A Beginner Photographer’s Guide to The Exposure Triangle

Learn about the exposure triangle, what it is, how to use it and how to make it work for you!

When I first started out in photography, I was using my iPhone. I pointed it at what I wanted to capture, the phone handled everything for me and I had decent photos. I started to enjoy it more and more and so I went out and purchased my first camera, a Canon 80D with a kit lens (18-55 f/3.5-5.6) and headed out into the city at night. I got home and thought the camera was busted. Nothing was in focus, I had what I now know to be motion blur all over the images and I was really disheartened because I thought I had wasted a ton of money.

This is a long one, so grab a coffee and settle in….

I needed to address these issues, find out what was causing them and then practice.

I watched some YouTube videos and read about what I needed to do to make some progress. I’ll let you into a little secret ahead of time… practice. Practice is your friend, it’s where you make mistakes and it’s where you then find out how to correct those mistakes. Coming from a music background, I really appreciated the value of practice, and it’s still something I do now. If you’re not prepared to make the mistakes and learn from them, then you need to shift your mindset! (I know I have said practice a lot, but I hope that it’s helped to get my point across!

What I found out was that exposure triangle was something that I needed to know. And know inside out. This, alongside knowing my camera and what it was capable of were key to me being able to develop (no pun intended) my skills. Once I could do this, I then started to focus on other things, mainly composition, because we all know composition is king but well composed photos that were either under exposed, over exposed or were blurry because of camera movement or camera shake were of no use to me.

So what is the exposure triangle? It’s made up of three things:

Left: The Exposure Triangle.

• ISO: How sensitive your camera’s sensor is to light.

• Shutter Speed: How long the shutter is open to let light into the camera and hit the sensor.

• Aperture: How wide the aperture of your lens is open to allow light in to the camera to strike the sensor.

Each of the these parts of the exposure triangle has an impact on the image that you want to take. There are also “trade-offs” that you might have to consider, because if you adjust one, you might (almost certainly will) have to adjust another to compensate. Here’s a quick breakdown.

• ISO: Can introduce digital noise into your image and this, at times, can look unsightly. Different cameras handle high ISO better than others, but essentially, the higher the ISO, the higher the risk of noise. Knowing your camera really helps here, I know that I can push my 80d to around ISO 6400 before it starts to negatively impact my images. Sometimes you will want noise, but that’s an artistic choice and you need to know how far you can push your camera and your raw files.

• Shutter Speed: Again, knowing your camera (and your lens) really helps here. A lot of newer cameras have solid IBIS (in body image stabilsation) which can help to minimise camera shake and unwanted motion blur, older cameras don’t have this so you’ll need a tripod for longer exposures.

• Aperture: This impacts a couple of things - it will affect the depth of field of your images (how much of the image is info’s before you start to fall off into bokeh) and it will affect the sharpness of your image. Most lenses are sharpest around F/8.0 but this varies from lens to lens and you should research your lenses and learn about them so your know where the sharpest part of your lens is.

So how do you use the exposure triangle?

Well first of all, you will want to know what type of images you want to produce, then you will need to take into account the lighting conditions at the location that you are shooting at.

Let’s be clear - there are no “best settings” for a particular type of photography. I often get asked “what are the best settings for portraits” or “what are the best settings for shooting my kids football match”. The answer is “the ones you need"! This sounds flippant, but it’s true. Someone shooting a football match in bright sun, is going to need different settings to someone shooting a match under dark moody skies!

That said, there are some “givens”. If you want to freeze motion, you will need a fast shutter speed. If you want to achieve light trails at nighttime, you are going to need a longer shutter speed. If you’re trying to get motion blur in waves at the beach, you are going to want a longer speed, but then you’ll want to adapt this to the speed of the waves and the overall look that you are going for (told you this wasn’t completely straightforward!).

I could go on with this this, but what I am trying to illustrate is that you need different for different results under different conditions. You could go to the same location at the same time on two different days and need completely different settings. You can use flash to help to control the light and you can use ND filters to control the light in a different way, but that’s a whole other blog, what we’re looking at is the exposure triangle, so let’s get back on topic.

You’re going to need to use all of this information about the shot type you want to take, in conjunction with the light meter which is built into your camera’s view finder or on the display at the rear of the camera. This usually looks like a needle which moves left to right and has a number of notches along it. We’re aiming to get this right in the middle to absolutely nail the exposure. As you increase the amount of light coming into your camera, you will see this move to the right and conversely to the left as the amount of light coming into your camera decreases. We’re still aiming for the middle! This will get you get a correctly exposed image in most circumstances (if there is a lot of dynamic range (very dark areas and very bright areas in the same image) then there are ways we can deal with this, but that’s going to involve some exposure blending - more on this in another blog! For now, we’re keeping it simple.

(You will also need to consider the histogram and where on here you want to expose, but for now, we’re keeping it simple and I will come back to the histogram and how to use it in another post)

The image on the right illustrates the light-meter on your camera.

This image shows a landscape shot (some of you might recognise it!) and the light-meter can be seen at the bottom of the photo with the number -3, 2, 1 and + 1, 2, 3.

You can see the needle at the bottom indicating that the image is around 2 stops over exposed. You will also notice that parts of the image look too bright.

The shutter speed here is 4 seconds, the ISO is set to 100 we are at f/10 aperture.

Let’s go back to the original question and look at an example. Say that I am out shooting sunrise, there’s great golden hour light and I am by some water at the foot of the mountains. There’s no breeze and the lake is completely flat calm with no disturbances and there’s an awesome mountain reflection in the water. My aim here is to capture the mountains and the reflections in the water.

My thought process here is that I am going wide angle because I want a lot of the scene in my image, and I know that my wide angle lens is sharpest at F/8.0. I know that here this lens is corner-to-corner sharp. This is going to help me to set my aperture. I also know that this is going to impact the amount of light that is coming into my lens. Once my aperture is set, I can compose my shot and then check the light meter. In this situation, let’s imagine that I am getting a reading which is to the left of centre - there isn’t enough light coming into the camera to expose the image properly.

I now have a couple of choices. I can use ISO to increase my sensor’s sensitivity or I can increase my shutter speed (make it longer) to allow more time for light to hit the sensor and create the image. As you adjust both of these setting, you will start to see the light-meter moving. )Depending on your camera, you may need to half-press your shutter button to re-meter the image).

This is where we have a decision to make. I can see by looking at my camera’s settings that I am at 100 ISO. This means I have quite a bit of room before I hit my ‘limit’ of ISO 6400 on my camera (yours may be different) or I can increase my shutter speed.

I need to know that if I increase my shutter speed too much, I will need 1)a tripod to keep the camera still and 2) Anything that moves in the image such a bird flying through, an aircraft transiting the scene, or in the case of much longer exposures, clouds blowing through the image are going to create motion blur. A bird might appear unsightly and could be removed in post, cloud movement can look really cool if you want to include this, it can give a sense of time passing but this is an artistic decision for you to make based on what you want to achieve. Remember, we’re trying to shoot the reflection of the mountains so any movement in the water will also show in your long exposure, even if there isn’t much of it!

The image on the left is much darker than the previous one but is taken under the same lighting conditions.

You will see that the exposure time is much shorter, just 1/4 of a second. No other settings have changed, but the shutter is open for a much shorter amount of time, so the sensor is not exposed to the light for as long a time, which results in a darker image.

You can see that light meter is reading the left, indicating that the image is under exposed.

I could keep my original shutter speed and adjust the ISO. But I need to be aware that doing this could lead to a digital noise being introduced and could result in a grainy looking image which isn’t visually appealing. This is where knowing your camera’s limits (and your own tastes!) comes into play. If you under expose your image then increasing the exposure in post is only going to exacerbate the grain so beware!

The third option is to try and find a balance between the two. You might find the balance is between a slight increase in ISO and a slight increase in shutter speed, or that you can increase your ISO a small amount and have the option to decrease your shutter speed, allowing you to freeze more motion in the image.

Once you’re there, you can hit that shutter button and capture image! Be sure to check you have it’s all in focus and don’t just take one capture - shooting it only once, doesn’t make you a better photographer. Choice is key when it comes to making you selects and in a situation like this one, the light will be changing constantly. Always make sure to check your exposure before each shot!

As a quick aside, if you’re shooting anything which has a shutter speed of greater than your lens’s focal length, you’ll need a tripod. So if you’re on a 50mm lens and the exposure time is 1/30 then you’re going to need a tripod. If you’re on a 300mm and you’re shooting at 1/250 then you’re going to need a tripod. This will avoid motion blur and camera shake. Make sure that any image stabilisation is turned off when you are using a tripod. If you can, when using a tripod, make sure that you’re using a remote or a cable release so that you’re not introducing movement to the camera and/or lens. If you don’t have access to either of these then use your cameras self timer to ensure that the camera is completely still when the shutter actuation happens.

Let's consider another example. This time, we’re taking photos of the family dog running and we want to freeze the motion. It’s mid afternoon on an over cast day.

The key here is that we want to freeze the motion of the dog. This means we are going to need a fast shutter speed (at least 1/250) so that there is no motion blur in the image of the dog. This might be different if you have a whippet in comparison to say a bull dog; they all move at different speeds!

In this situation, I am thinking about setting my shutter speed and then taking a test shot to see where my settings have my exposure. I take the test shot (sans dog!) and can see that it is vastly underexposed, the frame is almost black (If the opposite is true, and your image is too bright and full of white areas, “blown out”, then you will need to reverse the steps below) and the exposure needle is all the way to the left of the image. Checking my camera’s other settings shows that I am at f/16 on my aperture and ISO 100.

My decision here is slightly different to what it was before, as I am now choosing between aperture and ISO. If I make my shutter speed slower then I won’t get a sharp image of my dog (let’s call him Malcolm), so I can’t change this.

