouds of gas that form new worlds, stars and more!

So the images I produce, whilst real, are not always their true colours, and this is where the art comes in!

Astronomy is a blend of science, a complex technical challenge and a little art - there’s an inherent beauty to these things and wonder they inspire when I see them through my scope, this furthers my desire to understand what I am seeing, which feeds back in to my love of science.

Astronomy teaches me patience to, it can take a long time to get one photo of something in deep space.

Lets imagine I wish to photograph a nebula that’s faint enough to need a 10 minute exposure…

Considering all of the above, the scope needs setting up and fine tuning, the sky has to be clear of clouds, the wind not to strong to make guiding hard. Then the Moon needs to be either far away from the shot, or not about at all.

The shot will require three filters, Hydrogen, Oxygen and Sulphur (Ha, OIII and SII), so I need to photograph it three times right? Thirty minutes isn’t that long? Sure, but the longer the exposure, the more noise you get in the image, or a satellite might whiz pass giving you a streak in the image, or a cosmic ray might strike, giving you a random bright spot (…tangent warning, but that’s so cool!) So more images right?

Yup! You stack multiple images on top of each other to cancel out noise, or random events.

On average I take about 120 images for one photo, 30 in each filter and a selection of calibration photos (which I shall skip over the details about!).

120 x 10 minutes = 20 hours, which means you need multiple clear nights with good conditions to get a photo. Now imagine shooting a panorama!

The Orion nebula, with the Running Man nebula to the left. This nebula is a vast stellar nursery, full of giant young stars that burn so bright they light up the gas that formed them!

This overview also skips over other factors, like position in the sky, how dark it is (I loathe summer!), and if I can stay up until 4am taking photos, when I’ve got a wedding the next day to shoot!

Needless to say, this is a passion of mine, and I’ve learnt an awful lot to get me to this point, yet there’s always more to learn, or a bigger scope to get, or photographing the Sun, or rare events, discovering new objects….

Of course you can photograph the surface of the Sun with very specialist equipment, but that’s a tale for another day!

One thing I will say, I am privileged to have seen the beauty out there in the universe with my own eyes, it’s vast, fascinating and humbling - I feel incredibly small when measured against it, but deeply part of something beyond the scope of anything we can imagine.

I love the fact that through the skills I’ve gained by falling in to this passion, I can share the view I get with people, indeed if anyone ever asks to look through my scope, I am always “you first”, because that moment when you see the rings of Saturn for the first time, is truly, utterly magical, and that magic has not left me.

The view I get of Saturn - never fails to amaze me.

…this blog was hard to write, not because of the subject, but because it took all my will power to not tangent in to a million side notes.

If you enjoyed the photos, check out more here!

A Mad and Wonderful Week

A few weeks ago I had a mad and wonderful week - and it’s only just really sunk in. So let me describe it to you!

For many months I’d had a wedding booked in for the 13th of September, I’d met with the lovely couple over a coffee and cake - and all was arranged. A few months pass and I’m contacted by an agency regarding a client of theirs looking for a headshot photographer - fantastic, right up my street.

I put in my my submission for the job, give them my day rate, and cross my fingers - a week passes and I’ve got the gig - amazing!

The dates I was initially given were for late September, but it turns out there was a mix-up and the job will be the 11th to the 12th! I look at the timings, the transport situation and figure I’m going to be tired for the wedding on the 13th, but it’s do-able and I’d be mad to turn down such an opportunity, so I’m in!

Details and more specifics get laid out, and I start planning what I am going to need for such a job - and more to the point, figuring out if can I lug all of it on the tube!

The event was to be held at the ExCeL centre in London, over two days, with 2000 attendees, I was there to provide headshots to those attendees, but there’s a catch - I can’t take the shots home, and edit - I have to live deliver them there and then!

So my equipment pile just had a tether cable, laptop and portable stand for the laptop added! Oh and of course my setup has to be flawless, as I can’t fix anything later.

I make some additional enquiries to hone in on how things are going to work on the day, and it turns out that there’s no backdrop provided by the vendor (often there is, due to branding), so that pile just got bigger as now I need to lug a portable background to.

