The full PDF containing all the information for the Workshop/tour to New Zealand south Island in April/May 2016 is now available. you can download this PDF here Southern Lightscapes New Zealand Information Package 2016

There are limited places available on this amazing and diverse tour. If you require any more information just email me!  The workshop includes a two day foray up into the spectacular Mount Cook area and is inclusive of  a close-up boat trip to see the floating Icebergs. An exciting and wonderful tour is planned with superior accommodations, full breakfasts, most dinners and other inclusions. we travel in our own coach with personal driver.

The workshop through Scotland with my good friend Ewen Bell and 11 participants was a truly amazing landscape, coastal-scape and light experience. The Scottish weather is unpredictable at the best of times and we were favoured with mostly very lovely light and cloud formations and sunshine… even on the notorious bad weather Isle of Skye! I can say this with some authority as on all my previous vists to Scotland, this was the best weather I have personally experienced. There was in fact, a magic moment every single day! I have not had much time to myself to look at the many images I took and so I have just posted a few of the images that I have had time to process.  I have added some of my panoramas taken during the trip at the bottom of this posting too.  A big thank-you to all the participants, no illness, or injuries to speak of and basically just a wonderful time together!

I wanted to share the last two evenings I ventured out to the coastline in Dorset last week. The first evening I slogged the 40 minutes hike there from the carpark and then back again in the dark to and from Dancing Ledge. Its a real scramble down to the water’s edge, let me tell you, with the last 12 feet a sheer drop and only precarious toe holds to get you back up again with your gear and tripod. I have since learned that some local landscape photographer’s take a long ladder with them so they can climb down! It’s an amazing place for both the sunrise and sunset and I chose the latter because at this time of the year I am not too keen to get up at 4am to be at this spot in time for the dawn!  The second evening I ventured out ( I had watched the clouds and weather so as not to waste my effort) I went with my son-in-law Matt to Kimmeridge bay. We knew that the tide would be in so we opted for shooting the lovely cloud formations and using Clavells tower as a subject. The light was soft and warm with a tinge of colour and so we managed to get some really nice images.

A week spent up in the North part of the Devon coastline right near Exmoor National park proved to be a wonderful time. I wanted to do some personal photography as well as spend some time with my family and this area of England is truly superb. The weather was lovely, indeed it was very balmy most days with clouds in the early part of the day giving way to sunny skies towards afternoon. Early summer in Southern England is just wonderful with the woodlands so green and the vibrancy of the wildflowers. Some spots I chose to photograph, I ended up there again and the effort of getting up at 4.30 am well worth it. Let me tell you though, you cannot keep up the early rises for too long, so I made the choice to make the effort twice in the week I was there and luckily the mornings I chose were really really good for early light photography. I also spent some time in the woodlands of Exmoor and even spent some time photographing the wild ponies that roam the moors. Posted below are just a few of the images taken through the week that I have had time to process. The four panoramas shown here are all 7 image stitches taken on the vertical and represent over 220 degree views.

The past few days have been ones of incredible Light and beauty. Dorset is a magnificent green area of rolling hills and gorgeous scenery at the best of times, but when the light is right it really is spectacular. I spent a very early morning just after dawn near a village called Stokeford and after trudging through dewy long grass and over a few fences I found a place I had discovered before. A somewhat derelict fence-line with snarled old trees and shadowed grass with bluebells. I got there so early I woke up a flock of sheep on the other side of the fence! A couple of days later we all headed up to a magnificent area right on the border with Devon, a place known as Lewesdon hill. The national trust own the land and its a wonderful place for bluebells in spring and also for its Autumn colours.(That will have to be another time) It also happens to be the highest spot in Dorset, at a touch over 945 feet you can see the coast of Devon seven miles away. We had a lovely few hours here and used the opportunity to not only photograph the landscape, but shoot a few frames of the grandchildren. To finish the day with a colourful flourish, there was an incredible dusk on the Wareham quay! Just perfect.

I am having a few weeks vacation time with family down in Dorset England, but you never really put the camera away, even when you go out on a picnic! I have reached for my camera on a few occasions and photographed both of my Grandchildren as they relax and play and find delight in the spring weather and what if offers. My Grand-daughter Molly in particular, takes absolute delight in the spring blooms and runs into a field of them every time an opportunity arises. My favourite was today, when she saw a field of buttercups, some as nearly high as herself… naturally I got my camera out and snapped a few as she picked them and squealed with sheer joy as she ran in amongst them. I don’t do portraits often and high key work even less! but these shots were so good I found this kind of treatment to be the best way to finish them.

The famous words “Oh to be in England now that May is here” keeps ringing in my head every-time I head out to capture the wonderful spring light that sweeps across the countryside here in Dorset. I have visited some of my favourite haunts again and some new ones. The banks of the Stour river are always wonderful and so is the coastline. Here are just a few examples I have captured in the past week and it was an added bonus to still see some bluebells out in bloom as they are usually gone by the end of April. It’s all about the light and I am chasing it again with fervour.

The culmination of the five week advanced course that I ran at the SSPS clubrooms was a short practical lesson on filters, lighting, exposure compensation and basic compositional suggestions at Cape Schanck. We had thirty eight attend the classes and so everyone had the opportunity to come down to Cape Schanck both for an afternoon session towards dusk on the Saturday and a first light session on Sunday morning. We were favoured with some lovely light and I want to thank all those who attended this years course for their attention and commitment to the class. Here a couple of images I had time to grab in between helping all those who attended. My sincere thanks is extended to Greg Earl, Frank Pisani and Bob Clothier for helping out with such a large contingent of photographers!

The AIPP National and State awards are two of the very few remaining photographic competitions to actually judge the finished print and they do so using a panel of 5 judges for every section, who are all deemed experts in their respective genres and accredited as Masters of Photography through their years of success in photography. Prints are judged in a controlled lighting environment and assessed for their content, originality as well as technical craftsmanship. All the prints are scored out of 100 with images judged less than 70 are deemed not to professional standards. Prints judged between 71 and 79 are considered strong professional standards. Those images judged between 80-84 are awarded a Silver and are considered strong professional practice of an award standard. Scores of 85-89 are given a Silver with Distinction and demonstrate superior imagination, craft and skill. Prints judged 90-94 exhibit excellence in visual communication, craft technique and skill. And finally those rare few images that reach 96-100 are considered to have exceptional vision, creativity, innovation, master craftsmanship and skill. Very few prints score Gold awards in these competitions and only a tiny proportion of entries ever reach the top tier of Gold with Distinction. I entered 10 images this year with 7 achieving silver and one being awarded gold. The other 2 images I entered received 78 and 79 respectively, just missing the silver award by a fraction.

“Fotheringate” Silver award

“Reflected” Silver award

“Ghostly” Silver Award

“Golden” Silver award

“Jokulsarlon” Gold award

“Luminence” Silver award

“Serenity” Silver award

“Shadowed” Silver award

My sincere thanks goes to both Landon and Stuart at the Print Bureau in Prahran, for the wonderful job they do with all my work and especially in the choosing of the fine archival papers that suit each particular print.