about

Hi there.  I’m Peter Scargill and this is my photography blog. I expect it will fill up with photos and articles about taking photos and of course, today about AI “art” tools and results – for example photo tools for modern Android and IOS Smartphones, PCs and more. Don’t expect to see Mac coverage though. I don’t do Mac or anything Apple – never have – just personal choice.

Also I’m having fun with AI art packages. I make no special attempt to follow strict norms of professional photography – I do what works for me. I’ve made the odd public folder on Google Photos – my photos here and here will hopefully speak for themselves.

So – why would you want to take advice from a stranger? Bear with me and I will explain. I am 68 years old in 2023 and first took an interest in SLR (single lens reflex) photography when I was in my early teens.

I got quite fanatical about photography at the time, I had a little darkroom with photo enlarger and I had a very friendly local chemist who was kind enough to sell me all the chemicals I needed to make up my own developer and fixer solutions. Being on a budget I had a thing about taking monochrome (black and white) picture using surplus Ilford film and was lucky enough to get my hands on large reels which lasted me for ages.

I recall taking my new Pentax along to the photograph club in Tynemouth (Northumberland, UK) to the dismay of a bunch of old boys who did not seem too impressed that a youngster would want to join their club. Set in their ways, they did the same old stuff every meeting and were not that open to new ideas. The first competition I entered, I won some kind of prize but that wasn’t enough to keep me interested in doing things the old way. I’ve been trying out new stuff ever since.

From those days I’ve had a succession of “proper” cameras but then moved into the digital age very early on (hence my photo count on Google Photos of around 9,000 – most of which are not public unlike my original Flickr Albums). As you might imagine from above, as a member of a local photo club in Southern Spain I occasionally try to introduce or promote new ideas.

In this blog I’ll likely talk about taking photos with half-decent mobile phones (yes you CAN) and I manage largely without Photoshop (yes you CAN) – I have owned a succession of smart phones from Nokia, Apple iPhone through Samsung, HTC, Cubot, Doogee, Umidigi, Xiaomi and many more. Today I focus entirely on Android and like to be bang up to date, so I currently use the excellent Samsung S22 Ultra which, with the right software, produces excellent photo-results.  Not too long ago, I sold my Nikon P900 – the one that takes great moon close-ups and replaced it with the pocket-sized but powerful Panasonic DMC-TZ70 which spent so much time in a corner I eventually moved that on too.

Something I’ve known for many years is that there’s a good chance if you are reading this and are interested in photography, you are likely also interested in electronics and general gadgets (and today, hopefully, material produced with increasingly sophisticate AI tools – if that is the case you could also take a look at my technical blog – or if you want to know more about me – by all means visit my personal blog in the UK. Maybe you could be tempted to look at our equivalent Spanish site. My wife and I own property in both Southern Spain and the UK.

I hope you find the photo blog interesting.