My gear pile now has camera, lens, memory cards, studio flash, light stand, modifier, sand bags, laptop, tripods, reflector and even more that I have to get from home, to the event and back, without putting my back out.

The setup, everything here had to be lugged from Cornwall to London, in one bag, with a light stand in my spare hand!

Thankfully I’ve gotten incredibly good at packing, sorting and picking gear that gives me maximum effect, for minimal gear and weight.

Two invaluable bits of gear for me have been both made by Westcott, and whilst this isn’t an advert, I have to shout out their “Eye Lighter” reflector, it gives me a great clamshell lighting setup, whilst only using one light, and their “X-Drop” background is easy to setup and super lightweight.

Even better than great gear selection, is the Elizabeth line, it’s so easy to get off the train at Paddington, hop on that line, and get off at the ExCeL - it made this whole experience a breeze, though getting a light stand on and off a train during a rush period leads to a lot of “excuse me”, “so sorry” and “aahhh, watch your back”!

I arrive on site, for once without any train drama (if you know me, you know what I mean!)

Did I mention the ExCeL is huge? I didn’t? - well it really is, I’d looked on maps and figured it was big, but to be there in person, inside and setting up in just one of many areas within this gigantic building was a little overwhelming and utterly brilliant.

I rock up at the entrance - and I can all ready tell that this is going to be an overwhelming experience!

The next day I am shooting, the event is live, my gear is ready to go and I start meeting some really fun and lovely people! I’m there to update their headshot for professional and possibly personal use - many telling me that they’d not updated in years, or as always happens, they hate getting their photo taken, but the opportunity to do it for free was just to good to pass.

They did not pass the opportunity either! Over the two days I photograph a little under 400 people, or about 20% of the attendees to this event, and I deliver around 600 photos to those people. The queue for the booth was constant and never ending.

Thankfully my people skills aid me here, I’m both working with my sitter in that moment, and managing the queue, thanking people for their patience and cracking the odd joke to keep people happy, whilst simultaneously getting my next person comfortable in front of me with the camera, and the gathered crowds as I take their photo.

Pose is a dirty word to many, it invokes the idea of stiff, unnatural and awkward, so I try to consider my roll more about directing, talking the person through how I want them to sit, tilt their head, look at me etc

Given the crowds, the pressure is on me to do this correctly, but also efficiently, with enough personality and gentleness to keep everyone comfortable and looking their best. This is even more important when there’s no post production, no do-over, it’s three snaps, and pick one to be emailed there and then.

This image is from the event, and exactly what the attendee received! It went from camera, to laptop to email in the space of two minutes.

After day one, I was tired, after day two, I was proud of what I’d done, but also a little broken - and day two gave me a heart attack at the start.

That queue I mentioned, the one that never went away, well it turns out I was indeed the most popular booth at the event, and so much so, that my queue was causing the health and safety guys to sweat. I arrived on site ready for round two - only to find my gear was missing, gone, vanished! My heart was in my throat as I looked for someone to shine a light on what happened!

Turns out, that because my queue stretched out in to areas that shouldn’t be blocked, they’d picked my gear up and moved me to a place that was more manageable, and just neglected to tell me!

After a laugh later and re-setting up, it was a good job they’d moved me, because the queue was back with ferocity and the day blurred by as I photographed even more people!

A side note about my booth, it was so busy - that other booths sent their marketing guys to hang around the line and do their thing!

After the day concluded, a few goodbyes to people I’d met during the job, I packed my gear, grabbed the tube and started my journey back home - arriving at 11PM, and snoring by midnight, I’d got lenses to clean, batteries to charge and a wedding to shoot the next day… oh and another event.

The week before the mad one, a request went out for a photographer to cover two hours in the evening of the 13th for a company dinner and awards ceremony - so I booked that in to - because I’m mad!

This job certainly offers variety and I love it! Two days of shooting corporate headshots, followed by a wedding on the moors - capturing candid, beautiful fleeting moments between the bride and groom with their attending guests! Followed by a Big Mac thrown down my throat before going to a business dinner and awards evening at a local golf course.

