Just last month, I had the splendid opportunity to delve into a slice of local heritage, capturing the rejuvenated spirit of St. Anne's Church in Haughton after its impressive £200k refurbishment for a client project.

In my pre-shoot ritual, I discovered that the church was practically enveloped in trees, its half-acre grounds a thicket of arboreal sentinels. Aesthetically pleasing, yes, but a veritable obstacle course for drone photography. With the trees in their bare winter state, every spindly branch became a potential saboteur to my airborne endeavours. And with a primary school just a stone's throw away, timing was crucial to avoid any unexpected drone demonstrations during break time.

The church itself, a Victorian masterpiece crafted in the 1880s by the illustrious Taylor brothers, stands as a homage to an 11th-century Norwegian church, with its eclectic brickwork and distinctive red clay tiled roof. The pyramid-shaped roof atop the tower and the quirky octagonal stair turret add a dash of architectural whimsy.

However, getting there was a bit like navigating a maze. Visible from the M67 as a proud landmark on the hill, the actual journey was complicated by a bridge closure due to ongoing maintenance, threatening to fill my frames with the glaring hues of construction barriers.

Thankfully, the client's team and the ever-accommodating Reverend were my guides through this historic gem, highlighting the renovation's focal points. The challenge of photographing the lichgate, overshadowed by the motorway bridge, seemed daunting at first and turned out to be close to impossible.

But fortune favoured us nonetheless. The necessary pruning for the renovations and a delayed lunch break at the nearby school provided a golden opportunity. With the Mavic drone swiftly deployed, the clouds parted briefly and I was able to capture the essence of St. Anne's renewed grandeur from the air with a smidge of blue sky in the background.

There are still a plethora of options and abilities that the machine has that I haven’t yet got my head round and the controller requires such precise movements that I’d love to hear from operators who’ve actually managed this whilst wearing a pair of gloves. After 30 minutes flying, my fingers were almost white.

Sport mode is a feature that I’m unlikely ever to use (the previous one buried itself in the top of a tree with all obstacle avoidance enabled and then fell into a river and sank) as I’m terrified of this one getting drowned too. It’s not the hardware I’m overly concerned about because I use flycovered.com to insure it, but as I found, if I’ve shot some great once in a lifetime footage and the dinky micro sd card never makes it back into my grubby mits, then all is for nought.

On the flip side though, the bloomin’ thing is amazing. It’s ability to hover perfectly and capture perfect footage in windy conditions is incredible. Primarily I use a heavy £2000 Really Right Stuff tripod for still photography and there’s been really windy situations when I’ve had to anchor it to ensure a stable long exposure whilst the drone has been quite happily hovering perfectly nearby.

The latest software update now gives me the ability to plot a route but ice cold fingers prevented me from figuring that out last time out. Nor have a dared try Night mode yet. My biggest issue is that living so close to a busy international airport and the CAA’s very strict flying restrictions, I find it very difficult to find interesting yet safe places to play. Even whilst at 200ft over Salford Quays, I was getting warnings about the nearby grassy aerodrome which is a good 3 to 4 miles away (MIA was about 7 miles SE) and to be honest if a plane was at 300ft over the area, my pesky little drone would be the least of their worries! They’d be too busy bending over and kissing their tails goodbye to notice a “bird strike”!

Anyway, as this is my first post for a while (6 years!!??!) I’ll keep it brief. I’d hate for anything to think I was getting chatty….

Oh, and incidentally, lil' ol' me. I'm 5 foot 8. 

Got some idea now? Then swing by my galleries here and check out the prints. If you'd like more information regarding guarantees, delivery information and pricing, then swing by my FAQs page here.

Prints are available from as little as £29, and remember all prints come with a 100% satisfaction guarantee! 

In my previous post here, I shared with you my plans for a trek up to the Outer Hebrides for some photographic frolics.
Aside from it being a truly epic drive - I covered 1200 miles in 7 days, I encountered some absolutely stunning scenery and spent an entire week on my own devoted to filling my photographic boots.
I decided ahead of time, that I would make a point of recording an audio diary several times a day into Evernote for posterity and simple note taking.  On listening to it back, it’s a pleasant reminder of just how relaxed it was. There’s a term that I used regularly, “soul food”, and this is exactly what it was for me. Refreshing and revitalising.

Eigg
A delightful little place. According to the 2005 census, there were 87 inhabitants of the island and it only covers 12m2. There can be no more than 100 inhabitants now and there is one 3 mile asphalt road, though I saw no more than half a dozen cars on it the entire time I was there. With evidence of 8,000 years of a human presence, the island is steeped in history; aside from the effects of bronze and iron age farmers, Viking and Norse place-naming, and medieval massacres, the clearance of the crofters from the 1850s onwards has probably had the largest human influence on the island. Interesting though that is, the geology for me is far more impressive. In a somewhat topsy turvy manner, the oldest rock is at sea level and the highest point on the island, the Sgurr pichstone that you can see quite dramatically on arrival dominating the wee port, is the youngest - the remains of one of the last volcanic eruptions, the core of which now forms the stunning backdrop of the island of Rum. Sadly I didn’t make it up the Sgurr, nor did I manage to reach the north of the island - i just didn’t have time. But I did see the stunning Bay of Laig and the equally impressive Singing Sands, though were there any singing occurring, there’s absolutely no way I’d have heard it over the howling gale that accompanied me that day.

My digs for the couple of nights was the lovely Kildonnan House B&B, which incidentally I can highly recommend. The hostess, Marie, was absolutely lovely, the food terrific, the bedrooms clean and cozy, the views terrific and the peace and quiet quite beautiful.

