PHOTOGRAPHY

General

The Age of Camera Phones has Arrived

Not only have recent smartphones stepped up to the mark when it comes to camera resolution (48Mpx for the Umidigi S3 Pro, 40Mpx for the Lumix,  28Mpx various Chinese phones, 16Mpx and 20Mpx common on many medium range and even budget phones) and now sensitivity (large pixel size on many new models lets in more light). One of only few issues left to negotiate is zoom, digital zoom is basically a con and very few phone cameras have any sizeable zoom capability. While phone cameras do not have large apertures due to the tiny lenses, various software “solutions” have appeared which, while not as good as the real thing, can…
Read More

PocoPhone F1 with Pixel 3 App

Last year I write about our day-trip to Gibraltar and my then new Panasonic TZ-70 camera. Shortly thereafter we headed off back to blighty and have only just returned to Spain. Our first few days were marvellous but then the weather went sour and so here I am, blogging, staying indoors to keep warm. My favourite phone of the moment is the Xiaomi Pocophone F1 and has been since late last year. From a photography perspective it is pretty hard to fault this phone as the pictures are great, Two of my few gripes have been night-vision quality and limited panorama options and so I’m delighted to announce that thanks…
Read More

Not Forgetting the Phone Camera

No doubt when my sparkly new Panasonic camera turns up I’ll get all excited about it, so this is a good time to remind myself just how good my phone camera really is… The original of this un-retouched panorama is absolutely huge. Took this shot this evening during our walk over the hills around Galera. And here’s another completely un-retouched photo from the same session (don’t worry, I’m not turning purist).
Read More

Odrvm 4K Action Camera

Slightly out of the normal, I’ll grant you but I thought this was worth doing a short piece on because of an alternative use for this camera. So what we have here is the Odrvm 4K Action Camera, which comes as a complete kit, in my case from Amazon. Here’s the story. I’ve been looking for one of these for ages for Spain, I have a decent camera, an SLR which would be wonderful were it not for the weight. Despite a lifetime dabbling in photography, I’ve never gotten used to carrying around a large camera in the hot summers of Spain which is where I plan to be this…
Read More

Using Snapseed on your Phone

Often you’ll hear that you need to use proper tools for decent photography. Well, I’m here to tell you that today in an age of mobile phone Apps, that is not entirely a true statement. If you’re an enthusiastic amateur who always carries their phone with them – you might want to read on. For some time now my wife and I have been spending our summers in Spain where it is HOT and pretty much the last thing I want to do on a very hot day – is carry around a camera. My phone however goes with me everywhere and hence tends to get a lot of use.…
Read More

The Rise of Prisma

Some time ago I wrote about a little App called Prisma – something which takes your photos, sends them off to a big computer and turns them into works of art – or rubbish depending on your viewpoint – I go with the former description though clearly at the end of the day it is possible to mess up with any of these tools if you are really bad at it.  Well, Prisma had a couple of issues – limited resolution and the strange need to crop your photos to square – on top of that they put a small ad on the photo – still great to use but…
Read More

Some Pictures

Well, this is a photography site! A small selection of pictures I’ve taken recently – some in their original form, some processed. I’ll explain what I’ve done and why… The photograph above was taken in Galera (Spain) this summer in one of the many evening events – some religious, some just an excuse to party. This was taken with a mobile phone and despite my best efforts you see here an issue that affects all cameras to one extent or another – dynamic range. The phone camera is just not able to capture the massive range of brilliance from the bright incandescent lighting through to the shadows in the streets…
Read More

The Death of Picasa

Of all the software I’ve used over the years to process photos, Picasa has always been my favourite. It has a reasonable number of tools and it is FAST. To put that into perspective, for many years I held several roles within the Federation of Small Businesses or FSB in the UK and one of the more delightful roles included responsibility for the organisation’s national conference website. These would be held around the country and for years I took a DIY approach to the conference website photography.  Every year, we paid for two photographers to take countless pictures of political and business figures speaking at the Conference and then staff…
Read More

Turning Photos into Art

I do know people who don’t like to mess with photos – and that’s fine – I do as you may have seen in other posts. So much so that recently I’ve been looking for mobile phone software that might help turn pretty ordinary-looking photos into something a bit special. I got more than I bargained for. A little App called PRISMA is but one of a growing number of programs that attempt to “interpret” photos to produce artworks – and they are getting very good at it. If you have a top notch photo there is little point in resorting to gimmicks – but let’s face it, not all…
Read More