From corporate headshots at a mad event, to lush greens and candid moments - what a transition!

Busy weeks like that are exhausting, but fun and a real reminder that I’m doing this, I am bending life to what I want and actually achieving it - and I am so proud of that week and pulling it off.

Candid

To be candid, is to be honest and tell the truth, and it’s my favourite style of photography.

“Candid photography captures natural expressions and moments that might not be possible to reproduce in a studio or posed photo shoot. This style of photography is most often used to capture people in their natural state without them noticing the camera.” - Wikipedia

When I first got in to photography, I practiced, and practiced …and practiced. Part of that practice was asking friends to pose for me, shooting portraits, learning composition and light. The other part of my practice was simply going out, and taking photos - its in these sessions where I fell in love with “street photography”.

Street photography is about capturing real moments, people thinking, laughing; just existing in day to day life - not forcing a grin, or faking anything - there’s a beauty and intimacy in these genuine moments.

Walking the streets of Lincoln (the closest I have to a “home city”) I would capture people having coffee, a quiet moment with a friend, or wrangling their dog, whilst trying to juggle an important call…

These moments showcase life at time and place, and I feel are important, documenting fashion, places, human nature etc.

Moments are fleeting, so capturing them, without being noticed, letting the moment playout naturally is a challenge - you want the light, you want the composition to be “just so”, but you can’t stage it, or fake it, I simply have to be there, prepared and ready to get it captured.

It’s always worth the effort though, and I find those shots especially pleasing, and more importantly genuine. My years of practice at street photography have given me a skill set to capture weddings, events and people more honestly.

In a world full of fake, filters, staged moments, AI - real moments have become more and more important. These moments connect us to that day, bring back memories and unveil a natural beauty that we often don’t see in ourselves as we force a grin at a camera, or hide behind a filter.

It once was the case that weddings had a big focus on “formal” shots, group photos, fake signing of the register (inkless pen in hand) and a photo with every family member going. Now I feel that is very much past us, and I for one am grateful for this change.

Candid photos are much more honest and depict the day better, capturing that moment when the groom sees the bride, or an aunt cries at the speech, a hug, a shared look, a goofy face - a real representation of the day.

A bonus to this style of photography, it’s less pressure on everyone to get to x spot for y photo, you can focus on just enjoying the celebration, and I will use my street photography skills to capture the day naturally, without the need to interrupt and change the flow of the day.

Dotted amongst this blog post are photos from this past year, that represent a portion of my favourite candid moments from weddings I’ve had the honour of photographing.

In writing this, I am reminded that I need to dig out my old film photos and get them digitised, as some of my candid images bring back fond memories of me learning my craft.

Snapshots of Looe

Looe at Dusk.

Looe has been my home for almost seven years - a fact that blows my mind at times, I’ve never lived in one spot for very long. My childhood was spent flitting from one place to the next, a couple of years here, a couple of years there at most.

A view of West Looe looking from its Eastern side.

The view from one of my favourite benches for eating an ice cream.

Younger adult me went from running a small studio to back packing for years on end and never staying still for long - indeed before coming to Cornwall, I was up in Edinburgh (an amazing city, a must for anyone to visit).

My home affords me a view over Looe river, a spot where I can watch the little branch line train come in, bringing in curious travellers, workers and a vital connection to the outside world. I also get the amusement of watching day trippers getting stuck on the sand bar, or paddle boards glide up river to enjoy the views and wildlife.

Paddleboarding up Looe River

Looe has truly become a home to me, a place full of hidden spots full of peace and nature for me to unwind in - its night sky hasn’t been entirely ruined by street lights and garish “security lights” - so I can sit with my telescope in the evenings and bask in starlight - or venture to the front to look at Looe island with our home galaxy glowing above.

Looe Island with the Milky Way glowing above it.

This peace is balanced out by the busy riverside, full of families crabbing, eating ice-creams whilst shooing away gulls. Pleasure boats dominate the water here, with the ferry nipping between East and West Looe for a pound fare and a moment of on the water peace.

