Shooting a VW Scirocco with small flash
Volkswagen Scirocco by Neil Alexander Over the last couple of years I’ve made several photographs of this Scirocco, but this time I wanted to try something different and really push my little flashes. I wanted to shoot into the setting sun and light as much of the car as I could with 2 SB900s (on [...]
The delights of the Cotswolds
This weekend just gone, my wife and I took the opportunity for a well overdue weekend away and headed down to the Cotswolds for a couple of nights. As usual, it was beyond my abilities to travel without a camera, so in the interests of marital harmony I travelled light – just my Billingham 550 [...]
How I plan a landscape shoot
Today I thought I’d write a little post around what I put into planning a day of landscape shooting. The first thing I’ll do before a trip like my recent trip to the Lake District is to check the weather, re-check it, and then check it again. The weather in the UK is so varied [...]
My Goals for 2012
I’ve set photographic goals of one form or another for myself each January for several years now, though more often than not I’ve just kept these to myself and haven’t really broadcast them. This time though I thought that if I shared them, not only would it give me a reference point to look back [...]
Winter sunset in Lymm, Cheshire
Well I hope you all had a fun filled an over indulged Christmas and New Year. I know I certainly did. The older the kids get, the more fun it seems to be. Can’t imagine that upward trend will continue forever so I make sure I enjoy whilst I can….. So to the photographs. These [...]
My favourites from 2011
It’s that time again…. In keeping with the last couple of year’s reflections on the year that was (2010 here, and 2009 here) below are my 12 14 favourite images from 2011. Slightly different from these previous entries though, I haven’t picked one image from each month, I’ve simply tried to pick my 12 (which [...]
European Christmas Markets, Manchester
Earlier last week, I took a trip into Manchester to shoot the Christmas markets, of which there are now so many it wasn’t easy deciding where to start! In the end, I plumped for the main European one in Albert Square presided over the an extremely large illuminated Santa perched over the entrance to the [...]
Snappy Tips for Better Photos – part 5 – Composition
For this fifth and final post (for the time being in my Snappy Tips series), I’m going to focus on composition and some simple do’s and dont’s. Learn the rules and then learn why and how to break them. Rule of Thirds Imagine splitting your frame into 3 equal horizontal strips, and then 3 equal [...]
I am now Neil Alexander QGPP
I don’t sing my own praises too often, so on this rare occasion indulge me…… A couple of months back I joined up with the Guild of Professional Photographers over at www.photoguild.co.uk for several reasons; to join in their community, to aim for their accreditations, and for access to some of the marvellous discounts that [...]
Snappy Tips for Better Photos – Part 4 – Landscapes
For part 4 of this series, I thought that after the basics of camera control, The Holy Trinity and portrait tips the next logical step would be to focus on landscape photography but there are so many possible tips I could mention that I could well get 2 or 3 posts out of this topic. [...]
Derwent Valley in the High Peaks
Further to last week’s post on Stanage Edge in the Peak District, here’s a couple more images from that weekend that I’ve just processed. Multi-frame HDRs processed in Photomatix Pro and then tweaked in Photoshop and Lightroom. Got quite a few keepers that weekend, so there’ll be more to come…. Shortest post ever I [...]
Snappy Tips for Better Photos – Part 3 – People pictures
Hopefully, having been enthralled by my two previous Snappy Tips posts on Snappy Tips for Better photos and Snappy Tips for Better Photos – Part 2 – The Holy Trinity, you’ll now have been brave enough to venture out the safety of automatic even if only for a frame or 2 and see where you [...]
Stanage Edge in the Peak District
Last weekend, I had the privilege to spend the entire weekend up in the Peak District. If you’d been following my tweets, you’d have noticed that Saturday, weather-wise, was a disaster. The day started off grey and miserable and ended up the same way, and to be pretty honest felt even greyer and more miserable [...]
Snappy Tips for Better Photos – Part 2 – The Holy Trinity
For part 2 of my Snappy Tips series, I thought I’d write an article on the basics of any camera. These are the Holy Trinity of photography; shutter speed, aperture and ISO. Photography is the “language of light”, and these three are the tools you use to vary the amount of light hitting your camera’s [...]
The key to long exposures
I enjoy shooting long exposures. The longer the better, unless that is you’re stood on a very noisy motorway bridge in a very cold wind. I’ve posted on shooting long exposures several times over the years (for example “Silky Water Shots” and “Breathtaking examples of long exposure photography“) but as it’s something I really [...]
Using Lightroom catalogs on different computers
A slightly more in depth tip today….. I’ve seen a couple of different solutions lately for sharing Lightroom catalogs across multiple computers, but in my mind they’ve all felt a little clunky (like this and this). I don’t mean the ability for different users to work on the same catalog at the same time, because [...]
Blacko Tower, Nelson, Lancashire
This is a photograph that I made earlier this week up on the Lancashire / Yorkshire border. I had intended to try and get quite a bit closer to the tower, and did plenty of research before heading out only to find a large “Private Property – Keep out sign” on the gate at the [...]
Snappy Tips for Better photos
I’ve had quite a lot of interest lately from people wanting to know how to get the best out of their camera, and with the holiday season rapidly approaching I thought I’d try and save you a little money by encouraging you to explore your existing gear a little more beforehand. The next few Tuesday [...]
Bridgewater Canal, Lymm
Last weekend I was over in Lymm by the Bridgewater Canal just before sunset where I made the photograph above. It wasn’t quite as still as this initially looks. It was actually a little breezy, but I wanted a silky smooth feel to the water for this, so I popped on my Singh Ray variable [...]
4 Photography Apps I couldn’t live without
About a month or so back, I decided for one reason or another that it was time to change up my mobile handset and after careful deliberation discarded my trusty iPhone 4 and bought a Samsung Galaxy SII running the Android OS. One of this particular handset’s biggest selling points for me was the camera. [...]
Bollin Valley
It’s been a bit of a manic week, so I’ve not a great deal to post today. Aside from overhauling the home page of my main website with some crafty jQuery as I’ve long wanted a full screen image slideshow (check it out here – I’ve still a little left to do, like overlay a [...]
No post today, sorry
As a result of contracting a particularly virulent strain on man flu, there will be none of my usual humour or insight to keep you entertained today. Normal service will be resumed as soon as I’m released from the contagious diseases unit.
A quick trip to Mars, Lancashire
Puddles in a field, New Longton (Click to view larger) A little detour on a trip back from Lancashire earlier in the week found me at the entrance to the field above just as the sun was setting around 6pm. The countryside around these parts is rather flat and uninspiring and it was hard [...]
More from the Lake District
I had intended this post to be a follow on from last Tuesday’s “4 Photography gadgets I couldn’t be without“, and was going to focus on “4 iPhone photography apps that I couldn’t do without”. But I’ve just gone over to the darkside and got myself an Android, and I’m still finding my feet with [...]