Skye
On the 4th day, I jumped on the ferry back to the mainland in the afternoon, fired up a very cold and lonely looking motor and drove onto the ferry to Armadale on Skye where I was to meet a model for a sunset shoot. Always a bit unsure whether a pre-booked model is actually going to turn up or not, I was pleasantly surprised when not only was Liv waiting for me when I disembarked from the ferry, she also recommended a much better location than I’d planned and even arranged for a stunning sunset and calm enough conditions to get a small soft box up. In an hour from our arrival at the beach, we’d got through two costume changes, several lighting tweaks and had managed to nail an absolute bucketload of keepers. It’s a while now since I’ve had to dust of the ol’ SB900s, in fact I’ve never even done a model shoot with my Fuji X-T1, but with the benefit of my ageing PocketWizards, I was impressed at just how well the X-T1 performed, and more importantly how easily I managed to get everything working and dial it all in - there’s definitely something to be said for memory through repetition. I was absolutely over the moon at what we’d managed to achieve in such a short space of time and left to find my bed for the night on top of the world.

I’ve passed the odd shaped creation that is the Old Man of Storr several times, yet I’ve rarely seen it in the flesh. Every time it has either been obscured by mist or low cloud, or the rain has been so intense that it required total focus on the road. This time I was keen to make a concerted effort. I know it’s been done a thousand times before but I wanted to try something a little different, hopefully. I’d picked out a spot on the map that looked like it would do as a suitable overnight halt for another Disco kip and would only be a short drive to my shoot in the morning, but on arrival, way after dark, it was positively eery. Turning off the headlights, I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. There was no moonlight. There was no light of any description at all. It was marked on the OS map as a car park, though there can’t have been room for more than 3 or 4 cars and it was right next to what looked, in torchlight, like a metallic farm shed. Oh my God how that thing howled and clattered in the night. Several times I awoke in the night with a start convinced that the roof was going to blow off and squash poor little me underneath it. Fortunately, obviously, it didn’t and I awoke in the morning at the allotted alarm time in the cold half-light of the early pre-dawn, made a brew, did a little jig to try and warm up and headed off. True to form, not only was my planned location going to be completely impossible to reach, but nor were the heavens going to provide me with anything like ideal conditions. Still, I did the best I could and set off to catch the boat to Harris.

Harris
The island of Harris is an altogether different kettle of fish. In fact, it’s technically not even an island at all as it is actually joined to the Isle of Lewis by a strip of land less than ½ mile across. The North-West side of the island is home to some of the most spectacular beaches in Britain with vast golden sandy beaches stretching into the distance abounded by dunes and tall grasses. This contrasts with the South-East which contains some of the oldest rocks on the planet weighing in at 3 thousand million years old and has a lunar-esque feel to it. One thing it isn’t is short of photographic opportunities. Another is horizontal driving rain. And cloud. Definitely got more than their fare share of that too. But inclement weather aside, it’s definitely a place I’d go back too, and there aren’t many - the world’s too small and I haven't seen enough of it yet.

And so other than make photographs, did I conclude anything else of note? Well yes, a couple of things. The first is that the Discovery is great for turning into a bed for the night. There's acres of space in the back and it saves the time and effort of having to find a suitable pitch and then try and erect a tent. Obviously it wouldn't really work up Scafell, but for a run 'n' gun trip, it's ideal. 

And the second is that Sugru is a marvel. I've long felt that buttons on the X-T1 are simply too small for cold or gloved hands, in fact they're too small for just about anyone with bigger fingers than a toddler. Until I stumbled across Matt Brandon's post and now my world is much much better! 

Until next time.

N

I know I've been quiet for a while, but there's been a lot going on, not enough of which has been photography related! The first couple of weeks of March were cleared in the diary for the Photo Guild's  10 day trip to Iceland which I was to assist in leading. Sadly, it became quite apparent early on that the shorter 6 day tour was going to sell out quickly, whilst the longer tour that I would be helping with wasn't going to hit the minimum sign-ups.
So, as the diary had been deliberately cleared and child care arrangements made, I decided to make good use of the time and began to make plans to head up to the Highlands of Scotland again, this time venturing a little further afield.
I spent weeks and weeks carefully researching locales and making detailed plans, booking transport and accommodation. There were a couple of photographs that I hadn't been able to get on previous trips, the Old Man of Storr in particular, but I also wanted to venture further afield. 

My goals were threefold - shoot some more prints and general landscape loveliness, hook up with a model or two and shoot some book cover ideas on a beach somewhere for Arcangel and generally try and not to cram too much in so that I can be more in the moment, rather than constantly chasing the next one.

The itinerary consisted of a drive up to Mallaig, overnighting somewhere nearby grabbing a sunset along the way. Dawn would find me on the banks of Loch Morar and then I'd secure the wheels for a couple of days and then jump on the ferry to Eigg where I'd spend two days and nights exploring on foot and getting tons of keepers. From there, I'd sail back to Mallaig, fire up the wheels and jump on the boat to Armadale on Skye. Hooking up with a local model, we'd grab sunset (though time would be tight) on a beach somewhere and then I'd overnight near the Old Man of Storr ready to shoot it at first light. Storr bagged, finally, it'd be up to Uig to catch the ferry to Tarbert on Harris. Kip there for a couple of nights getting some first class imagery on Luskentyre and Seilebost beaches amongst others, hop on the boat back to Uig, drive to a suitable sunrise location near Glencoe and park up for the night. The next morning, it'd be pink fluffy clouds, gorgeous early light, shoot, shoot, shoot and nail the remaining 300 miles home in time for tea.
I'd decided that the stars would align, the weather would be perfect and I'd have stunning conditions; a bucketload of optimism is often very helpful when planning photography trips I find. At night, chances were, it was gonna be a wee bit windy and a tad parky out, so rather than cart the tent too, I opted for slumming it in the back of the Disco where it gets nothing like as cold and just took a sleeping mat and my awesome Rab sleeping bag.

In preparation, I made sure that all the research and ticketing information I'd spent weeks putting together in Evernote and the invaluable Ordnance Survey maps in GB Outdoors were all synced and available offline. Even though I was taking the car, I didn't want to load it up with all manner of lighting, props, kitchen sink etc. for two reasons; the first being that this car is so cavernous that if I fill it, I can never find anything without emptying the damn thing (not convenient at the side of a mountain track in the dark) and having too much gear creates indecision and missed opportunities whilst deliberating. So, photography-wise, I had my Clik Elite backpack stuffed to bursting with my Fuji ensemble, a couple of tripods, couple of SB900's and pocket wizards, a small Lastolite soft box and some home-made grids and stuff. Almost bare minimum......almost. That and a small bag of props for book cover shots, Jetboil, and some clean underwear and I was off.