The initial thought I have here is that I want to increase the size of my aperture. I know it’s at f/16 which is quite small and I know that my lens is sharpest at f/8. I make this change and the light meter shows that I am still slightly underexposed. Again, I could increase the aperture size or add some ISO. Knowing my lens, I am confident that I can move to f/5.6 and not have a massive drop in sharpness across the image and so I make this change (this drop in sharpness will depend on my distance from Malcom and in turn on his distance from the background, but I could get some great bokeh!). I can now see that my image is correctly exposed, and my ISO is still at 100. This means that I should be able to photograph Malcolm, running at full speed, and be able to see him “frozen” on the image, with no motion blur. Having ISO set at 100 also means that I know I should be getting a clean image to work with.

If when you take the shot, you find that there is motion blur, then you will need to adjust your shutter speed and make it quicker, but this means that you will also need to adjust you ISO and aperture again in order to get your image correctly exposed! You change one setting, you’re probably going to need to adjust the others.

Right - correctly exposed image.

The final shot of this image, shows the light meter indicating that we are correctly exposed. Again, the lighting hasn’t changed, aperture has remained at f/10 and the ISO is still 100.

The one thing that has changed, again, is the shutter speed. This time, you will see that it is at 1 second and this means that according to the light meter, the image is correctly exposed.

One thing that I learned quite quickly when I started out is that at times, this can be a game of compromise. An adjustment to one of the parameters, is, a lot of time going to mean that you need to adjust one of the other two in order to compensate, and knowing your camera and your lenses inside out is going to be key to you getting this right time in, time out. Getting it right matters. Getting it right means fewer shots thrown away. Getting it right consistently feels good.

Another tip which is worth bearing in mind is that you should be able to operate your camera without having to look down at the controls to find them. Most cameras are well designed in this respect and ergonomics plays a big part in how they are built, but you should know how to and be able to adjust your aperture, ISO and shutter speed without having to look for the wheels and buttons to do it with. This will save a lot of stress and time when you’re out in the field. There’s nothing worse than missing the shot because you’ve been looking down at your camera and fiddling with buttons!

If you’ve made it this far then thank you, if you’ve found it useful then please consider signing up to my mailing list to receive notifications about new blog posts, courses, workshops and offers in my print shop! If you’d like me to write about something specific, of if you have questions, then feel free to send me a message and I’ll be in touch!

Gear Review: Canon 85mm F/1.2 II USM Lens

This was an unexpected purchase of this piece of kit, which I have wanted to get my hands on for a long time so when I saw one sale in amazing condition in a local second hand store for an absolute steal, I couldn’t just leave it sitting there.

So what’s in the box? I suppose everything you would normally expect if you’re paying well into 4 figures for a piece of kit, (thankfully mine was nothing like this expensive!) - you get the lens, front and rear caps, a lens hood and a fairly solid pouch to store it in. It’s a great little unboxing experience!

The overwhelming first impressions are that this lens is HEAVY. I mean like over a kilo in weight, so you might want to think about how far you are carrying this thing, or, what you’re going to leave at home so that you can take this with you.

Spoiler alert, this is an INSANE lens so you’re probably going to want to take this at the expense of something else. The lens is also made up of 8 elements and this really adds to the weight. Wide open, you’re down to F/1.2 and you can get down as low as f/16.

Another observation that you can’t help but make is that the front element on this lens is huge - the thing is like a bucket, but given that it opens up to F/1.2 then you've gotta have somewhere for the light to get in!

The lens has everything you would expect from Canon’s L series lens; the weather sealing is great, it feels great in the hand and the build quality is as good as it gets. It’s a solid piece of kit.

<———— The bokeh creates awesome separation at F/1.2

So how does it perform?

The first thing I did once I had it at home was slap it on the front of my camera and go and play with it around the house and in the garden. I was immediately blown away by the sharpness that I was seeing on the back of the camera, and the bokeh is butter smooth (the bokeh is round to F/2.0 and octagon from F/4.0). I think this might be the sharpest lens that I have ever owned!

It’s quick to focus and the motor is super quiet, so if you’re shooting video or in more intimate environments then you’re not creating a ton of noise to disturb your footage or whatever event that you’re shooting. It doe have quite a long minimum focussing distance 3.2ft (97cm) so don’t be getting any dreams of shooting macro with it, but I’m guessing if you’re buying this then you’re not shooting with macro at the forefront of what you’re doing!

One of the things I’m hoping to do with this lens, but haven’t had chance to try yet is some low light shots, especially out in the field and not in the studio. That said, shooting indoors with it is pretty straightforward even with fairly average natural light.

Sadly, Canon discontinued this lens in 2023 so your best bet is to find something second hand and grab a bargain, you can still find them on Amazon and on other reputable second hand gear sites such as WEX and MPB. It's no surprise that Canon have discontinued this lens on the EF mount given that everything is/has shifted focus (see what I did there) to their RF line. You can check out the RF version of this lens here, but beware, the price tag is eye watering if you’re looking to buy a brand new one, especially if its one of the faster ones!

<——— Landscape shot, heavily cropped at f/4.0

Who is this lens for? If you’re into portraits and low light street photography then this should definitely be in your bag. No questions. I know this is probably an odd choice for someone whose primary focus is landscape photography, then this choice seems slightly out of left field, so what’s the use case?

For me, this lens is going to be about diversifying the types of shots that I take. It’s also only the second prime lens I have in my bag (of course, I have a nifty fifty as well!) and one of my current aims is to work on composition and finding new ways to shoot familiar things and the sharpness of this lens is going to make for some very interesting results, and I do love a bit of bokeh! It might even make me go and do some street photography too… and maybe some Herdy portraits!

Printing Your Photos - Why Aren’t YOU Doing It?

In this blog, I am talking about printing your images, why you should be doing it and what I have learned in a just a few weeks of printing my own, at home, in the studio.

I have been printing my images for a while. Well, actually, to put it more accurately, I have been getting other people to print them for me. If I want to just have them for posterity, I get a bunch of 6x4s from FreePrints, if I want something to go on a wall then I look to somewhere like theprintspace.com where I can get awesome C-Type of Gicleé prints made quickly and sent to me. I’ve always been really pleased with what The Printspace has provided, and if I need something bigger than A2 (can you imagine!?) then I will certainly still be using them.

However, I have recently taken delivery of an absolute beast of a new machine. A Canon imagePROGRAF Pro-1000 printer. It’s a behemoth. It weighs just over 32kg (The FedEx guy had to get me to help him off the van with it, and I in turn, had to get him to help me carry up the stairs into the studio!) and takes lots of paper stocks up to A2. It has 12 different ink tanks and is 17” wide. And I love it a little bit.

But why buy one and spend what wasn’t an inconsiderable amount of money on it? Two reasons: Firstly, I plan to start selling my prints in the next couple of weeks and have been wanting to do this for a while now, and 2, I’m impatient. I want my prints, and I want them now. The studio walls are a bit bare at the moment and I am looking forward to hanging my new prints on them. 

All of that said, I am already learning from my prints, and not just small amounts. I’m not just learning about printing though; I’m also learning a lot about my own photography, about the way I am using the develop module in Lightroom and about soft-proofing and about paper, but I will probably dive down that rabbit hole at some point in the future. The whole process from beginning to end is blissfully nerdy and I couldn’t be happier about it. 

So, what have I learned?

1. Get the ICC profiles for your printer and for them paper that you are using. Your monitor projects an image into your eye. Your prints reflect the light back into your eyes, so what comes out of the printer will look very different if you don’t do this and then go through the soft proofing process. You can also get profiles specific to your printer (not just the generic ones) so you cabn get have an added level of colour accuracy and reproduction. 

2. Calibrate your monitors(s). I use the DataColour SpyderX Elite for this. I try to do it at least once a week and it makes a noticeable difference to both my editing and printing workflows. If you’re working on more than one monitor then make sure that you have matched them as well!

3. The paper you choose has a big impact on the way your prints look. I prefer mine to have a matt finish as I just don’t like the reflections that you get off the glossier paper. I have, however, been using some of the Canon Pro Luster paper that came with the printer, and it works well. It’s just a bit too reflective for my liking. 

4. It’s a lot quicker than I thought it would be. A3 prints have taken around 5 minutes and there’s a great sense of anticipation watching your work come to life in front of you!

5. It’s addictive. Really addictive - there are going to be a lot of these being gifted to friends and family throughout the christmas period. I don’t want to just print loads and then just shove them in a box not to be seen - that’s not what art is for!

Why should you print your images?

There are loads of reasons you should do this, but seeing your work hanging on the wall is great. Posting them to social media for other people to see is all well and good but the print really is like the end product, which can be enjoyed for longer than the fleeting glance it might be given on Instagram, Vero, or dare I say it, Facebook. 

Printing my images has given me a new appreciation for photography. I have myself been really selective about the images that I have chosen to print. Just because it’s one I have put on social media, doesn’t seem to me (at this stage) mean that it’s going to be a strong enough image for me to print. 

It has already impacted me when I am out in the field shooting. I want to make sure that everything is a sharp as possible and I have been focus stacking much more than I would have done previously and I am paying a lot more attention to deal not only when I am focussing, but also when I am selecting compositions, and that has to be a good thing right?

It’s almost like when I go out and shoot film. When I do this, I find that I am much more selective with my shots and spend more time making sure that I get as much right in camera as possible. There are re-do’s in film photography, but they have a cost impact!

Having something tangible at the end of the creative process, I think, for me is the main reason that I am enjoying printing so much. Being able to see something hanging on the wall and knowing “ I did that”, is a really great feeling. 

Keep creating!

Gear Review: Polaroid Now Gen 2 Camera

I recently celebrated the 22nd anniversary of my 18th birthday and was fortunate to receive the gift of a Polaroid Now Gen 2 Camera.

This is something that I had asked for and have always wanted ever since I saw one being used at a birthday party at a local ten pin bowling alley when I was a child aged about 10 years ago (Superbowl 2000 Burton On Trent, if you must know - it’s a pile of rubble now!) and ever since I started a bit of a foray into film photography about 18 months ago, is something that had come back up on my radar. 