The Sun setting over the busy riverside.

The sea front, with its sweeping beach is the draw for most people visiting, it’s a part I honestly rarely visit in the summer days, though early morning and as the sun fades in the evenings, it has a relaxing vibe and the gentle bustle of people heading home, or to dinner has a happy sound to it.

Indeed the mornings on Looe river can be really beautiful as the mist rises off its surface, with gulls preparing for another day of terrorising tourists and catching fish.

Banjo Pier - iconic and beautiful with early morning Sun.

Early morning on the river can be especially beautiful.

Looe has a lot of hidden (not Narnia hidden, but “less explored”) side streets and bits the visiting throngs rarely visit - these streets often have pretty cottages, buildings with history, not nation making, King breaking history - but the kind that leaves you imagening how people once lived, what daily life was like before the world shrank and the fishing vanished.

Cute cottages can be found away from the main streets of Looe.

Among these streets, are uncountable numbers of second homes, and holiday lets that go dark and dormant during the winter months, but despite this, there’s a deep sense of community here, everyone knows everyone else or at least recognises you from “such and such” and this leads to people greeting you, asking how you are and stopping for a chat - which makes it even more of a home.

The walk to the shop often affords me a beautiful view.

Looe is pretty, its quaint and very photogenic - which is something I don’t take for granted and still keeps me looking for the next photo opportunity.

It’s not stupid, if it works!

I generally tell people that I am a “people” photographer - events, weddings, portraits, they’re all about the people, and that’s what I photograph the most.

But I love photography as a whole, and if it happens to scratch an itch to try something technical or challenging, I am even more excited!

Product photography offers a diverse range of challenges, and I love it!

I don’t have a dedicated studio space, but I’ve got a kitchen table, some lights and I watched a lot of Blue Peter as a kid - what can I do in a few hours to show off a product?

Well today I am going to give you a peak behind the curtain, show you my janky setups, the RAW unedited images and the final result, and walk you through my process and the hiccups I encountered along the way.

Challenge One - Swimming Pool in the Kitchen

I want to create one of those classic “Holiday Vibe” photos, where perfume, or suntan lotion is resting in a shallow pool, kissed by warm sunlight.

Well I live by the sea…but that’s not a very controllable environment, and I want to control the light, positioning, water level etc.

Camera mounted over my "pool"

So a Pyrex dish, it’s great for lasagne, and it also makes for a great pool! Stick some blue card underneath, that will hide the table and give it more “pool vibes”. However it’s not very convincing, it needs another element.

Ripples, you’d expect them in a pool, and they create beautiful light patterns called caustics - so I removed the soft box from my light, to give it that harsh Sun like direct light effect and proceeded to tap the water with my hand, making a mess of the table and the general area - but I got the ripples I needed!

Cropping is going to REALLY help with the illusion!

I added one of my LED tube lights in just to add a little fill light to the side of the bottle, and with some colour grading, cropping and touching up in Photoshop, got the result I desired.

The final image - No kitchen table in sight!

Challenge Two - Nice Background, Controlling Reflections.

Back at the kitchen table - this time with a perfume called “Just Pink!”.

Cropping is going to be a hero once again!

Again I’m just working with whatever I’ve got laying around the house to make this photo - and despite having a very lovely kitchen/lounge space, it’s not suitable for this product, I need a background.

I’ve got some multi-coloured card left from a few projects, and some of it’s pink - perfect!

I tape two bits together, and curve it gently to create a smooth transition along the horizon line, going from foreground to background. Just how am I going to prop it up? Thankfully some boxes of Cards Against Humanity are just the right size, voila - curved pink background.

Card, sticky back plastic and a board game prop...

The scene needs more than just the bottle on its own, and whilst clearing the table of bits for this project, I moved a vase full of flowers, and they had the perfect colours for this image.

Lighting is straight forward in this scene, a very simple one light setup. I’ve got a soft box on my AD400 pro light, above and to the right, it creates a nice reflection and a soft flattering light, and with a reflector on the opposite left for fill.