The scenery up there is incredibly beautiful. And I'm so blessed that these stunning landscapes are all within the boundaries of my home country. That being said, it's a right effing slog! Even factoring in queues at security, check-ins, bag checks, waiting for luggage on carousels and slow traffic, I reckon I could have been waiting for sunset on Jökulsárlón in about half the time.....

Oh, and by the way. All these prints and more are up on my print gallery site available as prints, framed prints or even metallic prints here - http://prints.neilalexander.net. I'm still wading through them and I've a few more to post over the coming weeks.

And finally, my tour of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland with M&M Photo Tours in June is filling nicely. If you'd like to see and shoot some of this delightful scenery for yourself, then check out the itinerary here. Note that for UK based participants (ie those not needing flights), the price is significantly reduced but you'll have to email myself or Mike at M&M for more details. Use either neil@neilalexander.net or mikeg@mmphototours.com for more info.

More next time.

N

Simple enough, all you have to do is tell me where I pitched my tent the last time I went wild camping in the Lakes.
I'll give you a clue: the answer is in this blog somewhere......

Simply send your answer in an email over to neil@neilalexander.net by midnight GMT on Monday 25th Jan and I’ll pick the winner at random on Tuesday morning so that you can have the calendar on your wall by the beginning of February.

To double your chances, share this post on social media with the hashtag #NeilsLakesCalendar

As it turns out, photographically 2015 was not a particularly productive year for me. Too many distractions and demands on my time from elsewhere (read more about that here) but my extended self-imposed break over the Christmas holidays has given me the time to do some soul searching and think about what I want the future to hold and where I aim to be this time next year.

I’m firmly of the opinion that without targets, goals and aims, that we just tend to coast along, like a piece of driftwood bobbing aimlessly around the ocean. Eventually it’ll end up on a beach somewhere, but it could be absolutely anywhere. Personally, I’d rather it be somewhere nice and toasty like the Maldives rather than with all the other excrement washed upon Blackpool shores but without any guidance it could even be somewhere near Pyongyang.
My other issue is time. Being the parent that does the school run, prepares the packed lunches, cooks dinner every night, and supervises homework for two lively primary school aged kids, my working hours are limited to around 4 or 5 hours a day. And when I try to fit too much in, I get overly stressed at my inability to accomplish the tasks that I set myself for that shortened working period. I’m the worst for trying to spread myself too thin and as a result, I never really get to focus on anything properly and feel like I only ever do a half-arsed job on most things.

I’ve spent some time over the last few weeks listening to Susannah Conway and decided to pursue her exercise to pick a word for 2016 to act as my guiding light and keep me focused. 
Whilst resolutions work for me for the first few weeks of a new year in general, more often than not by the time February rolls around, they're a dim and distant memory and my good intentions have often fallen by the wayside. A single word that I can fall back on, I feel will stand me in much better stead and will remind me of all my good intentions at the stroke of a hat.
So after an inexorable period of deliberation, I’ve chosen the word Revitalise for my word for 2016, which according to my dictionary means "to give new life to. to give new vitality or vigor to.”. I’ve created a folder full of desktop wallpapers for my Mac to rotate through, I’m in the process of creating a poster to go on my office wall with it on, and I’ve even had a mug made with the word on. This way, there’s far more chance of my abiding by my New Year’s plans.

Whilst I’m not a great believer in self-help books, I’ve recently stumbled upon Lewis Howes “School of Greatness” podcast and book and it’s really helped me with focusing on how I need to revitalise my life and business. As I write this, I’m on day 13 of “Dry January” - I’ve not had an alcoholic drink or a smoke since New Year and I’m forcing myself to find the time for daily exercise and even learning how to meditate using Andy Puddicombe’s Headspace app.  And I don’t think I’ve ever felt better or more optimistic about the year ahead.

However, in the interests of focus and not spreading myself too thin (which I excel at doing - the old expression “Jack of all trades, master of none” springs to mind), some things are going to have to give. If there’s one thing that takes up vast swathes of my time, it’s this blog. I estimate that on an average week, it probably takes me 3 or 4 hours to get a post out - writing, re-writing, re-writing again, adding images, releasing and then promoting. That’s about a fifth of my working week and for the next 2 to 3 months at least, I’m going to devote that time to revitalising myself. I shan’t be disappearing completely. I am going to aim for a post a month rather than one a week and already I feel relieved and less stressed about it. Quality rather than quantity right?

But in the meantime, you can always catch me on Twitter, Google+ or Instagram.

So what does the year ahead have lined up for you then? There’s a big comments box below for you to pen your thoughts - please make use of it 😃

Until next time.
Neil

Now that we’re back into the swing of things, it’s about time I reflected on how far I’ve come in the last 12 months and some of the photographs I've made. I know that many people, photographers that I follow in particular, tend to do this at the end of the year, but for me the Christmas holiday break is all about family and friends, lots of relaxing, drinking, eating and unfettered laziness. I much prefer to do my reflection on the previous year once the new one has just started, the little cherubs are back at school and normal service is resumed.

There were a couple of key changes to my circumstances last year which, looking at Lightroom’s stats, resulted in a drastically reduced image count. The first and by far the biggest disruption was moving house. This happened in May which resulted in a near zero count for a couple of months and as the place we’ve moved to has required a significant amount of work, some of which I’ve done myself and the rest I’ve had to co-ordinate with plumbers, builders, decorators, carpet fitters etc etc, the opportunities to head out and shoot were drastically reduced. Evenings and weekends, which are my key times to make photographs consisted of more DIY in a few months than I think I’ve done in my entire life! And there’s still a veritable shedload to do. But it’s been equally rewarding as much as it’s been frustrating. The new house is a dream and in the few short months that we’ve been here, it’s become a bit of a party haven. As an added bonus, I now have a dedicated man cave office cum studio. It took a while to get it fitted out and set up as I wanted it but I now have a roll of white seamless suspended from the ceiling. I have enough room to leave lights and small sets out and shoot simple portraits or still life’s to my heart’s content. I only managed to finish this off just before Christmas and it really came into it’s own shooting group shots of the kids and all their cousins on Christmas day.