These cameras retail on Amazon for around £119.99, if you get the “Everything Box”. They are frequently on offer and so you might be lucky enough to get hold of one for less than £100. Inside the box you get the camera, an instruction leaflet, a wrist strap to attach the camera and two packets of film, each containing 6 exposures. There’s also a USB C charging cable, but if you’re charing off the mains and not a computer, you will need to invest in or hijack in a wall plug, as one doesn’t come supplied in the box.

First impressions of this camera is that it is great fun and delivers a huge hit of nostalgia! 

Straight out of the box, it feels like a pretty solid piece of kit for the price. It’s fairly lightweight, though I am not sure if it will always be in my bag when I am out of a shoot because despite its low weight, it’s a fairly hefty sized piece of kit and takes up quite bit a of space. It feels good in the hand.

The battery in the camera is a lithium-ion battery which is rechargeable via USB. It arrives completely flat and charged to full in about 90 minutes. 

The controls are fairly basic and easy enough to master. There is a shutter button on the front of the unit, a self timer function and it comes equipped with a built in flash. 

Given that the aperture on the lens is F/11, the manufacturers have decided to have the default setting for the flash to ‘on’ which is going to be essential unless you are shooting in bright light. If you’re shooting inside then you’re definitely going to need it. If you want to turn the flash off, then this is the simple press of a button on the rear of the camera. 

The camera comes supplied with 2 packs of film, giving you a total of 16 shots. This particular camera is compatible with both polaroids i-type and 600 film. Neither of these are particularly cheap to buy (if you’re already shooting film you’ll know that this is just par for course) so keep your eyes peeled for offers on this as well if you decide to take the plunge.

Loading the film is simple, you unpackage the stack from the silver foil wrapper, open the front of the camera, load the film with the light-proof cover face-up and close the front of the camera. Once you’ve done this, the camera will eject the light proof sheet from the slot at the front and you’re good to go.  

The process of taking a photograph with this camera is about as straightforward as you could want it to be. It’s essentially a point and shoot, that once you have pointed and shot, the photograph spits out the front of the camera.  

Once this process has happened, it takes some time for the film to develop fully. The instructions recommend that you place the photograph face down, preferably somewhere dark whilst it develops and specifically tell you not to shake it!

Given that a lot of people will want to use this to take selfies, the addition of a small mirror on the front of the camera like you used to get on mobile phones in the old days would be great!

The resulting images certainly have a certain ‘feel to them’. The colours are undersaturated and in spite of the f/11 aperture, they are not corner to corner sharp (what do you expect from a camera at this price point which comes supplied with almost £20 worth of film); the centre of the image is acceptably sharp. I took the first shot on this camera indoors and the flash fired and the image certainly has that feel of “the flash went off on this one” - there’s definitely no easy way to modify or diffuse the flash!

These aren’t portfolio images per se, but this camera is certainly great fun and will be great for taking snapshots - just do it carefully, they’re not cheap at around £2.12 a shot if you go for the 600 film and around £1.70 if you opt for the i-type film (both colour); this isn’t a cheap enough habit to be firing off images left, right and centre and you could end up with a pretty sizeable hole in your bank account.

I think that this is something that I will use for fun little photos to capture personal moments and achievements - moments with family and maybe a selfie at the top of each Wainwright I climb! This might be a fun project with a nice collection of images at the end of it. 

Who’s it for? I feel like this is a camera for everyone, photographer or not, as long as they are prepared to spend a small fortune on a good supply of film for it. The photos are sharp enough for the kinds of thing that you will be using this camera for and above all, the whole process is great fun!

Would I recommend it? Absolutely. As long as you’re prepared to have a lot of fun with it and spend a lot of money replenishing the film!

Which photographers do I love, admire and am I inspired by?

Let me start this by saying I am going to struggle keep this list short. There is a plethora of amazing photographers out there, way too many to mention all of them, but I am going to try and keep this short by talking about the ones who have a direct impact on my own photography, be that as a photographer or their impact on me as an instructor/teacher. 

This list is presented in no particular order…

Peter McKinnon

My first choice is perhaps a little but out of  left field, and I know would create some debate amongst my photography friends, but without Peter McKinnon I wouldn’t be the photographer/creator I am now. When I first started out, his tutorials, vlogs and high energy kept me engaged, lept me focussed and kept me wanting to do more. I found them invaluable. 

Some people will tell you he’s “just a YouTuber” and I couldn’t disagree more. His photography is fantastic, he has a great photographic style and works in a variety of different genres; his portraits are equally as a good as his landscapes and his flat lays are some of the best you will see - the level of attention to detail that you see in the latter is IN-SANE!

His knowledge of photoshop and lightroom and his easy way of explaining some of the concepts you need to understand to be able to use these effectively played a huge part in the development of my own post processing and editing. It was by watching these videos that I started my foray into video editing, and I still jump back into these videos when I need a little refresher, even though the software that’s in them has been superceded more than once by this point, I find them to be really helpful. 

Ansel Adams

It would be remiss to have such a list and not to include Ansel Adams, probably acknowledged by anyone who has heard of him as the godfather of Landscape Photography. He was working and creating stunning images before the advent of anything digital, relying on his skill (and some luck of being in the right place at the right time) and his knowledge of photography and the landscape to create some visually stunning images.

His compositions are consistently excellent and his use of light is second to none. 

I was lucky enough to receive one of his books as a  gift in the last couple of weeks and I have spent a lot of time pouring through its pages studying the way in which Adams composed his images and then creating them in the dark room to produce some genuinely awesome captures. 

The premise of what Adams was doing was exactly the same as we are aiming for as photographers now was the same, but he was employing, in part, a very different skill set and certainly didn;t have the access to the post processing techniques that we have today. 

Nigel Danson

Next on my list is Nigel Danson. I was talking about him with some friends a few days before I started writing this and someone remarked “I really like him, he knows what he is talking about, he’s a real student of photography”. 

Nigel is another photographer I found on YouTube. He is one of the most knowledgeable photographers on the internet, and, I suspect, has forgotten more about photography than many of us will ever know. 

His knowledge of optics is first rate, and it is thanks to Nigel that I understand the concept of hyperfocal distance! I also really enjoyed his tutorials on focus stacking, which is something I have been working on recently and has been a really important part of my continued learning in the art of landscape photography and has been a real game changer in the way that I shoot some of my images. 

His level of enthusiasm remains as high as ever and he is always on the lookout for new places to shoot alongside making the most of what his local area has to offer, which is something I think many of us (me included!) are guilty of overlooking. 

His series where he spent a month at Luskentyre Beach on the Isle of Skye and the images and book that resulted from this are simply incredible and you should definitely check these out. The whole series shows just how wide a range of images you gather in one location where the weather and the light is so changeable. A real masterclass!

Liam Wong

I came across Liam Wong’s work when I was deep into a night photography obsession and was spending a lot of time huntington down neon lights and other bright sources of lights to create Cyber Punk inspired images. It meant I spent a lot of time either carrying bottles of water or getting very wet out shooting in the rain to get the reflections I wanted in my images to add extra depth to them. 

Both of the books he has published (To:ky:oo and After Dark) are incredible and Wong’s past as a video games designer is evident in the style that he choose to work in. He makes strong use of leading lines and is masterful at controlling both the light and the colour in his images and subsequent edits that he makes. 

Now that I am away from the bright lights of the city, I find myself doing less and less of this style of photography (Cyber Punk Blea Tarn anyone?!), but I still find myself reaching for these books very often, as there is something about the stories that these photos tell that keeps me going back time after time after time. 

Ernst Haas

This is a choice from when I was living and taking photos in London. Haas, for me, is a great example of someone who worked as a photojournalist and who allowed this to mix with the creative, artistic side of photography and his visual storytelling is truly awesome. 

Haas Renowned for his mastery of color and composition, Haas captured the essence of moments with a blend of spontaneity and precision. 

One of the most important aspects of his work was that he was (along with William Eggleston) instrumental in getting the Art world to see colour photography as a valid form of the medium. Prior to this, exhibitions were pretty much exclusively black and white photography - snobbery towards colour photographers/photographs largely prevented their exhibition in the mainstream; photography was only seen as “serious” if it were in black and white and it wasn’t seen as art if it was shot in colour. 

But what is Art anyway? I’ll let you decide.

Things You Should Consider Buying as Beginner Photographer

And, some things you might want to consider avoiding so that you can save some money!

This blog contains Amazon affiliate links and I may receive a small kickback if you decide to make a purchase using one of them. 

So, you’ve got your camera and you’ve got your lens, you’ve spent some time getting to know it (having read the manual!) and now you’re looking for some accessories and equipment to take your photography to the next level.

Where should you be spending your money? What’s worth it? What is less effective?

In this blog I take a look at these questions from the point of view of someone who has made some mistakes when buying things to put into my bag, hopefully gaining some insight which means that you might not make the same mistakes!

Tripod

I am going to start with something that is one of the least exciting things to buy, but one of the things you will use the most. If you’re shooting in any kind of low-light and/or you’re using slow shutter speeds, then you are going to need a tripod, unless you’re using a camera which has crazy in body image stabilisation (IBIS). 

When you’re looking for a tripod, look for something sturdy - it’s going to be be holding your precious camera! You also want something that is within your price range, so there’s definitely some compromises that may need to be considered. 

The tripod I am using is from K&F concept, and cost around £50. I’ve had a couple of these and have been really happy with them. They come with  with a solid ball head and I pair this with an L-bracket which means I can quickly from landscape to portrait orientation. L-brackets come in a variety of prices, but essentially more expensive means lighter and you can keep the weight of your bag down.

Camera Bag

This is a must if you’re taking your camera out with you. You want to keep it safe ans protected. 

You won’t only buy one camera bag. I have 3 and will probably acquire another one by the end of the year. A good starting point is something like the LowePro Tahoe 150. This was my first camera bag around 6 years ago and it’s still going strong. It has enough space for a decent sized body a couple of lenses, as well as pouches for things like filters, shutter release cable, camera multi-tool, spare batteries etc. 