The last challenge with this image was the bottles cap - it’s very reflective and you could see the kitchen in it. I got the soft box reflected in half of the cap and I like how it shows it’s shiny - but I need to remove the kitchen. Cue more cardboard! I just held a bit whilst taking the photo - the correct angle masks the kitchen, it’s really not stupid if it works!

The rest is just crop, grade and polish in Photoshop!

The finished result.

Challenge Three - Cocktails and Photos!

I once made cocktails professionally and it’s something I now enjoy as a hobby, experimenting with ingredients and of course sampling the result is always fun!

Tarquin’s Gin is fantastic and I make my take on a "Bee’s Knees” cocktail with it regularly - so why not photograph it!

The Tarquin’s Dry Gin bottle is a gorgeous blue, with a diffuse reflective wax seal, and the cocktail I make is yellow with a primary ingredient being lemon juice.

So I’ve got a palette which sits nicely at near opposite ends of the colour wheel and I know I want to show off the ingredients to the drink - it’s time to get creative, which is why I really do enjoy this type of photography.

I want the background to be more a part of the image, and I want to play with that nice colour wheel situation whilst creating something striking.

I decide to grab - yup, more cardboard, this time yellow and blue, and with those Blue Peter skills tape a lot together to create a split colour background - once again propped up on board game boxes.

Yes that is a Pavotube being used as a boom arm...

Now how to show the ingredients, the bottle of gin is easy, but honey? lemon? Well a lemon slice seems obvious, but sitting it next to glass would lead to an unbalance image and it’s not very inventive.

How about floating above the drink? That way I can have the honey dripping off it, which shows the honey off better! Perfect, but how?

I have fishing wire, which will be easy to remove in post, but how to hang the lemon in the right spot? I have a spare small stand, but no boom arm. Once again, it’s not stupid if it works! I have a clip for my tube light that screws in to that thread, so if I balance it right, I can use the light as the boom arm and suspend the lemon slice from that!

Now all I have to do is pour honey over the lemon, and I’ve got the shot? Well no, this is going to need a composite image as I won’t get the exact shot I want first time, and multiple tries are going to make a mess of the drink if it stays under there.

So first I shoot the unopened bottle with a glass for reference, the lemon suspended above. Next I shoot with the cocktail made and under the lemon, with some slight lighting adjustments.

Next I remove the cocktail, put some plastic down to make cleaning easier and start pouring honey over the lemon, until I get a pour I like. The mess by the end was a little extreme!

Once I’ve got the shots I need to blend, I head in to Photoshop to merge all the images in to one seamless shot, I remove the fishing wire, clean up gaps in the cardboard, remove scuffs and dust on the bottle, glass, surfaces etc After that, I colour grade, crop and adjust the text on the bottle to make it stand out better.

The finished image, and I assure you the drink tasted amazing!

Final Thoughts

Three examples of some “Kitchen Table” product photography and three times I’ve found myself really enjoying the challenge of solving problems, coming up with ideas, whilst just using stuff to hand and creating an illusion that sells a product.

I aim to capture most of the image through the camera, but the ability to edit in post afterwards allows you to really sell the effect of high end shoot, even if it mostly involves, tape, cardboard and dodgy solutions to problems.

A good photo lets you make something stand out, so if you want to really make your product shine, I hope this inspires you to find a way to make an interesting photo with just stuff laying around and a little imagination.

Or if you’re not that creative with a camera, hire a professional like me, I promise it’s not always tape and scissors, though hey if it works, it’s not stupid!

A Focus on Looe River

Looe is much like any other coastal town in Cornwall, England - huge crowds of tourists come flocking in the school holidays, to sit on the beach, and eat fish’n’chips.

The river whilst a big part of Looe (both physically and historically), and often photographed from its harbour banks or the bridge that connects East with West, isn’t the destination for these travellers, it’s more of a nice backdrop to their day by the sea.

Looe Harbour, photographed from it's West Bank, looking North East.