I’ve even had storage built for most of my vinyl and got the ol’ 1s and 2s set up again, though I’ve had very little chance to use them and I’ve hours ahead trying to sort all those 12”s out into some kind of order.

The second and equally relevant change was my shift to Fuji. Whilst I really love my Nikons they’re starting to get a little dated, and as I become more dated, I’m noticing the weight more and more, the lenses in particular. Sporting a fully laden backpack with two bodies, five lenses, and all the other assorted trinkets really begins to take its toll on my ageing spine if I walk any particular distance. So one of the main reasons I chose to jump into the Fuji brand was because of the size and weight. I’m not getting any younger and nor is my back. One thing that became very quickly apparent was that I seem to take far fewer frames with the Fuji gear compared to the Nikon. When I sit down and try and figure out why this is I think that the reason is twofold; the first is the clarity on the LCD screen on the back of the camera - it’s just so much easier to read and use than it was on my Nikons and I can tell very quickly whether I have tack sharp images or not. This could be partially to do with my failing eyesight but I’ve also found that one of the main limitations of the Fujis has forced me to think more when I shoot. With the Nikons at the single press of a button I could get them to shoot and nine bracket sequence. However the Fuji only allows a maximum of three in one go. I could dial the exposure compensation to +3 and -3 stops and still get the nine frames that I was looking for but I tend not to do this now. If it is a seriously contrasty scene that requires extremes of exposure, then I tend to dial in the brackets manually, probably shooting +3, 0 and -3. In other words only a third of the number of images. I do this quite a bit.

Another contributing factor to my reduced frame count was that I did very few timelapse sequences last year compared to 2014, partly due to the afore mentioned time constraints but it also took me quite a while to figure out how to do this with my X-T1.

However a far bigger contributing factor than any of the above is that I’ve been in a bit of funk for a few months. With all the disruption and stuff, I really began to feel like I was losing my mojo in a big way. In fact it got to the point just before Christmas that I got so concerned about my creative state of mind that I started to invest a great deal of time working out how I get myself out of this hole. Having given myself a right good talking to, happily, I finally feel like I’m beginning to come out the other side, but more on that next week.

How's your year been? Are you in a better place than you were this time last year? Feel free to comment below

Short and sweet this week. Only a couple of days until school breaks up for Christmas and I close up shop for a couple of weeks. Whilst my kids are now at an age where they don't really need constant supervision any more, I still find that my levels of productivity fall off the charts when they're at home.  So this year, I've decided that I'm going to completely down tools for the holidays. That doesn't mean that I shan't have a camera in my hands for the entire break or that I'll avoid heading out into the hills but I'm not taking any commercial bookings, there'll be no stock library uploads and no new fine art prints released. It's been a testing few months one way or another and I'm really looking forward to a self-enforced break!

Oh, and the photos? They're from Higger Tor in the Peak District a few days ago. Conditions weren't exactly ideal and I had another decidedly inconsiderate photographer plonk himself slap bang in the middle of my scene. No amount of wildly gesticulating or shouting got his attention even though I was wearing my bright orange Arc'teryx jacket.

In retrospect, I could quite easily clone him out in Photoshop but in all honesty I think that he adds a bit of an anchor and some scale to the images. So I'll keep him in after all!

Both images shot on Fujis, tweaked in Lightroom and then further processed in Photoshop and Color Efex 4.

Saving location information, for me, is one of the keys to successful landscape and travel photography. The ability to dive right into a possible spot on a map and instantly pull up saved images and location information can be a huge time saver and save a great deal of frustration trying to find relevant information in amongst an illegible and unintelligible notebook, which is where I used to save this info. For many years I have extolled the virtues of Evernote to anyone that would listen but after a major change to the software some years ago, it has been pretty useless for pulling up relevant information based on a map view. Yes, you can geo-tag notes, add photos and thoughts but using the Atlas view has long been a complete waste of time because some genius at Evernote decided that being able to only view specific notes on a map was an irrelevant feature.

I use Evernote as a surrogate memory and filing system. I run a totally paperless office and home. Everything is scanned into Evernote and then shredded so I have notebooks for everything from school clothing receipts, boiler repair information, client invoices, business expenses, saved tech tips, the list is endless. And whilst going on for 8,000 notes are all carefully filed and tagged, they all appear in the Atlas view making searching for notes from a specific notebook only very difficult. I have a notebook, imaginatively titled “Locations” and in here are around 1000 geo-tagged notes with ideas from all over the world. The majority are dreadful iPhone snapshots - I’ve been somewhere, the conditions have been pants but I’ve seen something that could, emphasis on the could, make a decent photo at some point in the future or I’ve worked a composition until I’ve exhausted ideas but still not come away with what I was looking for and felt that it needed a re-visit. Or maybe it’s a place I’ve hurtled by in the car or on a train and decided that further investigation at a later date could be efficacious. They’re an assortment of personal memory joggers, selfies, street scenes and landscapes. Most are untitled. I’m also a prolific reader of newspapers and magazines, online and offline and have saved many many details of places that I’d love to visit and shoot, carefully adding GPS data to them all.
So I’ve been diligently storing this information but without a reliable way to retrieve it. Even using some advanced search criteria (for example: notebook:"Locations" resource:image/* latitude:53 -latitude:54 longitude:-3 -longitude:-2 ) proves to be decidedly unreliable. That was until I discovered an iOS only app titled “IdeaPlaces”.  http://www.ideaplaces.com/
It's essentially the missing link between Evernote and mapping but where it comes into it’s own is that you can set it to display only one Evernote notebook, associated content can be saved for offline use, you can set location based reminders, share data, update data and have it sync back to Evernote and much much more. There’s Dropbox integration too if you prefer to work that way.
Using the app, I can travel to any place and see only the data I’ve saved that’s relevant to the area I’m in and I can also plan routes much more easily.

So now that I’ve had this revelation, what is my workflow for getting my images out of Lightroom and into IdeaPlaces? Well it’s slightly convoluted initially but now that I’ve caught up with the backlog the process should be significantly streamlined.