I also own a LowePro Pro Tactic 450 AW II. This is a much bigger bag and will take everything I have mentioned above, my drone, a laptop up to the size of 16”, a 70-200 F/4 lens, filter pouch, lens cloths…you name it (within reason), this bag will fit it. It’s designed for walking longer distances and has hip straps to help distribute the weight better throughout the bag. Its a big bag for carrying a lot of kit so you can end up making it very heavy. It also has a lot of webbing on the back which you can attach things like tripods and water bottles to. 

Another bag I love using is my LowePro (Can you see the pattern here!?) FastPak. This is a great day bag and has a couple of compartments for camera gear and then anything else you need to take with you for the day. There’s a full review of this bag here. 

Camera Strap

This is very much a personal preference thing. Some people like to use the one the camera is supplied with, some prefer to swap this out. I have stuck with the one that came with my camera and it’s been fine, but some people don’t want to walk around drawing attention to their camera brand (presumably they’re Nikon shooters) and prefer something made of leather or some other material. 

Camera Clip

This is something that I didn’t know I could live without until I got it. I have one from Peak Design and I love it. There’s two parts, a plate which screws into the bottom of your camera and a second one which attaches to one of the shoulder straps of your bag. 

I find this really useful when I am out walking and need both of my hands, or just don’t want to carry my camera in my hands! I’ve used it out in the hills and in the city and have’t ever had a problem with it.

Shower Caps!

Bear with me on this one, I saw the tip somewhere on YouTube and can’t remember who it was who shared it. 

These clear, disposable shower caps are cheap, super lightweight and can be reused.

But why? They’re great for pulling over your camera when it’s wet or windy day near to a large body of water and help to keep the water out of your camera. Some cameras are weather proof and some are weather sealed, but I like this extra layer of protection!

I brought a pack of these years ago and always keep a few in each of my camera bags. I’ve used them and have given them to friends out on shoots and still have hundreds of them left.

Filters/Step Up and Step Down Rings. 

There is a huge range of filters on the market, all doing slightly different things. 

They come in all sorts of different styles from a bunch of different manufacturers. I like the ones from K&F concept, as they are of decent quality and at a price point which suits me and what I can afford. 

You can get Neutral Density (ND) and Variable Neutral Density (VND) filters. These aim to limit the amount of light which is hititng your sensor and can help to increase exposure times or manipulate your shutter speed if you’re shooting video. I prefer a VND as in means I can fit one thing to the front of the lens and not have to worry about keep taking things on and off the front of the camera.

Circular Polariser Filters - these are great when you’re shooting near to water and want to minimise any glare you’re getting. They are also great when you want to see through the water as well (but good luck trying to see through the water in the Thames - they remove the glare, not the silt/filth!). 

Mist filters - add a “dream like” quality to your photos and soften a lot the light. These look especially cool in low light and give the light a softer appearance.

Natural Light Filters - Help to filter out light pollution in photos that you are taking at night. Useful if you’re out in the countryside and want to minimise the glow from a town on the horizon! 

Remember, when you are buying filters that you need to buy ones which fit the internal thread on your lens. You will find this printed on your lens, usually next to a symbol that looks a little bit like a no entry sign. 

One work around for this that can help keep cost and weight down, is to buy the biggest filter you can afford and then pair it with some step-up/step-down rings. These will enable you to use larger filters than your lens can accommodate but just be aware that these can impact the way your camera works by limiting the amount of available light that can enter you lens and at very wide focal lengths, you will be able to see these rings in your image (the Canon EF 10-18 can see it’s own lens hood when it is 10mm!) and these rings could potentially stick out much further than that does.

Spare Camera Battery(ies)

Buy at least one spare battery, make sure that it’s charged and always have it in your bag. There is nothing worse than turning up to a shoot with your camera, finding out that the battery is flat and you don’t have a spare! Find the correct one for your camera and stock up. I always buy proprietary batteries rather than 3rd party ones and they have served me well.

Cable Release/Remote Shutter Release

Probably one of, if not the cheapest thing on this list but there a few different types. The cheapest is one which is wired and plugs into your camera. This will allow you to (in most cases) autofocus your lens and release the shutter, without touching it; really important if you are shooting on a tripod and are trying to limit the amount of movement you introduce into your camera (more movement = less sharpness). 

I’ve got a couple of these, a wired one from Canon and a wireless one. You can read a review of the wireless one here. These cables/units aren’t compatible with every camera - just because it’s a Canon cable, doesn’t mean that it will work with all Canon cameras. The same goes for Sony, Nikon, Fuji etc. Check before you buy!

Camera Multi Tool

One of the most useful things in my bag, and it gets used a LOT is my Small Rig 9 in 1 folding multi tool. Nuts and bolts come loose, things need to be tightened, some things get too tight and need to be loosened.

This tool solves most of those problems, is small, lightweight and has a range of sizes of flat head and hex bolt attachments and lives in whichever camera bag I am using.

The last thing you want is to be out in the field and have a tripod that isn’t sturdy - something like this gets you right of that fix!

Things you DON’T need to buy… 

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t go and buy these things, but they aren’t things you don’t need in you arsenal when you’re first starting out. Essentially (in my opinion), you would be better spending your money on other things, like those that I have mentioned above, or you could save the money and go and buy some nice new glass!

Lensballs

These are glass or acrylic spheres, which weigh about a pound each. These used to be much more prevalent than they are now, and currently, aren’t really in vogue. I’ve got three. All bought for me, one I asked for and two I didn’t! They’re gimmicky, and for the most part won’t add anything extra to your images. A lens ball can set you back anything up to £50!

Drones

You probably want one of these, but do you need it? I have one and it’s great fun. It also cost me a lot of money and the ‘the return on investment’, hasn’t been great. I haven’t flown it as much I would have liked to or as much as I should have done. If you want to make video content then this is probably more of a worthwhile investment than if you want to use it to just take aerial photos.

Tiny Lights

I was obsessed with buying these and have a a couple of Lume Cube products which are great, but I never used them very much, even when I was shooting much more urban photography and thought I had a use case for them. I didn’t and I think used it once.

If you’re thinking about buying something like this, think about what you’re going to use it for and how useful it is. If you want to do some sort of light painting then a light wand might be much more useful and has some studio uses as well.

Flexible Tripods/GorillaPods

This was one of the first things I went out and bought after seeing people using them to vlog with on YouTube. I still have it and never use it. I couldn’t fully trust it after the first time it wobbled over and I moved like The Flash to catch it. Ever since then I haven’t used it for anything and cringe at the thought of some of the positions I used to put my camera in whilst it was attached to this!

Camera “Assistants”

I won’t name a specific brand here, but I had one of these when I was very new to photography and thought this would be an easy way to get better. It wasn’t. It didn’t make my images any better and it didn’t teach me anything about using my camera. I took it out once and then never used it again.

It does everything for you that you can learn to do with your camera and prevents you from learning how your camera works, and in my experience, the images I got just weren’t that good. Maybe part of that was me and the way I was using it, but looking back at it, I feel like I was marketed to in a big way and I thought it was quick way to get better, when in fact, it was the complete opposite!

So there you have it, some things I would recommend you consider buying and adding to your bag and some things to avoid (even if you only avoid some of it for now).

Remember, this is a pursuit which takes to progress in unless you’re blessed with a strong amount of natural ability, but please, learn to use your camera and don’t try and take the short cuts!

Why Do I Take Photos?

I don’t know if this is an interesting question, or indeed an interesting answer. But, I’m going to try and answer it anyway! This one is quite a long piece, so grab yourself a brew and settle in.

I’ve always been “artsy”. Just not in the visual arts disciplines. I started to learn to play the piano as a child, didn’t like practicing and gave up. This was when I was about 7 years old. Aged 9 I took up playing brass instruments, and it was becoming clear to everyone, including myself, that I couldn’t draw. Aged 14 I started to play the Trombone and it became apparent to me that this is what I wanted to do. I loved it. It was also clearer than ever that I couldn’t draw. Or paint. Or make things out of clay. Much to the frustration of my poor art teachers. Try as I might, I simply wasn’t able to do it and I didn’t ‘get’ visual art in the way that I did Music. 

I left school, had a gap year doing music stuff, went to uni, got a music degree and then trained as teacher. I decided after qualifying that this wasn’t for me at this point in my life, so I went on to enjoy a moderately successful career in something that was about as far away from teaching and music as it could be. A strange choice for someone who had sent the last 20 odd years practicing and devoting so much time to musical pursuits. I loved music (I still do now, but much more as a consumer than a creator), but if I couldn’t make money performing then I wasn’t interested. 

I stuck at this career, which I enjoyed for around 8 years and then when I stopped enjoying it, I left and went back to teaching. I know I’m not painting a strong picture of sticking with anything at the moment, but stay with me…

<— Long exposure shot of a bus near Harrods in London

Long story short, this lead to a move to London for a promotion. I fell in love with London and was out and about all the time, but wanted something a bit. I started to blog a little bit about my time there and needed photos to go with it. I started out using my iPhone and posting the odd shot here and there on Instagram, as well as sharing some on Facebook (Yes, I was still actively using my personal account!) and they were getting engagement. 

People were saying positive things about them. 

As someone who had always sucked at the visual arts, this was a revelation to me and was a feeling I wasn’t used to. Being the impulsive person that I am, I decided that photography was now my thing and I quickly sold a lot of DJ and Music production equipment to finance buying photo gear. I bought my Canon 80D (I still have an use this as my main camera) with an 18-55 kit lens, a bag and a tripod and off I went. 

I took myself out in Central London on my next free evening (I remember specifically being on Golden Jubilee Bridges) and took, quite possibly, hundreds of images. I couldn’t wait to get home and edit them. 

I got home, got the raw files out of the camera, opened them up in my shiny new Lightroom subscription and they were AWFUL. They were full of motion blur, abysmally out of focus, under exposed, over exposed and there wasn’t a single usable image. 

I couldn’t use the camera. I was gutted and I was worried that I had just poured a load of money down the drain. 