Painting Effects

I used this number in one of my blogs recently and of course the first thing that happened was people asking how this was done.   So the photo was taken this morning in the town centre, a particularly quiet morning with only a couple of people about. There’s a very continental look about this particular part of town and I wanted to capture that without familiar faces. Smart Photo Editor is an inexpensive PC package which offers a huge number of “preset” effects for photos – but not so simple that you can’t customise them if you wish. Community-maintained there are new filters arriving all the time – and so…
Read More

The Age of Camera Phones has Arrived

Not only have recent smartphones stepped up to the mark when it comes to camera resolution (48Mpx for the Umidigi S3 Pro, 40Mpx for the Lumix,  28Mpx various Chinese phones, 16Mpx and 20Mpx common on many medium range and even budget phones) and now sensitivity (large pixel size on many new models lets in more light). One of only few issues left to negotiate is zoom, digital zoom is basically a con and very few phone cameras have any sizeable zoom capability. While phone cameras do not have large apertures due to the tiny lenses, various software “solutions” have appeared which, while not as good as the real thing, can…
Read More

PocoPhone F1 with Pixel 3 App

Last year I write about our day-trip to Gibraltar and my then new Panasonic TZ-70 camera. Shortly thereafter we headed off back to blighty and have only just returned to Spain. Our first few days were marvellous but then the weather went sour and so here I am, blogging, staying indoors to keep warm. My favourite phone of the moment is the Xiaomi Pocophone F1 and has been since late last year. From a photography perspective it is pretty hard to fault this phone as the pictures are great, Two of my few gripes have been night-vision quality and limited panorama options and so I’m delighted to announce that thanks…
Read More

Not Forgetting the Phone Camera

No doubt when my sparkly new Panasonic camera turns up I’ll get all excited about it, so this is a good time to remind myself just how good my phone camera really is… The original of this un-retouched panorama is absolutely huge. Took this shot this evening during our walk over the hills around Galera. And here’s another completely un-retouched photo from the same session (don’t worry, I’m not turning purist).
Read More

Odrvm 4K Action Camera

Slightly out of the normal, I’ll grant you but I thought this was worth doing a short piece on because of an alternative use for this camera. So what we have here is the Odrvm 4K Action Camera, which comes as a complete kit, in my case from Amazon. Here’s the story. I’ve been looking for one of these for ages for Spain, I have a decent camera, an SLR which would be wonderful were it not for the weight. Despite a lifetime dabbling in photography, I’ve never gotten used to carrying around a large camera in the hot summers of Spain which is where I plan to be this…
Read More

Using Snapseed on your Phone

Often you’ll hear that you need to use proper tools for decent photography. Well, I’m here to tell you that today in an age of mobile phone Apps, that is not entirely a true statement. If you’re an enthusiastic amateur who always carries their phone with them – you might want to read on. For some time now my wife and I have been spending our summers in Spain where it is HOT and pretty much the last thing I want to do on a very hot day – is carry around a camera. My phone however goes with me everywhere and hence tends to get a lot of use.…
Read More

The Rise of Prisma

Some time ago I wrote about a little App called Prisma – something which takes your photos, sends them off to a big computer and turns them into works of art – or rubbish depending on your viewpoint – I go with the former description though clearly at the end of the day it is possible to mess up with any of these tools if you are really bad at it.  Well, Prisma had a couple of issues – limited resolution and the strange need to crop your photos to square – on top of that they put a small ad on the photo – still great to use but…
Read More

Some Pictures

Well, this is a photography site! A small selection of pictures I’ve taken recently – some in their original form, some processed. I’ll explain what I’ve done and why… The photograph above was taken in Galera (Spain) this summer in one of the many evening events – some religious, some just an excuse to party. This was taken with a mobile phone and despite my best efforts you see here an issue that affects all cameras to one extent or another – dynamic range. The phone camera is just not able to capture the massive range of brilliance from the bright incandescent lighting through to the shadows in the streets…
Read More