1 - The first step is to create a published service in Lightroom that, on publish, will dump a bunch of relatively low res images into a folder. (640px. Low res. Maintain exif)
2 - Next, I trawled through around 38K images that had GPS data in the Exif and added them to this service.
3 - Hit Publish

4 - Quick check - Open couple of sample images in preview, then show inspector > More Info > GPS - check has data
5 - Find images in finder, select all and right click > open in > Evernote.
6 - Wait until all new notes have synced.
7 - Delete images from folder
8 - In Evernote, move all new notes into Locations notebook
9 - Open up the IdeaPlaces app and wait for the data to sync.
10 - Boom! Completely searchable map view with stacks of data.

One of the biggest problems I have now, is that it transpires quite a chunk of the GPS data is inaccurate. I guess this is because either the phone hasn’t updated it’s location quickly enough when I’ve been snapping or because I’ve edited it in another app a few miles down the road and it’s been tagged at this new location, so I’ve a bit of pain to go through and manually update those locations I feel are incorrect. But going forward as a resource, it’s absolutely brilliant.

And even better, I can share all my lovely data with you too dear reader. As I continue to add to this data stream with new gems, I’ll keep my notebook updated. All you need is an Evernote account and the IdeaPlaces app, you can then subscribe to my Locations notebook here and use this data for yourselves. Obviously I can’t share third party copyrighted data in this folder, so sadly I’ll have to create another notebook specifically for my own use, but I’ll keep adding my own images on those I find on the internet that I can use under Creative Commons to share with you. 

Use this link to view the Evernote notebook - https://www.evernote.com/pub/neilalexanderd/locations

Caveat: Whilst I have been through the majority of the 850 locations I’ve already saved, I’m not guaranteeing complete accuracy. So please double check first and don’t blindly walk off the edge of a cliff or into a boggy swamp and then try and blame me!

If there's any particular places you'd like me to add or if you want to reciprocate then please comment below or drop me an email - neil@neilalexander.net

1 - Eric Kim - http://erickimphotography.com/blog/

At the tender age of 27, Eric is a prolific California based street photographer and blogger. In fact, he puts out so much great content, that I doubt the lad ever sleeps! His site contains oodles of tutorials, ebooks, tips, reviews and links all revolving around the art of street photography. He’s also quite a philosophical chap for his age and his blog reflects this in a big way.

2 - Chase Jarvis - http://blog.chasejarvis.com/blog/
With numerous awards and high end advertising campaigns under his belt, Chase is arguably one of the most influential photographers of the last decade. I first came across the self-taught Seattle based photographer, director, artist and entrepreneur in 2008 when he launched the world’s first HDdSLR for Nikon. I then watched him go on to do a series of YouTube videos called Chase Jarvis Live in which he interviewed inspirational photographers and business minds, mixed with live music from up and coming bands such as We Are Augustines and Band of Horses. His blog portrays a glamorous life, shooting from helicopters, and working with huge production teams, that he has worked extremely hard to achieve.   It’s a very glam blog and well worth following.

3 - Brian Matiash - https://matiash.com/blog/
Brian is landscape and travel photographer based in Portland, Oregon. I came across his work when he used to work for Nik software and subsequently with Google when they bought out Nik. Aside from some damn good photographs, his blog also provides tips, tutorials, presets, textures and eBooks.

4 - Nigel Harniman - http://www.harniman.com/blog/
I simply follow Nigel’s blog because I love his photography, his car stuff in particular. The Worcester based advertising photographer has a very bright and punchy style which I really love and some of his back stories are rather entertaining. From his site: "wheeled objects with or without engines are part of life! Here cars and photography collide.”

5 - FStoppers - http://fstoppers.com
- Fstoppers is an online community aimed at educating and inspiring photographers, videographers, and creative professionals.  Started in 2010 by founders Patrick Hall and Lee Morris, Fstoppers has grown into one of the top resources for photography lighting, gear reviews, business tips, behind the scenes, and industry news.
Whilst the content is generally very mainstream, I find it extremely informative and much better curated than the other sites in this field such as PetaPixel. Packed full of reviews, tips, behind the scenes, great photography and general photography news, it’s well worth adding to your RSS reader.

6 - Steve McCurry - http://stevemccurry.com/blog
A Magnum photographer since 1986, Steve McCurry is a living legend. He began his career as an editorial photographer sneaking into Afghanistan before the Russian army arrived and then being smuggled back out again with rolls and rolls of film sewn into his clothing. For a man with that hunger and the photographic skills that he posses, stunning imagery is the inevitable result.
One of his most widely recognised images is that of the Afghan girl with the incredible eyes, and he’s won more awards than I’ve space for.  “Most of my images are grounded in people. I look for the unguarded moment, the essential soul peeking out, experience etched on a person’s face. I try to convey what it is like to be that person, a person caught in a broader landscape, that you could call the human condition.”

7 - Feature Shoot - http://www.featureshoot.com/
Feature Shoot showcases the work of international emerging and established photographers who are transforming the medium through compelling, cutting-edge projects. Started in 2008 Feature Shoot has now amassed an archive of over 3,000 posts of exceptional photography from around the globe and provides a regular stream of fantastic inspiration. With contributing writers from all over the world and a wide range of interests, they feature contemporary work in all genres of photography: fine art, documentary, portrait, still life, landscape and more.

8 - Lenscratch - http://lenscratch.com/
LENSCRATCH is a daily journal that explores contemporary photography and offers opportunities for exposure and community. Created in 2007, Aline Smithson set a goal of writing about a different photographer each day, presenting work in a way that allows for a deeper understanding of a photographer’s intent and vision. Since its inception, LENSCRATCH has featured the work of thousands of photographers and has provided a platform to launch numerous portfolios.