Just to the North of the bridge the river splits in two, it’s Western source running past the massive visitor car park, with the tourists quick marching in to town, eager to get a prime spot on the beach, or hit the shops - the river ignored.

For me, and many locals, the river has become a place of peace and quiet from the throngs of visitors, a gentle woodland walk to be found along its valley banks, as it gently winds west.

Egret with its prey.

Nature - to, finds peace from people and their innumerable dogs - the opposite bank from the carpark is generally unreachable by people, so has become a haven for Herons, and Egrets, making their nests high above the water line.

Around low tide, the Egrets flock to the shallow water, walking slowly upstream - their gaze fixed down whilst they shake their legs to agitate the silt and disturb fish, a quick piercing flash later, they catch and promptly swallow small silver fish, the fish having a somewhat shocked expression in its eyes.

Landing, twisting and dancing, the Egret hunts for fish.

Egrets are beautiful birds, as they twist and dance to get the fish that slipped past them, their call however is anything but beautiful, indeed I’d describe them as “gobby” when a gull dares intrude upon their fishing.

Herons are more elusive, or at least for me so far they are! I’ve spent many days by the river at various hours and tide times - they seem to spend their days in the trees and gliding from one side of the valley to the other.

Heron perching on a branch opposite the car park.

Only on occasion do they land in the water, standing motionless and then fly off back to their exclusive nests, high in the trees. They are majestic birds, and their difficult behaviour makes photographing them a pleasure.

Herons are elusive, but not nearly as elusive as some of the other visitors to this tranquil river.

Heron, standing still, statuesque. 

Kingfishers are beautiful, but until I started attempting to photograph them - I had no idea just how hard they are to capture on camera.

It’s a familiar scene, you’re walking down the river on a sunny morning, and out of the corner of your eye is a bright blue flash, - gone, then minutes later another, gone… they are remarkably fast, and so tiny - far smaller than I had expected.

They seem to like the time around low tide, so I kept going deliberately around that time, hoping to catch one on a wall, twig, boat or the ubiquitous traffic cone that finds its way in to our waterways. These places they use to survey the water below them, before they dart in to the water with incredible speed, only to return with a morsal in their tiny beak.

The opposing bank is some distance away and makes capturing a small creature hard - even with the amazing 200-600mm lens I pack, so my first few attempts where rather poor, but I like a challenge.

Eventually, luck, patience and practice with that beast of a lens paid off.

A beautiful, but tiny bird, the Kingfisher sits on some seaweed.

A rarer sight yet is an animal without wings, and one that I can happily watch through the camera for hours at a time.

The woods run down both sides of the river, the southern bank is littered with footpaths and lovely leafy walks that lead to quiet spots and sudden clearings with views of the river below - a favourite area of mine during Autumn, as the rich reds and earthy browns are peaceful and beautiful.

The north side, whilst reachable, is hard to get to and very few paths exist on that side, - as such European Roe Deer are known to graze there in peace, less likely to find a dog yapping at their ankles.

European Roe Deer, looks at me, possibly wondering if I to like leaves.

On rare occasion, and mostly early in the morning, one of these deer has taken to swimming in the water, and grazing on the leaves by the river bank - much to my delight.

There’s something wonderfully “exclusive” feeling, when you’re stood on the edge of a car park, with people rushing from their cars to town unaware of the nature around them, as I watch a deer blissfully munching on leaves, sand pipers, gulls and other birds swim and feed around it, unfazed by human activity.

It's serene and relaxing sometimes, just to pause and look.

Moments like that, slow life down and make me appreciate what is around us so much more.

Of course, so much more visits, lives in, and plays on this river. Cormorants glide up the river, their almost pre-historic appearance in stark contrast to many of the rivers inhabitants.

They have impressive beaks, wildly blue eyes and hunt with a remarkable speed and efficiency. It’s rather fun to watch them glide submerged through the water, a wake gently flowing from behind them. There’s a game to be had here, I find myself guessing when it will pop up for air or with what prize it found.

The other day, I and the Cormorant where both surprised by its catch - a plaice. This flat fish sits on the sand, well camouflaged on one side, and bright white on its belly - however it wasn’t hidden well enough when the cormorants beak came calling.