The Death of Picasa

Of all the software I’ve used over the years to process photos, Picasa has always been my favourite. It has a reasonable number of tools and it is FAST. To put that into perspective, for many years I held several roles within the Federation of Small Businesses or FSB in the UK and one of the more delightful roles included responsibility for the organisation’s national conference website. These would be held around the country and for years I took a DIY approach to the conference website photography.  Every year, we paid for two photographers to take countless pictures of political and business figures speaking at the Conference and then staff…
Read More

Turning Photos into Art

I do know people who don’t like to mess with photos – and that’s fine – I do as you may have seen in other posts. So much so that recently I’ve been looking for mobile phone software that might help turn pretty ordinary-looking photos into something a bit special. I got more than I bargained for. A little App called PRISMA is but one of a growing number of programs that attempt to “interpret” photos to produce artworks – and they are getting very good at it. If you have a top notch photo there is little point in resorting to gimmicks – but let’s face it, not all…
Read More

Painting Effects

I used this number in one of my blogs recently and of course the first thing that happened was people asking how this was done.   So the photo was taken this morning in the town centre, a particularly quiet morning with only a couple of people about. There’s a very continental look about this particular part of town and I wanted to capture that without familiar faces. Smart Photo Editor is an inexpensive PC package which offers a huge number of “preset” effects for photos – but not so simple that you can’t customise them if you wish. Community-maintained there are new filters arriving all the time – and so…
Read More

The Age of Camera Phones has Arrived

Not only have recent smartphones stepped up to the mark when it comes to camera resolution (48Mpx for the Umidigi S3 Pro, 40Mpx for the Lumix,  28Mpx various Chinese phones, 16Mpx and 20Mpx common on many medium range and even budget phones) and now sensitivity (large pixel size on many new models lets in more light). One of only few issues left to negotiate is zoom, digital zoom is basically a con and very few phone cameras have any sizeable zoom capability. While phone cameras do not have large apertures due to the tiny lenses, various software “solutions” have appeared which, while not as good as the real thing, can…
Read More

PocoPhone F1 with Pixel 3 App

Last year I write about our day-trip to Gibraltar and my then new Panasonic TZ-70 camera. Shortly thereafter we headed off back to blighty and have only just returned to Spain. Our first few days were marvellous but then the weather went sour and so here I am, blogging, staying indoors to keep warm. My favourite phone of the moment is the Xiaomi Pocophone F1 and has been since late last year. From a photography perspective it is pretty hard to fault this phone as the pictures are great, Two of my few gripes have been night-vision quality and limited panorama options and so I’m delighted to announce that thanks…
Read More

Not Forgetting the Phone Camera

No doubt when my sparkly new Panasonic camera turns up I’ll get all excited about it, so this is a good time to remind myself just how good my phone camera really is… The original of this un-retouched panorama is absolutely huge. Took this shot this evening during our walk over the hills around Galera. And here’s another completely un-retouched photo from the same session (don’t worry, I’m not turning purist).
Read More

Odrvm 4K Action Camera

Slightly out of the normal, I’ll grant you but I thought this was worth doing a short piece on because of an alternative use for this camera. So what we have here is the Odrvm 4K Action Camera, which comes as a complete kit, in my case from Amazon. Here’s the story. I’ve been looking for one of these for ages for Spain, I have a decent camera, an SLR which would be wonderful were it not for the weight. Despite a lifetime dabbling in photography, I’ve never gotten used to carrying around a large camera in the hot summers of Spain which is where I plan to be this…
Read More

Using Snapseed on your Phone

Often you’ll hear that you need to use proper tools for decent photography. Well, I’m here to tell you that today in an age of mobile phone Apps, that is not entirely a true statement. If you’re an enthusiastic amateur who always carries their phone with them – you might want to read on. For some time now my wife and I have been spending our summers in Spain where it is HOT and pretty much the last thing I want to do on a very hot day – is carry around a camera. My phone however goes with me everywhere and hence tends to get a lot of use.…
Read More

The Rise of Prisma

Some time ago I wrote about a little App called Prisma – something which takes your photos, sends them off to a big computer and turns them into works of art – or rubbish depending on your viewpoint – I go with the former description though clearly at the end of the day it is possible to mess up with any of these tools if you are really bad at it.  Well, Prisma had a couple of issues – limited resolution and the strange need to crop your photos to square – on top of that they put a small ad on the photo – still great to use but…
Read More