9 - 70° West - http://70degreeswest-explore.com/
Centred less on photography, but with stunning imagery nonetheless, 70° West is an environmental photo-documentary project illustrating the impact our modern world has on the imaginary line that traverses the glove from pole to pole.
"Realising the vulnerability of habitats and cultures along a line of longitude demonstrates a fraction of a larger truth: the natural world and cultural ways of life are endangered on a global level. We live on a planet of unparalleled beauty that has given rise to a place of magic and wonder. Though human beings posses a wealth of wisdom for extraordinary and exceptional creativity and transformation, we are simultaneously drawing from the force that gives us life, our natural world.”
The intent of the blog is to raise global awareness of cultures and environments by capturing the extreme landscape as it changes from ice sheets to Amazonian forests while giving a voice to the battles each region faces both environmentally and socially. Through photography and written narratives, this project will broadcast essential information in order to preserve the habitats, cultures, diversity and richness of life on Earth.

10 - National Geographic Great Energy Challenge - http://news.nationalgeographic.com/energy/
Energy is an issue that touches every person on the planet. That's why National Geographic has launched the Great Energy Challenge. "It convenes and engages influential citizens and key energy stakeholders in solutions-based thinking and dialogue about our shared energy future.” Whatever that means!
It's a call to action to become actively involved, to learn more and do more—to change how we think about and consume energy so that we can all help tackle the big energy questions.
National Geographic has assembled some of the world's foremost researchers and scientists to help address the challenge. Led by Thomas Lovejoy, a National Geographic conservation fellow and renowned biologist, the team of advisors will work together to identify and provide support for projects focused on innovative energy solutions.

So there you go. That's my top 10 photography related blogs. Have I missed any key players? Which ones do you follow?

Until next week.

Photo tours really are one of the highlights of my job. Essentially I get to share my passion for photography with a group of eager travellers hungry to soak up the aura of a foreign land, a stunningly beautiful one at that. Sharing my knowledge of photography and trying to assist the guests in not making some of the horrendous or ridiculously stupid mistakes I’ve made over the years are an equally rewarding part of the job. We eat and drink well, get to sleep in comfy beds and are chaperoned by extremely knowledgable local guides and drivers. Whilst the landscape on it’s own is stunning, add to that some background history of the battles between land owners, clans and foreign invaders, and you get immersed in a vivid image of how these parts once were and how man has learnt to adapt to the harsh environment.

Months, if not years, have gone into the planning of this trip and it’s been tweaked slightly from last year to allow us to spend a little more time around Glenshiel and Loch Ness.
You can find a full itinerary and details here. But please note, the cost listed on the site includes international air-fares and transfer fees etc.. If like me, it’s just a short train journey or car drive, and you don’t need air fares, then the cost is much less at $4500 which at the time of posting came in at just under £3000. Which is a pretty damn good deal. Places can be reserved with a small deposit and I'll be happy to try and answer any questions you'd like to ask. Hit me in the comments below, by email at neil@neilalexander.net or just pick up the phone - 07802 280660

"The photography locations were amazing!” Marsha - M&M Scotland 2015 guest.

Oh and before I sign off, all the images below were taken in the areas the tour covers and all are now available as prints and canvases in my Hills & Mountains gallery.

If you’ve not been following me on my most recent journey up to the natural wonder that is the Lake District, then I suggest you swing by part one here first.

Whilst I dried off and warmed up over a really average breakfast at the Wetherspoons in Keswick, I pondered my plans for the coming evening. My pre- trip planning had centred around two possible hikes and pitches for my tent for the night based upon the locations for sunset and then sunrise the next day. The first option was up and around the Langdale Pikes and the other was up to Swirl How. As I sat in the warmth watching the rain relentlessly pouring down outside, I fired up TPE (The Photographer’s Ephemeris) on my iPad and did some more research. I concluded, whilst chewing on a lukewarm fry up, that Swirl How would be a better bet but having climbed neither of these routes, I was entirely reliant on my boy scout map reading skills. 

I arrived at the top of Wrynose Pass about 1:30 in the afternoon and parked up. The horizontal rain was still hitting hard. I ummed and ahhed for a while in the warmth of the car and made myself a brew. Finally plucking up the courage to head out. I figured that I couldn't bottle it now without at least giving it a try.

So once again, waterproofed up to the max, I set off. From what I’d read, the first part was probably going to be the trickiest for me. On a sunny day in June, a 4 year old would probably have scampered off into the distance, but carrying a 30kg rucksack in horizontal rain, I was forced to take my time. The rocks were very slippy and on more than one occasion I startled myself with the feeling of toppling backwards. And it would’ve been a long and rather painful descent, probably headfirst.

About half way up to the first cairn a chap on his own caught me up and we had a brief chat. He was unsure as to the weather on the tops, but was hoping with altitude it would clear. Me too but at that point I was having some serious misgivings. Two thoughts powered me on; the thought of climbing back down the way I’d come in these conditions terrified me,  and I couldn’t bear living with myself if I didn’t give it more of an effort. So I climbed on and on. Regularly consulting the GPS on my phone I knew I was on the right track. Foolhardy I may have been but I was not going to get lost. After passing a group of four gents on their way down, who either thought I was mad or stupid, or maybe both, I was caught up once again by another chap on his own. Even though by this stage, we really had to be stood right next to each other and shouting at the tops of our voices to be heard, we did manage to have a lengthy conversation. It’s great to hear how much this fantastic piece of countryside, to which we’re all free to ramble across as we please, brings so much pleasure and enjoyment to others, no matter what the conditions. In Phoebe Smith’s book on wild camping, which inspired me to make this trip, she details how on arriving at the wee bothy on the top of Ben Nevis, she was horrified to find it littered with rubbish - 2 bin bags full in fact that she single handedly brought down off the mountain. I am pleased to recant that all I came across were a few bits of discarded toilet roll from place to place, but I am sorry to say, that no, I could not bring myself to collect it up. I was having a hard enough time as it was.  

After what seemed like an eternity bent double in the wind, I reached the summit. But by crikey it was blowy. There was no way I could pitch my tent here and expect it still to be intact by morning. I parted company with my most recent travelling companion, sought a spot of shelter behind some rocks and pondered my next move. By now it was around 4pm and sunset was due in under two hours.  Clearly my first night wild camping was not going to go quite according to plan. In anticipation of this though, I’d been on the lookout for suitable spots to shoot and make camp on the way up and had found quite a decent site about 1/2km back down by Hell Gill Pike. Forcing myself back to my feet and back into the wind I set off again.