Cormorant (sea raven) vs Plaice - the plaice won.

Compared to the cormorants beak and throat though, the plaice was large, to large. The poor fish was tossed in the air, dropped, re-found, hooked and chomped over and over as the bird tried to swallow its delicious prize. Its eyes proved bigger than its belly or skill to swallow the fish. The fish undoubtedly disturbed by the experience got to go free, the cormorant let out a disgruntled sound, and then stretched its massive wings and launched itself down the river, gliding low over the now still water.

Cormorant swimming with the plaice, unsure what to do with it.

Naturally being a British coastal town, we’ve got more Seagulls than people - and they dominate this waterway.

Locals will have a hearty laugh as some poor visitor looses chips or ice-cream to these precision hunters, the skill, accuracy with which they can decapitate a fresh ice-cream from its cone and owner is remarkable, even if the owner doesn’t appreciate it.

Signs fill town saying “DON’T FEED THE GULLS”, and you’ll catch a scornful look if you do, but you’d be in the company of many if you find yourself chucking a chip at a squeaking chick or podgy adult.

Despite this thieving reputation, I’ve photographed many-a-gull catching its own fish from the river, wresting with the fish, and then the other gulls who want to capitalise on its work.

Just needs to grab some chips and it can have a traditional dish!

I would argue that whilst they’ve littered streets with their bin raiding, chip dive bombing runs and ice-cream snatching, they are still largely successful hunters of their natural prey and the easier food of tourists hasn’t entirely ruined that skill.

This said, a lot of nesting habitat has been taken from them, so rather than the cliffs and nooks they’d once use, most raise their young on the tops of roofs, something unwanted by house owners and putting them at risk from our domestic pets - I feel for them as I photograph and admire their oh-so-fluffy young.

Baby seagulls huddle together on a rooftop.

There’s a great deal more to photograph and see in this beautiful river, ducks, Canada goose, swans, sandpipers and oystercatchers visit, and I really want to catch a seal playing in the water at some point.

A swan floats along the river whilst preening.

Needless to say, this river is going to get a great deal of scrutiny from me, my camera and I’m looking forward to many more mornings savouring the peace, taking time to pause, reflect and relax - something I’ve found essential as I work on building my business and continue this journey taking passion in to profession, and balancing those two forces so that the passion isn’t lost in the profession.

Walk around Caradon

Old Quarry, replete with rusting gears, chains and pulleys.

I’ve always got my camera on me, much the annoyance and amusement of friends and family - but I’ve regretted not having my camera on me, far more often than not.

So it follows that I take a lot of photos and not all of them are “folio worthy” - but they still document moments, my life and adventures. So I’ve decided to start a blog, because who doesn’t need more to do and update right?

Just hanging out, sheltering from the wind and probably annoyed at being disturbed by me.

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My hope is that this blog gives you an insight in to me, my work and how I look at the world, either that or ideas for places to go and some nice photos to look at?!

Today was lovely, the was sun out, …but it’s also half-term, which gives me the perfect excuse to go inland, away from the tourist hot spots and explore green, but remarkably barren moor land, littered with old mines, quarries and more sheep than you can easily count before nodding off.

It’s not a particularly long walk (6km) and compared to many coastal walks, not nearly as rollercoaster. It was hazy, but despite the horizon being obscured at times, the views across Cornwall, and Devon make for an impressive sight, and you’re rapidly reminded why walking around here is tiring… it is extremely rolling countryside!

I think my favourite part of the entire journey was the flooded quarry; sheltered from the wind, whisper quiet and dark deep water littered with the ruins of industry that has long stopped on this barren land. Naturally I grabbed photos and the hazy light made for a very tranquil scene.

Old mine ruin, overgrown and beautiful.

The walk wrapped up with a stop at Trevallick's Farm Shop for cake and a drink (because I am so healthy). So I shall also wrap up this first (optimistic at the start!) blog post, the aim here is to add more mini adventures, behind the scenes moments from client jobs, discussions on photography and my passion for astronomy.