Some Pictures

Well, this is a photography site! A small selection of pictures I’ve taken recently – some in their original form, some processed. I’ll explain what I’ve done and why… The photograph above was taken in Galera (Spain) this summer in one of the many evening events – some religious, some just an excuse to party. This was taken with a mobile phone and despite my best efforts you see here an issue that affects all cameras to one extent or another – dynamic range. The phone camera is just not able to capture the massive range of brilliance from the bright incandescent lighting through to the shadows in the streets…
Read More

The Death of Picasa

Of all the software I’ve used over the years to process photos, Picasa has always been my favourite. It has a reasonable number of tools and it is FAST. To put that into perspective, for many years I held several roles within the Federation of Small Businesses or FSB in the UK and one of the more delightful roles included responsibility for the organisation’s national conference website. These would be held around the country and for years I took a DIY approach to the conference website photography.  Every year, we paid for two photographers to take countless pictures of political and business figures speaking at the Conference and then staff…
Read More

Turning Photos into Art

I do know people who don’t like to mess with photos – and that’s fine – I do as you may have seen in other posts. So much so that recently I’ve been looking for mobile phone software that might help turn pretty ordinary-looking photos into something a bit special. I got more than I bargained for. A little App called PRISMA is but one of a growing number of programs that attempt to “interpret” photos to produce artworks – and they are getting very good at it. If you have a top notch photo there is little point in resorting to gimmicks – but let’s face it, not all…
Read More

Painting Effects

I used this number in one of my blogs recently and of course the first thing that happened was people asking how this was done.   So the photo was taken this morning in the town centre, a particularly quiet morning with only a couple of people about. There’s a very continental look about this particular part of town and I wanted to capture that without familiar faces. Smart Photo Editor is an inexpensive PC package which offers a huge number of “preset” effects for photos – but not so simple that you can’t customise them if you wish. Community-maintained there are new filters arriving all the time – and so…
Read More

The Age of Camera Phones has Arrived

Not only have recent smartphones stepped up to the mark when it comes to camera resolution (48Mpx for the Umidigi S3 Pro, 40Mpx for the Lumix,  28Mpx various Chinese phones, 16Mpx and 20Mpx common on many medium range and even budget phones) and now sensitivity (large pixel size on many new models lets in more light). One of only few issues left to negotiate is zoom, digital zoom is basically a con and very few phone cameras have any sizeable zoom capability. While phone cameras do not have large apertures due to the tiny lenses, various software “solutions” have appeared which, while not as good as the real thing, can…
Read More

PocoPhone F1 with Pixel 3 App

Last year I write about our day-trip to Gibraltar and my then new Panasonic TZ-70 camera. Shortly thereafter we headed off back to blighty and have only just returned to Spain. Our first few days were marvellous but then the weather went sour and so here I am, blogging, staying indoors to keep warm. My favourite phone of the moment is the Xiaomi Pocophone F1 and has been since late last year. From a photography perspective it is pretty hard to fault this phone as the pictures are great, Two of my few gripes have been night-vision quality and limited panorama options and so I’m delighted to announce that thanks…
Read More

Not Forgetting the Phone Camera

No doubt when my sparkly new Panasonic camera turns up I’ll get all excited about it, so this is a good time to remind myself just how good my phone camera really is… The original of this un-retouched panorama is absolutely huge. Took this shot this evening during our walk over the hills around Galera. And here’s another completely un-retouched photo from the same session (don’t worry, I’m not turning purist).
Read More

Odrvm 4K Action Camera

Slightly out of the normal, I’ll grant you but I thought this was worth doing a short piece on because of an alternative use for this camera. So what we have here is the Odrvm 4K Action Camera, which comes as a complete kit, in my case from Amazon. Here’s the story. I’ve been looking for one of these for ages for Spain, I have a decent camera, an SLR which would be wonderful were it not for the weight. Despite a lifetime dabbling in photography, I’ve never gotten used to carrying around a large camera in the hot summers of Spain which is where I plan to be this…
Read More