Soon afterwards I found myself in a relatively sheltered spot where I thought my tent would be safe, I would be in a great spot for sunset and if my calculations were correct, I’d be able to see the rising sun from my tent door in the morning. The tent erection wasn’t as fraught in the wind as I feared it might be, helped as it was with the use of several rocks to prevent it flying off down the hillside whilst I tried to get poles and pegs and stuff in. Once up, I threw everything bar my camera gear in the tent and wandered over to the other side of the col, back into the wind, to see what I could see of the setting sun. The view was stunning, the orange glow of the sun was perfectly visible above the tops of the hills but just below the level of the cloud line. Perfect (Big smiley face!). I shot until the light show had finished and I could no longer feel my fingers though unfortunately it was simply too windy for long exposures which would have been my preference here.

Feeling somewhat peckish it was time to make myself some dinner and settle in for the night. For about the first twenty minutes of sitting in my tent with my little head torch providing the only light, I could barely see a thing. After removing my waterproofs, the steam coming from my thermals was phenomenal. And once I’d set my JetBoil stove going, it was rather like being in a total white out. Dinner certainly wasn’t Michelin starred but it did the job. 

At some point during the night, I’d hoped that the clouds would lift for long enough to allow me to get the obligatory "tent in the hills with a starry background at night shot”. But the whole sleeping thing turned out to be a bit of a problem. I was paranoid that my tent was going to come detached from the ground and launch me and it down the 100m drop just feet from my tent door as the wind had by now picked up even more. The constant buffeting prevented sleep from coming until late by which time, a large proportion of my hip flask had been consumed. 

So my night's sleep could best be described as fitful! I poked my head out a couple of times but alas neither rain nor clouds had subsided. 

As sunrise was due just before 8am, I set my alarm for 6:30 to allow me to get a tent shot and so I'd have time to make a coffee before things got lively. Upon waking  (for about the 34th time that night) I unzipped the tent and popped my head out. I was horrified to see the sky already turning a lovely pink. I looked at my watch again. It was only 6:30. Sunrise was 90 minutes away. What was going on? 

Without further ado, I threw on some clothes, sorry, lots of clothes, grabbed my camera gear and dived out the tent. Totally unprepared, and somewhat confused I shot as much as I could before the pink and orange disappeared along with any sign of the little yellow globe. Sunrise done and panic over, it finally dawned on me that the clocks had changed during the night and we were no longer on BST. How could I have overlooked the time change????

Metaphorically and physically kicking myself, I nailed some breakfast, JetBoiled some fresh coffee and began to break camp. Now I just had to attempt the climb back down that had had me petrified the day before. I'd drunk as much fluids as I could and eaten as much of the food I'd brought to lighten the load a little, and the first part of the hike down was a piece of cake, almost enjoyable. As I began to approach the part where the path split and I was due to head down, I overshot. Doubling back, somehow I ended up on a different path down and was back at the car before I knew it.   

Elated that I'd actually done it and survived, I must have sat in the car for about an hour before firing up the Disco and pointing her homewards. What a blast I'd had, and thank you, thank you, thank you to Phoebe Smith for being such an inspiration.

Oh and the photos? Well Saturday night's images were definitely worth it. Sunday morning's not so much.

Have you ever tried camping in the wild? 

The weekend just gone I was up in the Lake District again but with a slightly different plan than usual. I really do love it up here but sadly I just don’t make it up as often as I’d like.
I get so little time in this glorious corner of our wee Isles that I often tend to shoot from the side of the road but I’ll also happily walk a mile or two to make a photo.  I’ve never really been a massive fell walker. I’m not a Wainwright collector that’s for sure and in the past, it’s often felt like time spent walking is time not shooting, so I’ve tended to plan all my locations with ease of access in mind. That was until this weekend.

I’ve been reading Phoebe Smith’s Wild Camping experiences, in particular her 3 Peaks Sleeps Challenge for which she has this hair-brained scheme to hike up Snowdon, Scafell Pike and Ben Nevis and kip on the top. It’s a fascinating series of tales which leaves one thinking that she really is completely bonkers.But it did get me thinking. Surely my chances of getting better photos of the Lakes' peaks would be significantly improved were I to be  a) up much higher and b) in position for both the sun setting and rising the next morning.
In fact so inspired by her was I, that I spent days and days planning a trip high up into the wilderness to try and see if the photos I could make were significantly better than those I regularly make much lower down. I’m no stranger to camping. Did it regularly as a young ‘un and as a family we’re huge fans though mostly our gear is for fairly moderate weather.

A quick inventory of my gear showed that I had pretty much everything I’d need for a solo trip, save a much warmer sleeping bag and a pretty substantial rucksack to carry everything I’d need. But as I tried to “test” pack a couple of days before leaving, I started to get a bit panicky. My pack, containing my Vango Beta 250 two man tent, sleeping bag & matt, stove, food, water, torch, waterproofs, and some camera gear came in at just under 30kgs and felt extremely awkward on my back. And even then I was concerned that I hadn’t enough supplies.

I was to go for two nights but the closer it came to departure date, the worse the forecast got. This eased my apprehensions slightly. I decided that as this was to be my first “wild camp” I’d only spend one night actually under canvas and the other night in the car.

Leaving home just after midday on the Friday, I was in the car park for the climb to Alcock Tarn, my planned sunset location that evening, by mid-afternoon. I sat in the car for 30 minutes or so munching on sausage rolls and biscuits whilst the rain hammered down relentlessly. Once satiated I decided that I needed to get my backside out of the car and up the hill, whatever the weather - it would be better higher up, right? Donning full waterproofs and with water pouring off the rain cover on my Clik Elite backpack I hiked up the hill. Not a particularly difficult walk, I was up there inside an hour, which gave me a good couple of hours to decide on my composition for the upcoming setting of the sun. But it didn’t happen really. I eventually climbed up behind the tarn a bit and settled myself on a little mound surrounded by tall bracken and bold sheep. The banks of cloud just kept rolling on up the valley. One minute I could see right across it to the Pike of Blisco and the Tilberthwaite Fells, the next I could barely see the edge of the water just a few feet below me. The sun was only notable by it’s complete absence. Climbing back down the slippery stone path in utter darkness, my little Petzl head torch helping to keep me from falling on my touche, I wrote the evening off and vowed to move on to Saturday’s dawn location.