Experimenting with Bokeh and Depth of Field in London —>

Not one to be deterred, I sat down and did the unthinkable - I read the manual for the camera. I also watched hours and hours of YouTube videos which taught me about the exposure triangle, gave me some ideas about composition,allow me to learn how to use lightroom properly and encouraged me to get out and practice, as well as practicing around my flat. I was hooked, and took a lot of inspiration from people like Peter McKinnon, Nigel Danson and Thomas Heaton. I hadn’t discovered many urban photographers at this point.

I bought photobooks and studied other people’s work. In short, I completely immersed myself in the world of photography and everything that it had to offer.

I slowly started to get better and produced images that I was able to share with some pride (I look back at these now and think about what I would have done differently, but I feel like that’s a natural thing), people said positive things about it and I started to become a part of a small section of the London photography community, meeting up with other creatives to take photos!.

I got much better, found other sources of inspiration such as Liam Wong, Joel Meyorwitz and Saul Leiter. I became obsessed with shallow depths of field, spurred on by my bargain second hand Canon 50mm F/1.8 prime lens . The world, or at least my little corner of it, was my oyster. 

I was out most evenings and into the night, sometimes getting up at stupid hours of the morning to get the night tube into town when I knew it would be quieter. I was hooked. The moment I took my first long exposure light trails really cemented this for me.

<— Using photoshop to create views that don’t exist in London.

Being contacted and asked to speak at a photography club that I had no association with really cemented my notion that I was doing something right, something which appealed to other people and that they wanted to hear about.

Not long after this, the first lockdown happened and I found myself confined to house (just like the rest of the country) so turned one of the rooms into a studio and set about learning how to use photoshop and lightroom properly. I took online courses and practiced until I could barely stay awake. I also started to learning to edit video and bought endless props and gimmicks to help me create decent still life images. 

This led to me teaching photography at GCSE and A-Level, which I LOVED. On selfish note, it helped me to develop my own skills and learn about new photographers and techniques. On a selfless note, it led to me sharing my love of this medium with a host of young people and giving them their first creative outlet. It also showed me that you need don’t need expensive gear to take incredible photos, I saw a very high standard of work from some of these students. 

I carried on, I got better and I then found new areas to improve. Worked on these and then found the next thing. It never ends.

<— Learning to flex my landscape photography muscle in the Lake District

Then I moved out of London to the Lake District. This comes with it’s own range of challenges for me, and you can read about these here if the mood takes you at some point. 

But what does any of this have to do with why I love photography?

I think for me, a huge part of it is that there is always something new to learn and this excites me. I’m not someone who wants to stagnate, I am not someone who wants to settle for “that’ll do”, or “yeah, that’s ok”. It isn’t ever finished. 

Photography is a constant cycle of self improvement, which in a way is something that is very true of music, alongside all of the other creative disciplines. We never get it perfect, but we can get a little better each time we do something, and I like that. I like that a lot. 

<— Buttermere. The Lake District presents a whole new set of challenges which I am still trying to master.

The challenge is something that appeals to me as well. I love that each day has a different set of challenges, even if you are in the same location or a location you have visited before. Trying to make the very best of the conditions as they are the time, be that wet, windy, both or something else. The thing I am working on at the minute is getting out when the light is flat. We’ve had a very wet start to the year in the North West of England and if it isn’t raining, its been grey and flat and relatively uninspiring and I need to get out and learn how to work with this - even when the weather isn’t the landscape and scenery always are and I need to learn to remember that. 

Printing my own images is something else which has added another layer of learning and challenge - it’s not as easy as it looks, but that’s what I like about it, it’s something I am working hard to try and develop a level of expertise in. I’ve got really good at discussing paper types and manufacturers but only a small number of people find this interesting!

I’d always wanted something that I was good at (and enjoyed!) which was within one of the visual arts disciplines, and this has ticked that box for me. I know this sounds a bit like I am blowing my own trumpet, and that ‘good’ is subjective, but to have someone compliment the work I have done is something that I really value.

I also value the feedback and any criticism that comes along with it, but producing something that people like and want to say positive things about and that is visual is something that was alien to me and I am still getting used to. I don’t remember a single positive from my Art teachers at school, largely because I didn’t produce work that was any good, but I often wonder what would have happened if I had access to photography at school at that age!

Gear Review: Aodelan WTR2 Intervalometer and Remote Shutter Release

A useful piece of kit for long exposure photography, time-lapse photography and for not having to touch the camera when you’re trying to minimise camera movement on your tripod.

These are my first impressions of this piece of kit, which I ordered from Amazon, for £69.99. Seems like a lot of money, but is it worth it?

NB - There are different options for different camera brands, so make sure you select the right one for your camera. 

I should point out that this review is on the second unit I was sent; I had to return the first one as the transmitter and receiver wouldn’t pair with each other, and after much research, reading and re-reading of instructions, more research, experimenting, more research and even making sure there were no other devices  around which could have been interfering with the signal, I was still unsuccessful. The unit came from Amazon, so the return was quick and easy and I ordered a new unit. 

What do you get in the box?

I have the wireless version of this so you get the timer/intervalometer, a hot-shoe mountable receiver, 2 cables for plugging the receiver into the camera (even though it’s wireless, there are no hot shoe contacts to allow communication with the camera but this receiver does have a thread to mount on a tripod) and two wrist straps, which is great if you are like me and always putting things down all over the place. 

I have opted not to install the strap on the receiver because, like many of you who will be considering this, we are trying to limit any camera movement and having this blowing all over the place could introduce tiny movements into your shots and would defeat the objective!

There’s an instruction manual, which is fairly basic and gives you an overview of the functions, but I will admit, I have had to watch a couple of YouTube videos to fully get to grips with it. 

Batteries are not included and you will need 4 AAA batteries, two for each part of the unit. There isn’t a battery indicator on the unit, so it’s difficult for me to say what the battery life of the unit is like. 

My first impressions

The first thing to notice about this is that the plastics seem fairly solid, but I wouldn’t want to bash it about too much. The buttons are really tactile and press with a rather satisfying click. The whole thing feels fairly well made, considering it’s definitely been built down to a price.

The largest button on the unit is the shutter release button (this is a rubber button so feels a bit more controlled/repsonsive). As you would expect, this is a two stage button, which focuses your camera when you half press and releases the shutter when you full press. 

When you turn the transmitter on, it beeps and the screen is backlit green. This light turns off after a short time to save battery power, but you can adjust the setting so it’s always on or always off. This is the same for the beep that it emits when you perform some of the functions. 

Navigating your way around the transmitter is fairly easy and it pairs itself with the receiver (when you have a working unit!). The downside here is that if someone else is using something on the same frequency then you could end up with some crossover, which could be a pain in the rear end!

Functions

The kit will allow you to shoot in bulb mode, release the shutter and record intervals as little as 0.1 second, use a delayed shutter (2s), shoot in continuous mode and create “programs” to shoot timed intervals. You can specify the number of shots you want to take from 1 up to 199. The other option is “unlimited”. You can also shoot bracketed long exposures using this piece of kit, but I have discovered that I prefer to set these up using the interface on my camera rather than using the Aodelan. 

One thing to note, which I had to find out by experimenting with settings is that if the bracketed long exposure function is set to on, then you will not be able to set the number of exposures in your programme to unlimited, so make sure that this is turn off if this is something you are going to be using the unit for. 

I have tested the unit(s) at a distance of around 5 metres, indoors and outdoors and have managed to get a decent connection. Unless you’re using it to take self portraits from a long distance then I’m not sure what the use case for having a huge range on this would be as in most use cases, I would suspect that you would be standing within a “sensible” distance of your camera. 

I’m not going to go into masses of detail about how to program the unit; there are a number of YouTube videos that will take you through this, with realtime examples rather than sitting and reading them all here, but suffice to say, it’s easy enough to use and to program and within about 5 minutes of playing with it, I was able to feel confident enough with it to be able to take it out on a shoot and would be confident to use it in my studio when I am doing things which mean that the camera can’t move and I’m not able to shoot tethered. 

Summary

All in all, I think this is a great little piece of kit which I am looking forward to using and experimenting with more in the field. It’s lightweight and its small(ish) form factor (I wish the receiver were smaller, but having the hot-shoe mount bulks it out a bit) means that it doesn’t take up too much valuable space in your camera bag. If I could change anything about, it would be swapping the AAA batteries and replacing them with a USB rechargeable one. I don’t know what the battery performance is like at the moment and it’s difficult to say as there isn’t a battery readout on the display.

Photographing Sunrise and Sunset in The Lake District

This post has been sat in my drafts for ages as I wanted to add more to it, but if you’ve seen my other post, then you will understand why I am posting it now, I’ll do another post later in the year when I have some more to say and have shot some other parts of this incredible part of the world!

Photography at Sunrise and Sunset can be one of the most rewarding and yet most frustrating pursuits in photography, largely because it often relies on a huge sprinkling of luck alongside some careful planning around where to be and when to be there; that awesome golden hour light doesn’t always show up! I hope in this post, to give you some ideas for your next sunrise or sunset photography trip in The Lake District.

Before we start, other than your camera and tripod, here’s some things I recommend taking with you:

• Head Torch - these trips start and/or finish in darkness or poor light, this well help you to light your way.

• Layers - it’s cold before the sun comes up and gets very chilly wet the sun goes down. Stay warm

• Water + Snacks - stay hydrated and don’t get hungry. Plan to take enough for your whole trip. And then a little bit more.

• Not something you take with you, but always make sure someone knows your plans in case there is a problem.

Remember, that no amount of planning is going to guarantee you that dramatic sunrise and those amazing golden colours. You’ll improve your chances of getting ‘the shot’ if you’re in the right location and at the right time - something I learned quite quickly when I moved to the area and something which I am still learning now. I use the Photopills app to help me plan these trips. There’s also a called Alpenglow which is starting to get really good at forecasting the quality of a sunrise, but I still don’t rely on wholly on it and like to take a chance!