Using Snapseed on your Phone

Often you’ll hear that you need to use proper tools for decent photography. Well, I’m here to tell you that today in an age of mobile phone Apps, that is not entirely a true statement. If you’re an enthusiastic amateur who always carries their phone with them – you might want to read on. For some time now my wife and I have been spending our summers in Spain where it is HOT and pretty much the last thing I want to do on a very hot day – is carry around a camera. My phone however goes with me everywhere and hence tends to get a lot of use.…
Read More

The Rise of Prisma

Some time ago I wrote about a little App called Prisma – something which takes your photos, sends them off to a big computer and turns them into works of art – or rubbish depending on your viewpoint – I go with the former description though clearly at the end of the day it is possible to mess up with any of these tools if you are really bad at it.  Well, Prisma had a couple of issues – limited resolution and the strange need to crop your photos to square – on top of that they put a small ad on the photo – still great to use but…
Read More

Some Pictures

Well, this is a photography site! A small selection of pictures I’ve taken recently – some in their original form, some processed. I’ll explain what I’ve done and why… The photograph above was taken in Galera (Spain) this summer in one of the many evening events – some religious, some just an excuse to party. This was taken with a mobile phone and despite my best efforts you see here an issue that affects all cameras to one extent or another – dynamic range. The phone camera is just not able to capture the massive range of brilliance from the bright incandescent lighting through to the shadows in the streets…
Read More

The Death of Picasa

Of all the software I’ve used over the years to process photos, Picasa has always been my favourite. It has a reasonable number of tools and it is FAST. To put that into perspective, for many years I held several roles within the Federation of Small Businesses or FSB in the UK and one of the more delightful roles included responsibility for the organisation’s national conference website. These would be held around the country and for years I took a DIY approach to the conference website photography.  Every year, we paid for two photographers to take countless pictures of political and business figures speaking at the Conference and then staff…
Read More

Turning Photos into Art

I do know people who don’t like to mess with photos – and that’s fine – I do as you may have seen in other posts. So much so that recently I’ve been looking for mobile phone software that might help turn pretty ordinary-looking photos into something a bit special. I got more than I bargained for. A little App called PRISMA is but one of a growing number of programs that attempt to “interpret” photos to produce artworks – and they are getting very good at it. If you have a top notch photo there is little point in resorting to gimmicks – but let’s face it, not all…
Read More

Painting Effects

I used this number in one of my blogs recently and of course the first thing that happened was people asking how this was done.   So the photo was taken this morning in the town centre, a particularly quiet morning with only a couple of people about. There’s a very continental look about this particular part of town and I wanted to capture that without familiar faces. Smart Photo Editor is an inexpensive PC package which offers a huge number of “preset” effects for photos – but not so simple that you can’t customise them if you wish. Community-maintained there are new filters arriving all the time – and so…
Read More

The Age of Camera Phones has Arrived

Not only have recent smartphones stepped up to the mark when it comes to camera resolution (48Mpx for the Umidigi S3 Pro, 40Mpx for the Lumix,  28Mpx various Chinese phones, 16Mpx and 20Mpx common on many medium range and even budget phones) and now sensitivity (large pixel size on many new models lets in more light). One of only few issues left to negotiate is zoom, digital zoom is basically a con and very few phone cameras have any sizeable zoom capability. While phone cameras do not have large apertures due to the tiny lenses, various software “solutions” have appeared which, while not as good as the real thing, can…
Read More

PocoPhone F1 with Pixel 3 App

Last year I write about our day-trip to Gibraltar and my then new Panasonic TZ-70 camera. Shortly thereafter we headed off back to blighty and have only just returned to Spain. Our first few days were marvellous but then the weather went sour and so here I am, blogging, staying indoors to keep warm. My favourite phone of the moment is the Xiaomi Pocophone F1 and has been since late last year. From a photography perspective it is pretty hard to fault this phone as the pictures are great, Two of my few gripes have been night-vision quality and limited panorama options and so I’m delighted to announce that thanks…
Read More

Not Forgetting the Phone Camera

No doubt when my sparkly new Panasonic camera turns up I’ll get all excited about it, so this is a good time to remind myself just how good my phone camera really is… The original of this un-retouched panorama is absolutely huge. Took this shot this evening during our walk over the hills around Galera. And here’s another completely un-retouched photo from the same session (don’t worry, I’m not turning purist).
Read More