I headed over to Derwentwater, all my wet gear stuffed into the passenger footwell with the heater on full, my plan being to shoot some of the jetties over the smooth early morning water, and parked up for the night. Driving a car the size of my ageing Discovery does have it’s many advantages as well as many dis-advantges; Sainsburys car park can be a real pain in the bum, but it is plenty big enough for me to lie the back seats down and get a comfortable night’s sleep, even with the rain hammering down on the roof all night.

Awaking to the sound of my alarm at 6:30, I peered out into the gloom to find it still raining aplenty. But I didn’t came all this way just to be beaten by a few spots of water. Gearing up again in full waterproofs I headed out to the lake shore. But it just didn’t stop. It was relentless and whilst I’m comfortable using rain hoods or even shower caps to keep stuff dry in a mild drizzle, keeping everything, in fact anything, completely dry in such torrential conditions was just too much. When the water is pouring off your hood right into the camera’s viewfinder, it makes it a little tricky to make photos. So I didn’t really get any great shots that morning either.

Back to the car, dry off, and find somewhere warm and dry for breakfast.

Then, it was time to select my route for my wild camp.
More next week....

There's even a live webcam here.

Check out some of the prints from this gallery here. Prices start at a mere £27.

Until next week.

N

In general, in photography, a shutter speed slower than a second is termed a “long exposure”, although the exact demarcation point varies from photographer to photographer. Personally, I class anything that's slower than hand-holding speed a long exposure. 

But why would you want to make a photograph with such a long exposure? Well the possibilities are many-fold. 

The ability to turn uninteresting relatively bland skies into long smooth banks of cloud or a lonely little waterfall into silky smooth watery arcs gives the photographer a great deal of artistic license. Long exposures can also be used to "remove" people in moderately busy urban scenes too. On a long exposure a person walking through a scene, assuming they're not crawling or have a light strapped to their head will simply not appear in a long exposure. 

Adding lights into the image offers up a whole load more options; light painting, car light trails, starry skies or even capturing the aurora borealis.

So just how do you go about achieving all this?

1. Use a tripod - The first and by far most important point is a stable platform for your camera. Whether it's sitting on a bean bag on a wall, a little gorillapod or a full blown tripod, the key is to making sure that the camera doesn't move even the slightest millimetre during the exposure. 

2. Lowest ISO - One of the problems with all digital cameras is that the longer the shutter is open and the darker the scene, the more "noise" the sensor will generate. The simplest solution is to set your camera to its lowest possible native ISO setting. Be warned that some cameras, many Nikons for example, have their lowest native ISO as 200. Forcing them lower than this can generate more noise than one would expect

3. Long exposure noise reduction - Most DSLRs have a feature that you can enable called "long exposure noise reduction" and many photographers swear by using this when shooting slow shutter speeds. I don't for two simple reasons; the first is that the in-camera noise reduction process generally takes the same amount of time as your original shutter speed again. Therefore a 5 minute exposure requires you to wait 10 minutes to see whether your shot worked or not and I'm an impatient kind of guy. And the second is that the noise reduction algorithims in the latest versions of most image processing software, like Adobe Lightroom 6, is now so good that it can often do a better job than the camera can. So why wait?

4. Compose and focus - So once you've decided what to photograph, the next step is to compose and lock in your focus. I'll set my focus using the camera's autofocus and then set it to manual so that it doesn't change again.

5. Add graduated filters - If you want to use graduated filters to darken down the sky a little then now is the time to add them and get them in the right spot.

6. Make a test exposure - Now make a trial photograph and check your histogram. Adjust your settings if necessary. Also look at your white balance settings. Very long exposures can tend towards blue in colour and feel very cold. Either set a manual white balance now, or be prepared to adjust this in your processing.

7. Add ND filters - If you plan on using an ND filter (which is essentially just a piece of slightly opaque glass or plastic) to give you an even longer exposure then now is the time to pop it on. With my 10 stop B&W ND filter, it is impossible for me to see anything through the viewfinder once the filter is on so its always best to compose and focus first. Once it’s on, I manually adjust the exposure depending on the strength of the filter I am using. There’s plenty of apps to help you with the maths but the wee chart below doesn’t require a great deal of knowledge of rocket science to work out. Rather than using ND filters, it is possible to adjust your camera to it’s narrowest possible aperture to give you a slower shutter speed but this I find problematic; if my composition demands a wider DOF, then I simply can’t use a really narrow aperture. Also, from experience, I can assure you that every last little spec of dust that your gear has inhaled will show up as really pronounced dust spots all over your image. I’ve had many completely unusable photographs doing this and learnt the hard way.

8. Shutter triggering - Next you need to know how you are going to trigger your shutter. Obviously actually pressing the button is going to induce movement in your camera. Even if you’ve the most delicate touch, this is definitely a sure fire way to blurry images at long shutter speeds. Your options are to either use the camera’s self-timer - most go as low as a second or two’s delay, or use a cable release. Cable releases can either be wired or wireless and go from less than £10 to over £100.

9. Cover viewfinder - A common problem in long exposure photography is light entering through the viewfinder. This can cause all manner of issues from inaccurate exposure readings to purple or magenta streaks in your image. That little piece of plastic that was over the viewfinder window when you bought your camera does actually serve a purpose. If you chucked it out along with all the packing, then you need to swing by eBay and get yourself another one or improvise with a spot of duct tape.

10. Protect filter set from light glare - If you are shooting into the sun and have a filter or two on then you are almost guaranteed to get sun flares on your image. Whilst they may look pretty initially, you really don't want them in your image. If it's not possible to shield the front element from the sun, then you may have to make several different images with and without an attempt to protect from flares and merge them in Photoshop later

Now with all that knowledge, go shoot some long exposures and please share them in the comments section below. I’d love to see what you come up with.