Here’s a list of the locations covered in this blog:

• Blea Tarn

• Ullswatwer (Glencoyne Bay)

• Helsington Viewpoint

• Rydal Water

• Elterwater/River Brathay

• Ullswater (Pooley Bridge)

Blea Tarn - Sunrise

This has to be one of the most beautiful, most peaceful and easy to access views in the whole of The Lake District.

The tarn is located about a 300 meter walk from the National Trust car park (free parking if you’re a NT member), a really easy walk and the pay off is huge! A word of warning however, the car park is accessed via a steep (1 in 3 gradient) road from both sides of the valley. The road will be largely impassable when the weather is poor/icy/snowy so bear this in mind before you set your sights on a winter shoot here!

The walk from the car park is easy, but can be very boggy underfoot when you leave the path, so make sure you’ve got decent boots on.

This is a popular spot with photographers owing to the mirror-like reflections of the Langdale Pikes in the stillness of the water.

My visit was in mid-septmeber, and as the year progresses the sunrise moves further round to the east until it begins to track back again over the winter months.

If you’re lucky enough to be here on a still day then you will be rewarded with those super-sharp reflections and don’t forget to pack your polariser!

Blea Tarn National Trust Car Park

What3Words Location: fires.bolts.stammer

Ullswater - Sunrise

Ullswater is another easily accessible location for photographers, with a National Trust car park conveniently located about 50 meters from the shore.

This location provides panoramic views of the Eastern Fells of the Lake District.

There were a number of other photographers here the morning that I visited, which is testament to the beauty and peacefulness of the location, but it does mean you’ve got to work hard to get something unique!

A word of warning though, the midges here have a real taste for human so make sure you’re covered up or have some repellent spray with you.

National Trust Glencoyne Bay car park

What3Words Location: live.trying.sketching

Helsington Viewpoint - Kendal -Sunset.

This is a little gem which is a regular haunt for me as it’s not far from where I live! Great for those who don’t like to walk too far as you can park up, get out of your car and shoot!

The views here are dramatic and span all the way from Morecambe Bay in the West extending right across much of the Lake District, with foreground provided by the River Kent and the Lyth Valley.

The car parking here is free and you can stay as long or as little as you would like. There’s also a really lovely church if that’s your kind of thing too.

Car park at the Parish Church of St. John

What3Words location: taken.stroke.king

Rydal Water - Ambleside -

Sunrise.

This is another location which is easily accessible and there is a ton of great compositions, but you’ll need to hunt for them. There’s handy parking which is located at White Moss Car Park, which will set you back £5 (you can pay by card if you’re not a fan of carrying cash). When you leave the car park, turn right and walk back along the footpath which runs alongside the A591 and you’ll soon be in amongst the photography!

The walk here is flat and there is nothing to push your limits, definitely an easy walk, with the occasional incline and you can walk as far or as little as you wish. I covered about a total of 1km there and back. A lot of compositions can be shot from the footpath, but if you want some different foreground interest then be prepared to climb a couple of walls and fences.

This one is worth a scouting trip before you go as the best compositions aren’t always apparent when you’re walking in the dark lit just by your head torch!

This isn’t the most peaceful spot as you’ll have the early morning traffic to contend with, even you venture closer to the water so don’t expect the soundscape to match the tranquility of the landscape.

White Moss Car Park

What3words location: tint.eagles.whizzing

Elterwater and The River Brathay, Ambleside.

You’re probably noticing a trend in these entries (I am!) that many of these locations are pretty much “drive up” and are easily accessible, and that’s no different in this one! Elterwater turned out to be an incredible morning’s photography.

Arrive early and park Silverthwaite Car Park (£2 an hour and cards are accepted), just off the B5343. I arrived at just after 6am but minutes later it was starting to fill up. From here, leave the car park, go straight across the road and follow the short woodland path until you hit the the gravel path which runs alongside the The River Brathay.

The gravel path is easy terrain, but be careful in the woods when you’re up and about in the early hours - your head torch is a must!

There’s shots galore along here and if you get the mist and a whisper of breeze then you’re golden. Around a 500 metre walk will see you arriving at Elterwater, where you have amazing views of the Langdale Pikes which are reflected in the water.

The sunrise in November is practically opposite the Langdales and if you’re lucky then the sun will light those peaks up like fire!

It’s much more peaceful than the previous spot at Rydal Water and there’s even a few Herdies knocking about in the neighbouring fields!

what.3.words hourglass.universally.sparkles (for the stones)

what.3.words perplexed.succumbs.curated (car park)

Ullswater - Pooley Bridge - Penrith

Yet another easy walk, but not for the faint of heart in other ways - I’ll explain.

Parking for this one is easy, there’s plenty in the Pooley Bridge area (it get’s very busy, so just because it’s there, don’t expect it to be easy to park!), so have a look around and see what suits you. I managed to find something in a lay-by so didn’t have to pay for this one! Everything around this location is fairly well paved, but that does mean you have to walk along roads without footpaths, and a couple of the locations you can stand are on grass verges - BE CAREFUL, WEAR SOMETHING BRIGHT, DON’T STAND HERE ALONE AND KEEP YOUR WITS ABOUT YOU! (Disclaimer - you have been warned, if you get run over, it isn’t my fault!). If you don’t fancy this, then there is an elevated spot in the carpark next to the B5320/A592 junction (W3W location below at the end of this section).

The shot everyone wants is The Duke of Portland Boathouse, and to get a decent shot of this, you’re going to need either a super long or have to take your chances with the traffic (again, be careful, you have been warned, not my fault, I’m not telling you to do this!) and get close to the fence.

This is a good sunset spot, with the sun setting behind Helvellyn the evening I was there. Unfortunately, the sky didn’t give me everything I wanted that night, but it still had a go at putting on a bit of a show!

What.3.Words: contemplate.enacted.length (paid parking) /// magically.leopard.code (free lay-by parking) /// pacemaker.estate.sticky (dodgy grass verge photography) /// ///juicy.narrow.sprouting (safer, slightly elevated views of the water)

I’ve been having some time out….

(and NOT because I have wanted to!)

This isn’t an “I’m stuck in a creative rut” or “woe is me post”, more of an “when other things get in the way” post!

Since the New Year, I haven’t really posted anything on social media, nor have I written much for this blog or done anything new on the website! I haven’t been out to shoot for a few weeks either but have done some stuff in the studio (and a freebie for work doing some headshots).

Why? Because sometimes other things get in the way… namely work and having to go out and earn money doing something other than selling my prints on here (it’s not very lucrative and I know that selling landscape photos is a saturated market with a whole lot of talented photographers out there!) means that sometimes photography has to be in the passenger seat, although I would prefer not to be. Ultimately, I am still a stage in the game where (what I call my) real job finances anything that I want to do or achieve photographically.

I am trying to see positives in this, but what I am realising is that this has been a good thing for my photography and using this lack of time to go and shoot as a way to make me think about developing aspects of my work that don’t often get a look-in as well as trying out some new things.

I have used some of the time I’ve had to make plans, scout locations and to upskill my editing, which is something I have been wanting to spend time on for a while. It’s been quite fun (and a real challenge) finding raw photos online and then editing them. I’ve done a couple of editing “challenges” where you have to edit other people’s images and I find this a real hard task to complete – not least because I find that the raw image files behave so differently to each other, and the ones I get out of my own drone are no exception!

I’ve also worked on a couple of studio-based shoots, but nothing that I am ready to share yet – one of the things my time out learning new editing tricks has taught me is that my still life game needs to be upped and I like the idea of that challenge.

If you find yourself in a similar position, then here’s what I have found has helped me to maintain my interest, develop parts of my skillset and think of new ideas;

·      Learn from other photographers; find ones you like and study them – watch them on YouTube, read their books and look at their work. I have found some of the most insprigin stuff I have seen has been in photobooks; what is there in your niche and what can you differently!?

·      Develop your editing skills – I knew my photos were missing something and I have been working building the Orton effect into my workflow and identifying images where it will work.

·      Visit somewhere new; I have been pinning locations I want to visit onto a Google MyMap and this is something that I will try and tick things off during the Easter break and the summer holidays (Yes, I’m a teacher!).

·      Explore something new in photography. I worked on studio projects, you might want to try something else! You don’t need to spend money – maybe you could work on your portraits, or if you live alone work on some pet portaits or even explore the idea of self portraiture. The latter is probably one of the most difficult projects to embark on and not just because you have to take photos of yourself, but you have to take photos of you… I’ll leave you to unpick that!

Don’t let “real life stifle your passion for creativity if you can’t get out to shoot what you want to. Find new ways to be creative, you never know, you might like it!

From The City to The Country…

It’s been a while since I wrote anything for this blog and now there are two posts in a week, its been busy in my “proper” job and now it’s half term, which is bringing some welcome relief and along with it, some time to write a couple of blogs and of course, get out with the camera and do some editing.

This year has seen a lot of change - a new job in a different part of the country, which is very different to where I was when I based in London. I loved London, but I really love where I am in the Lake District, in North West England. The change of pace is more than welcome, but it has present a number of challenges for me from a photographic point of view and that’s what I want to talk about here today!

London was great, like really great. More importantly for me, it’s where I fell in love with photography. I took a few shots on my phone, enjoyed editing them and they were well received by friends and family, as well as a small amount of followers on “The Gram”. I eventually took the plunge and went out and bought a DSLR - my trusty Canon 80D.

It’s the camera I still use now for just about everything I do (something new on the horizon, but nothing is cheap so it might a be a very distant horizon!)

I soon got into street photography, cityscapes, urban photography and quite quickly realised that night photography and stuff in low light was what I wanted to do. I became obsessed with shallow Depth of Field (DOF), bokeh and long exposure. Bright lights, bright colours and lots of playing with colour temperature were my go to edits. I loved a light trail!

As time passed and I spent more time out of London, making images in the Derbyshire countryside I realised more and more that I wanted to be back out in the country, have a slower pace of life and focus on creating landscape images and continue to dabble in wildlife photography.

The transition from town to country has been amazing and I love the slow pace of life, but it’s been a steep learning curve in terms of photography.