Odrvm 4K Action Camera

Slightly out of the normal, I’ll grant you but I thought this was worth doing a short piece on because of an alternative use for this camera. So what we have here is the Odrvm 4K Action Camera, which comes as a complete kit, in my case from Amazon. Here’s the story. I’ve been looking for one of these for ages for Spain, I have a decent camera, an SLR which would be wonderful were it not for the weight. Despite a lifetime dabbling in photography, I’ve never gotten used to carrying around a large camera in the hot summers of Spain which is where I plan to be this…
Read More

Using Snapseed on your Phone

Often you’ll hear that you need to use proper tools for decent photography. Well, I’m here to tell you that today in an age of mobile phone Apps, that is not entirely a true statement. If you’re an enthusiastic amateur who always carries their phone with them – you might want to read on. For some time now my wife and I have been spending our summers in Spain where it is HOT and pretty much the last thing I want to do on a very hot day – is carry around a camera. My phone however goes with me everywhere and hence tends to get a lot of use.…
Read More

The Rise of Prisma

Some time ago I wrote about a little App called Prisma – something which takes your photos, sends them off to a big computer and turns them into works of art – or rubbish depending on your viewpoint – I go with the former description though clearly at the end of the day it is possible to mess up with any of these tools if you are really bad at it.  Well, Prisma had a couple of issues – limited resolution and the strange need to crop your photos to square – on top of that they put a small ad on the photo – still great to use but…
Read More

Some Pictures

Well, this is a photography site! A small selection of pictures I’ve taken recently – some in their original form, some processed. I’ll explain what I’ve done and why… The photograph above was taken in Galera (Spain) this summer in one of the many evening events – some religious, some just an excuse to party. This was taken with a mobile phone and despite my best efforts you see here an issue that affects all cameras to one extent or another – dynamic range. The phone camera is just not able to capture the massive range of brilliance from the bright incandescent lighting through to the shadows in the streets…
Read More

The Death of Picasa

Of all the software I’ve used over the years to process photos, Picasa has always been my favourite. It has a reasonable number of tools and it is FAST. To put that into perspective, for many years I held several roles within the Federation of Small Businesses or FSB in the UK and one of the more delightful roles included responsibility for the organisation’s national conference website. These would be held around the country and for years I took a DIY approach to the conference website photography.  Every year, we paid for two photographers to take countless pictures of political and business figures speaking at the Conference and then staff…
Read More

Turning Photos into Art

I do know people who don’t like to mess with photos – and that’s fine – I do as you may have seen in other posts. So much so that recently I’ve been looking for mobile phone software that might help turn pretty ordinary-looking photos into something a bit special. I got more than I bargained for. A little App called PRISMA is but one of a growing number of programs that attempt to “interpret” photos to produce artworks – and they are getting very good at it. If you have a top notch photo there is little point in resorting to gimmicks – but let’s face it, not all…
Read More

Painting Effects

I used this number in one of my blogs recently and of course the first thing that happened was people asking how this was done.   So the photo was taken this morning in the town centre, a particularly quiet morning with only a couple of people about. There’s a very continental look about this particular part of town and I wanted to capture that without familiar faces. Smart Photo Editor is an inexpensive PC package which offers a huge number of “preset” effects for photos – but not so simple that you can’t customise them if you wish. Community-maintained there are new filters arriving all the time – and so…
Read More

The Age of Camera Phones has Arrived

Not only have recent smartphones stepped up to the mark when it comes to camera resolution (48Mpx for the Umidigi S3 Pro, 40Mpx for the Lumix,  28Mpx various Chinese phones, 16Mpx and 20Mpx common on many medium range and even budget phones) and now sensitivity (large pixel size on many new models lets in more light). One of only few issues left to negotiate is zoom, digital zoom is basically a con and very few phone cameras have any sizeable zoom capability. While phone cameras do not have large apertures due to the tiny lenses, various software “solutions” have appeared which, while not as good as the real thing, can…
Read More

PocoPhone F1 with Pixel 3 App

Last year I write about our day-trip to Gibraltar and my then new Panasonic TZ-70 camera. Shortly thereafter we headed off back to blighty and have only just returned to Spain. Our first few days were marvellous but then the weather went sour and so here I am, blogging, staying indoors to keep warm. My favourite phone of the moment is the Xiaomi Pocophone F1 and has been since late last year. From a photography perspective it is pretty hard to fault this phone as the pictures are great, Two of my few gripes have been night-vision quality and limited panorama options and so I’m delighted to announce that thanks…
Read More

Not Forgetting the Phone Camera

No doubt when my sparkly new Panasonic camera turns up I’ll get all excited about it, so this is a good time to remind myself just how good my phone camera really is… The original of this un-retouched panorama is absolutely huge. Took this shot this evening during our walk over the hills around Galera. And here’s another completely un-retouched photo from the same session (don’t worry, I’m not turning purist).
Read More

Odrvm 4K Action Camera

Slightly out of the normal, I’ll grant you but I thought this was worth doing a short piece on because of an alternative use for this camera. So what we have here is the Odrvm 4K Action Camera, which comes as a complete kit, in my case from Amazon. Here’s the story. I’ve been looking for one of these for ages for Spain, I have a decent camera, an SLR which would be wonderful were it not for the weight. Despite a lifetime dabbling in photography, I’ve never gotten used to carrying around a large camera in the hot summers of Spain which is where I plan to be this…
Read More

Using Snapseed on your Phone

Often you’ll hear that you need to use proper tools for decent photography. Well, I’m here to tell you that today in an age of mobile phone Apps, that is not entirely a true statement. If you’re an enthusiastic amateur who always carries their phone with them – you might want to read on. For some time now my wife and I have been spending our summers in Spain where it is HOT and pretty much the last thing I want to do on a very hot day – is carry around a camera. My phone however goes with me everywhere and hence tends to get a lot of use.…
Read More

The Rise of Prisma

Some time ago I wrote about a little App called Prisma – something which takes your photos, sends them off to a big computer and turns them into works of art – or rubbish depending on your viewpoint – I go with the former description though clearly at the end of the day it is possible to mess up with any of these tools if you are really bad at it.  Well, Prisma had a couple of issues – limited resolution and the strange need to crop your photos to square – on top of that they put a small ad on the photo – still great to use but…
Read More

Some Pictures

Well, this is a photography site! A small selection of pictures I’ve taken recently – some in their original form, some processed. I’ll explain what I’ve done and why… The photograph above was taken in Galera (Spain) this summer in one of the many evening events – some religious, some just an excuse to party. This was taken with a mobile phone and despite my best efforts you see here an issue that affects all cameras to one extent or another – dynamic range. The phone camera is just not able to capture the massive range of brilliance from the bright incandescent lighting through to the shadows in the streets…
Read More

The Death of Picasa

Of all the software I’ve used over the years to process photos, Picasa has always been my favourite. It has a reasonable number of tools and it is FAST. To put that into perspective, for many years I held several roles within the Federation of Small Businesses or FSB in the UK and one of the more delightful roles included responsibility for the organisation’s national conference website. These would be held around the country and for years I took a DIY approach to the conference website photography.  Every year, we paid for two photographers to take countless pictures of political and business figures speaking at the Conference and then staff…
Read More

Turning Photos into Art

I do know people who don’t like to mess with photos – and that’s fine – I do as you may have seen in other posts. So much so that recently I’ve been looking for mobile phone software that might help turn pretty ordinary-looking photos into something a bit special. I got more than I bargained for. A little App called PRISMA is but one of a growing number of programs that attempt to “interpret” photos to produce artworks – and they are getting very good at it. If you have a top notch photo there is little point in resorting to gimmicks – but let’s face it, not all…
Read More

Painting Effects

I used this number in one of my blogs recently and of course the first thing that happened was people asking how this was done.   So the photo was taken this morning in the town centre, a particularly quiet morning with only a couple of people about. There’s a very continental look about this particular part of town and I wanted to capture that without familiar faces. Smart Photo Editor is an inexpensive PC package which offers a huge number of “preset” effects for photos – but not so simple that you can’t customise them if you wish. Community-maintained there are new filters arriving all the time – and so…
Read More