It’s a game that we’re always learning in, but this move has made me realise just how much I still have to learn. The landscape photography style is incredibly different to the way I used to work in London. Here’s some of the things I have learned, present in a bit of a “compare and contrast style”!

Composition is King… but in a different way that I used to find when shooting in the city. One of the things I have learned shooting landscapes is that foreground interest is one of the keys to a successful image. Leading lines are something which I have been able to transpose from one genre into the other, but leading lines in nature need more work to help them make sense in an image, this was easy in London because they were such an integral part of the built environment and designed by engineers and they like straight things!

Focus Stacking… This is something that I used to do when I was in city, but not to the extent that I have done since I have been shooting landscapes. Even at the class f/8.0 it can be tough to get the whole scene in focus, so to really nail that corner to corner sharpness, being able to focus stack is something that you should be able to do.

Dramatic Light… When you have it, it makes everything almost easy, when it’s not there, you have to think on your feet and you have to think hard! It’s very wet in this part of the world, which means it’s often very cloudy, and quite often there is rain falling from them but with clouds, come shadows and breaks in the cloud and when those conditions hit with the sun then it’s just photography heaven!

Given the amount of night photography I did in London, this wasn’t something that often troubled me, but rain always added the element of reflection which was a welcome addition. Oh and when the sunset or sunrise kicks off in the Lake District, well that’s just something else!

Sunrise/Sunset… Golden hours, need I say more? Invest in an app like PhotoPills so that you can find the best places to be for those sunrises shots, and if you can get up high in the hills (safely!)and can see a sunrise and a cloud inversion in all one then you’re in for a real treat!

Dynamic Range - You’re likely to (depending on your camera) need to shoot some HDR stacks to capture as much dynamic range as possible, especially if you are shooting in harsh light or it can be hard to capture all of the detail and you’ll end up with crushed blacks or blown out highlights. Be careful though, it can make your images look “digital”/artificial, so what you do in post is key with these.

You don’t always need to shoot the whole scene…

this is something that I am still working on. With such wide views and incredible scenes, it’s always tempting to try and shoe-horn the whole scene into an image. Sometimes I will try and leave the wide lenses at home and this forces me to try focus on parts of a scene rather than the whole view. Pick out details and find the interest, give your viewer something to look at! This is very different to what I used to do a lot of in London, which focussed a lot on having the subject in the foreground and using this to force the DOF and create all of that magic bokeh-sauce!

So what’s the take-away from this? I suppose that my overarching point is that you don’t stop learning. No matter how good you are or what you shoot, there’s always room to improve, to develop and to grow - if you don’t think you have anything to learn then you won’t get any better; that’s the only given there is!

I’ve developed a huge amount as photographer since I moved, but you don’t need to move to get better, but get out of your comfort zone and go an shoot something different, you never know, you might enjoy and you might learn something new…

Why I Love Photography

(And why you might enjoy it too!)

This blog contains affiliate links. 

I am going to start this with a caveat… this pursuit, like so many others, if you’re not careful, can end up being an absolute money pit; you have been warned! (But also, it doesn’t have to be that way).

I came to photography quite late. About six years ago, shortly after I had moved to London and got some lovely feedback from a few friends and decided to give it a bit of a go; things have just snowballed from there.

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

But what attracted me to it in the first place? Ultimately, I am a bit of (a lot of!) a nerd and photography certainly scratches that itch. I’ve always loved a nerdy hobby - I have studied music since childhood and play the trombone and piano (both nerdy!), I used to DJ (yes it looks cool, but it’s also massively nerdy!) and play the odd round of golf here and there (nerdy with a side of frustrating!). Selling my DJ equipment financed my initial foray into photography and I haven’t looked back. 

My first equipment was my Canon 80D with an 18-55mm f/4 kit lens and the cheapest tripod I could find on Amazon. I also got a bag to carry it all in and off I went. You can have a look at the gear I am currently using by checking out the ‘My Gear’ page. You’ll see that the 80D is still there!

I started out whilst I lived in London and got really into night photography, long exposures, light trails and playing with depth of field. The result of this was that I got really good at taking photos at night, but was hopeless at it during the day - both styles are very different beasts. 

This leads me onto the next thing that I love about it - you are always learning. In the real world I am a teacher (Music if you’re wondering) and place real value on being able to teach young people a new skill, but also an equal weight on learning new things so that I can pass this on as well. Moving to the lakes has presented whole new set of challenges and means that my passion for the medium has developed further still and I am constantly learning and adding new skills to my arsenal.

YouTube is a great resource for learning about how to use your camera and how to post process in applications like the Adobe Creative Suite - find someone you like and who interests you and then go and put it into practice. Try to not end up down a rabbit hole though, if you spend too much time here, you won’t have time to go and do something with the learning you have done. You will learn more by going out and making mistakes than you will if you sit in front of a screen watching someone tell you how to do it.

I also really like being outside.

My current location, right next to the Lake District National Park really helps me to want to get out there and the air is a bit cleaner than it was in London, but all the same, getting out and about in all weathers is something which has always and will always appeal to me. Being able to do it in such beautiful surroundings is just a massive bonus, but again, it’s another learning curve and I’ll write a blog about that in the coming days; let's just say it’s a big difference to shooting in the city.

People have always been a big factor in my love for photography. I have met some awesome people who are incredible photographers whilst I have been doing this; I will link some of them at the bottom of this post so you can check their work out! Being out on your own can be really liberating, but having someone else to bounce off is always a great way to get out and shoot - you also never know when you’re going to need a model!

I’ve also managed to build out a nice little home studio; this happened during lockdown when I got really into Still Life and product photography. This is probably where the most investment has gone. Lighting isn’t cheap and decent lighting even less so. Then there’s backdrops, props and space to store it all. It’s a great place to retreat to after a busy stressful day!

The nice thing about being in the studio is that no matter where you are, you have (almost) complete control over the light, you just have to make sure monitors are properly calibrated!

Once you’ve taken your photos, you’re going to need to be able to edit them (God-tier nerding). You’ll need something like Abode Lightrom and/or photoshop which will require a subscription (there are free programs available, such as Photopea, which can be quite clunky but will get the job done) and then you might want to think about posting them on social media which is a time investment and then printing on top of that. If you then start shooting in a studio a lot, you might want to think about CaptureOne, which has awesome live capture abilities and really helps me to nail the compositions.

All that said, you shouldn’t let cost be a barrier to getting into photography. Find a decent secondhand body and lens from somewhere like MPB.COM and then get out there and see what you can do! And if you don’t want to do that, then we all have cameras in our pockets these days anyway…

Check out these photographers mentioned in the blog:

James Evans | Nick Minter | Alex Howard | Leon Simpson

Gear Review: Lowepro Fastpack 250 AW III

A solid, lightweight bag with only a couple of minor quibbles.

I’m going to do a quick review of the catchily titled Lowepro Fastpack BP 250 AW III, which from now on, I will refer to as the “backpack” or  the “bag”!

I bought this bag as I wanted something that would work as both a camera bag and a day-bag for when I am out walking. Being the owner of a couple of other bags from Lowepro (the equally catchily titled Tahoe BP 150 and the ProTactic BP 450 AWII), they were really the only brand that were in the running for me. 

Admittedly, I’d been spoon-fed some social media ads before I made this purchase, so it was at the front of my mind when I was making the decision.

It’s a well constructed, light backpack which comes in at 1.5kg, which is a reported 33% reduction on its predecessor and it’s almost all black/dark grey, except for the webbing which is a stone grey colour and some orange detailing around some of the seams. The zips are solid and it comes with a grey waterproof cover. I am yet to test it out in poor weather, so will report back on that when I find out whether or not it passes the weather test!

It’s fairly roomy inside, but the layout, even with some adjustments means that my 70-200 f/4 will have to live on my camera (a Canon 80D which is quite large; mirrorless owners may be a little luckier here), but there is plenty of room for my 24-105mm f/4, my 18-55mm kit lens and my 10-18mm f/4.5 super-wide.  

If you want to take a drone, then this is either going in the top section of the pack, or you’ll be leaving lenses behind. Or just not taking your drone. My 50mm f/1.8 doesn’t make the cut if I’m going out to shoot landscapes as there just isn’t enough room. But maybe I just want to take too much kit. Better to have it and not need it and all that… 

The bag benefits from a “2 stage quick door”, which you can access easily by slinging the bag across your body for those quick lens changes, or when you need your camera 10 seconds ago.

This does mean that you lose one of the side pouches to allow for the access, but I feel like this is a small sacrifice to not have to take off my bag, lie it on the floor and open up the whole back of it. 

You do need to make sure that you know where the zips are and then take care when opening so that you don’t just pour your camera gear out all over the trail that you’re walking. So far so good though, and I appreciate the convenience that this is affording me.

Inside the bag is the stuff you would expect from a bag like this by Lowepro. The colour is a light grey with some orange details and I was really impressed with the feel of the updated adjustable dividers. These are now much more solid than previous iterations and feel like they will hold up a bit better when the bag is full. 

A decent sized front pocket adorns the top of the bag, and this will certainly hold your filters and the other photography accoutrements that we all seem to carry (camera tool, lens cloths etc). Those of you with smaller drones might find that yours fits in here, but there isn’t any padding and your drone case isn’t fitting inside.

The laptop compartment is generous and well padded and should take anything upto a 16” laptop for when you need to do your edits on the go. My ipad is my go to for this now and this fits more than comfortably.

The top section of the bag is a fair size and would allow you pack in a lightweight waterproof, small flask and something to eat. It’s difficult to say what will fit in here because we all carry different things, but the pictures should give you a bit of an idea.  

In summary, it’s a well built, well made bag, is comfortable to wear and provides quick and easy access to your kit when you’re out walking. The top “day pack” section is great and allows you to take out enough stuff for a day’s walking and the laptop section is well protected. I’d like to see some improvements to the strength of some of the clips. If you’ve got long lenses and a DSLR then you might want to consider something a bit bigger. Am I happy with it? Yes, absolutely!

At a glance:

Lowepro Fast Pack 205 AW III

Price: Currently available at good camera retailers from £95.00 to £115.00. I got mine from Amazon

• Total Volume: 20.5 L

• Internal Dimensions: 30 x 19 x 53 cm

• External Dimensions: 31.5 x 20 x 54 cm

• Camera Compartment Dimensions: 29 x 12.5 x 22 cm

• Laptop Compartment Dimensions: 27.5 x 2 x 41 cm

Who’s it for?

Photographers who want to get out walking for the day, with a decent sized handful of gear but who also like to pack fairly light.

Those of you who want a decent sized bag at a reasonable price point.

Who should avoid it:

Wildlife ‘togs with a bunch of long lenses might struggle with the small size of the camera compartment.

Those of you who want to take the kitchen sink out on a walk and still have room to take some food and a waterproof.

Pros

Good sized camera gear section with a further decent sized day pack for clothing/food/drink or a drone.

Lightweight.

Solid construction.

Waterproof cover included.

Updated internal dividers feel much nicer and much more solid.

Cons

Uses of larger cameras and lenses may struggle with the smaller size of the gear section in the bottom of the bag.

Plastic clip on the chest strap looks a bit flimsy

Tripod pouch on the side isn’t over-generous so you might need to take something a bit smaller.

5 Quick (and free) Tips to Boost Your Photography

Nothing techy, nothing expensive, just 5 things that you can do today!

1: Shoot what you love and what you enjoy.

Don’t be a slave to social media and shoot what you think everyone else wants you to photograph. Photography should be something that you do because YOU enjoy it; i really believe that if you’re shooting what you enjoy, somewhere you enjoy doing it, then you will take better images because you will have more of a connection with your subject matter. It might be wildlife, it might be landscapes, it might be street, it might be commercial but it should be what you enjoy! I manage to combine my love of being outside with my photography, so I get the best of both worlds!

2: Look at the work of other photographers. 

Read photobooks, look on the internet, soak it all up! You don’t have to copy everyone else’s work but it's useful to have inspiration and to see how other people compose images.

If you can avoid all of the other distractions, then using the internet to do this is a great idea, but know what you want to find and then go find it!

Some of my favourites are Nigel Danson, James Popsys, Scott Choucino (these three have really active social media and YouTube channels and I have learned a TON from them!), Galen Rowell and of course, the master: Ansell Adams.

These aren’t the only photographers out there, so find ones that you like and learn about their photography!

3: Talk to other photographers!

This is where I have learned more than via any other medium, other than actually going out and shooting. And let’s be honest, if you’re talking with other photographers, you’re probably out shooting anyway! Talking to other photographers and shooting with them is one of the best ways to learn, to get better and to develop your skills.

4. Be Present. 

By this, I don’t just mean be there and be ready to get the shot. I mean be present in the moment, be aware of what is going on. Put your phone away, take the AirPods out, look and listen. Doing this meant that one a recent trip to a local viewpoint, I got to see things in the night sky that I haven’t seen before and it was really special. Allow of your senses to play a part in what you’re doing. Nothing beats being out early morning listening to the birds and watching the world come to life in front of you and capturing it with your camera.

5. Get out and shoot!

Make a plan and stick to it. Go out without a plan. But go out! 

Some of my best shoots have been spontaneous, some have been the planned shoots, but they all involved getting off my behind and going out and doing the thing that I love. New years day last year was a really special one - I was up early and took advantage of the empty streets (I was still living in London) and saw one of the best sunrises I saw in all of my time in London. It was a great start to the year!

Bonus Tip!

Take lots of photos - I see so many people who have gone out and taken 10 photos on the same photo walks where people have taken 300. It pays to have shots in the bank, because the more you take, the more chance you have having something different or something interesting. Taking fewer photos because you “know how to get the shot” doesn’t make you a better photographer, it means that you get shots that other people miss. 

Bonus Tip 2!

Know your camera. It should be like an extension of your body. READ THE MANUAL! Watch YouTube videos about your camera and find out everything it can do and then learn how to do it. There is nothing worse than seeing something amazing happening in front of and then having to faff about with your camera to dial in the settings meaning that you miss the shot. Even during the longest of golden hours, the good light can be there and gone in a minute (or even seconds!) and you don’t want to spend that time staring at your camera wondering why you can’t make it do what you want it to. Oh, and make sure that you’re shooting in raw so that you have the flexibility when you’re doing your post processing!

Keep Creating!

Chris

Does Photography Gear Matter ?

Welcome to my first blog! It’s a cold, sunny, Sunday morning here in Cumbria so I’ve made a brew and sat down to try and answer the question “Does photography gear matter?”. This a question that will have ten’s of thousands of answers out there on the wider internet, and I’m going to share my thoughts here.

Where to start?

There are thousands of camera options available to you, just as many lens options, there’s all of the different filter and tripod options and don’t even get me started on bags (this is a separate blog all on its own!).

I get asked a lot “what’s the best camera?” or “what’s the best lens for portrait/landscape/street?”. The best answer I have heard to these questions and the one I like the best is “the one you already have”. Even if that’s the one that you have on your phone. Phone cameras are getting better by the day, and some of them even shoot raw images, which give you more flexibility when you’re editing.

But what if you don’t already own any camera gear and want to move away from your phone, where should you start, what should you get and where should you buy it from?

In truth, if you have a budget of, for example, £1000 (about $1200US), then you should (in my opinion) look to spend about half of this on your camera and lens combination. Why? Because if it breaks or you break it, it gets full of water or some other unthinkable thing happens to it then you have enough in the bank to be able to replace it. So the best camera is the one that you have and the one that you can afford to replace. I’ll talk about your first lens later.

Buying you first camera and lens is only the beginning. Once you have made this purchase, you’ll need to think about what sort of photography you’re going to do and the conditions that you’re going to be shooting in. If it’s anything that’s likely to be in low light situations, then you’ll need a tripod if you’re going to get sharp images, free of camera movement, which you can be proud of.

Then you’re going to need to be able to move it all so a decent, comfortable camera bag will be essential. So out of our remaining £500, we’ve probably just spent another £50-75!

But what about your lens? This is an important decision. The quality of your glass is important and is probably one of the things that will have the biggest impact of the quality and feel of your images (vintage lenses create some great looks, when you’re ready to dive down that rabbit hole). Most consumer DSLR/mirroless cameras can be supplied with a “kit” lens. These are usually cheaper than premium lenses, but won’t be weatherproof, so be careful if you’re using it in the rain. Kit lenses are generally zoom lenses, which is great when you are just starting out as it means you’ve got a range of focal lengths covered so you can experiment, be flexible and have fun with your images. The Canon 18-55mm f/4.5-5.6 is a common kit lens that you can buy with their cameras. Just be sure the check that the lens is included in the price that you pay, as a general rule, DSLR/Mirrorless cameras don’t come supplied with a lens and you’ll have to buy this separately.

New or Secondhand?

This is a question that is likely to be dictated by your budget, but you also get a lot more bang for your buck if you are willing to make a second hand purchase. The secondhand camera market is huge and there are some bargains to be had if you know where to look. The best places to start this search are websites like MPB and Wex.

Both of these sellers are reputable UK brands who supply the kit with a warranty and everything is thoroughly checked before it goes on their websites, so you can be sure you’re not throwing money away and buying a dud.

3 of the lenses in my current set-up were bought secondhand and haven’t caused me a single problem and have proven to be great value for money.

You can also consider places such as Facebook marketplace and eBay, but make sure that you do your research and don’t get either ripped off or scammed!

There is also a large “grey market” for cameras. I won’t post any links here, but I am sure you will be able to do a quick Google search and make up your own mind. With regard to the grey market for cameras, you’ll get an authorised product but outside of the manufacturers authorised distribution channels. So you might buy a lens from a UK based seller, but the product wasn’t intended for the UK or European markets, meaning you don’t get any of the manufacturers warranty protection if something goes wrong.

Will people take me seriously?

Don’t worry about what other people think. Use what works for you; the most important thing is that you ‘get on’ with your setup. That being said, if you get booked to photograph a wedding and turn up with an iPhone and nothing else, you’re going to get some funny looks!

“Is this a professional camera?”, another question that gets asked repeatedly and one that doesn’t have a really well defined answer. Any camera can be a professional camera if you’re using it to make money. What portion of your income you need to be making to be considered professional is another discussion for another time! Also worth noting at this juncture, if you’re out shooting and you end up on private land (such as Canary Wharf in London or the area around Tower Bridge), you’ll probably told by a security guard that any camera that has an interchangeable lens is a professional camera so that they can make you stop and move you on (always be polite and do what they ask, it makes it easier for everyone else who has to encounter them in the future); luckily, you’ll probably have another camera in your pocket anyway.

So, does gear matter?

Yes.

And no.

And also maybe. To some extent.

If you’re reading this and you have made it this far, chances are you’ve read a few articles on this topic and heard a number of different opinions.

If you have a camera on your phone and you’re happy with it then great! If you want some more flexibility in what you do then you may want to consider your first DLSR/mirrorless purchase.

Gear matters if you let it matter. Going out and buying a Canon R5 with an L series lens is going to set you back in excess of £6500 and isn’t going to make you a better photographer, no matter what your experience level. It will create lovely files with lots of data that will be great to edit, but they won’t necessarily be “good photos”. If you’re spending this kind of money on your first camera because “it will encourage me to go out and shoot” then the chances are that in 6 months time you’re going to have a very expensive ornament sat on your shelf! Remember the old adage that photography happens in the space between the photographer’s ears.

The resolution/megapixel count on newer cameras is huge, which is great if you’re drastically cropping images and want to retain the image quality. But bear in mind, that if you’re after the resolution, then consider the Canon 5DS or 5DSR. Both of these have more megapixels (50.3MP) than the R5 and are now about 8 years old so can be found for about £5000 less than the newer cameras.

What matters most is that you’ve got a setup that works for you and that you can use easily, confidently and that allows you to be out there making photos. You can’t make images if you don’t get out to take them!