The Age of Camera Phones has Arrived

Not only have recent smartphones stepped up to the mark when it comes to camera resolution (48Mpx for the Umidigi S3 Pro, 40Mpx for the Lumix,  28Mpx various Chinese phones, 16Mpx and 20Mpx common on many medium range and even budget phones) and now sensitivity (large pixel size on many new models lets in more light). One of only few issues left to negotiate is zoom, digital zoom is basically a con and very few phone cameras have any sizeable zoom capability. While phone cameras do not have large apertures due to the tiny lenses, various software “solutions” have appeared which, while not as good as the real thing, can…
Read More

PocoPhone F1 with Pixel 3 App

Last year I write about our day-trip to Gibraltar and my then new Panasonic TZ-70 camera. Shortly thereafter we headed off back to blighty and have only just returned to Spain. Our first few days were marvellous but then the weather went sour and so here I am, blogging, staying indoors to keep warm. My favourite phone of the moment is the Xiaomi Pocophone F1 and has been since late last year. From a photography perspective it is pretty hard to fault this phone as the pictures are great, Two of my few gripes have been night-vision quality and limited panorama options and so I’m delighted to announce that thanks…
Read More

Not Forgetting the Phone Camera

No doubt when my sparkly new Panasonic camera turns up I’ll get all excited about it, so this is a good time to remind myself just how good my phone camera really is… The original of this un-retouched panorama is absolutely huge. Took this shot this evening during our walk over the hills around Galera. And here’s another completely un-retouched photo from the same session (don’t worry, I’m not turning purist).
Read More

Odrvm 4K Action Camera

Slightly out of the normal, I’ll grant you but I thought this was worth doing a short piece on because of an alternative use for this camera. So what we have here is the Odrvm 4K Action Camera, which comes as a complete kit, in my case from Amazon. Here’s the story. I’ve been looking for one of these for ages for Spain, I have a decent camera, an SLR which would be wonderful were it not for the weight. Despite a lifetime dabbling in photography, I’ve never gotten used to carrying around a large camera in the hot summers of Spain which is where I plan to be this…
Read More

Using Snapseed on your Phone

Often you’ll hear that you need to use proper tools for decent photography. Well, I’m here to tell you that today in an age of mobile phone Apps, that is not entirely a true statement. If you’re an enthusiastic amateur who always carries their phone with them – you might want to read on. For some time now my wife and I have been spending our summers in Spain where it is HOT and pretty much the last thing I want to do on a very hot day – is carry around a camera. My phone however goes with me everywhere and hence tends to get a lot of use.…
Read More

The Rise of Prisma

Some time ago I wrote about a little App called Prisma – something which takes your photos, sends them off to a big computer and turns them into works of art – or rubbish depending on your viewpoint – I go with the former description though clearly at the end of the day it is possible to mess up with any of these tools if you are really bad at it.  Well, Prisma had a couple of issues – limited resolution and the strange need to crop your photos to square – on top of that they put a small ad on the photo – still great to use but…
Read More

Some Pictures

Well, this is a photography site! A small selection of pictures I’ve taken recently – some in their original form, some processed. I’ll explain what I’ve done and why… The photograph above was taken in Galera (Spain) this summer in one of the many evening events – some religious, some just an excuse to party. This was taken with a mobile phone and despite my best efforts you see here an issue that affects all cameras to one extent or another – dynamic range. The phone camera is just not able to capture the massive range of brilliance from the bright incandescent lighting through to the shadows in the streets…
Read More

The Death of Picasa

Of all the software I’ve used over the years to process photos, Picasa has always been my favourite. It has a reasonable number of tools and it is FAST. To put that into perspective, for many years I held several roles within the Federation of Small Businesses or FSB in the UK and one of the more delightful roles included responsibility for the organisation’s national conference website. These would be held around the country and for years I took a DIY approach to the conference website photography.  Every year, we paid for two photographers to take countless pictures of political and business figures speaking at the Conference and then staff…
Read More

Turning Photos into Art

I do know people who don’t like to mess with photos – and that’s fine – I do as you may have seen in other posts. So much so that recently I’ve been looking for mobile phone software that might help turn pretty ordinary-looking photos into something a bit special. I got more than I bargained for. A little App called PRISMA is but one of a growing number of programs that attempt to “interpret” photos to produce artworks – and they are getting very good at it. If you have a top notch photo there is little point in resorting to gimmicks – but let’s face it, not all…
Read More

Painting Effects

I used this number in one of my blogs recently and of course the first thing that happened was people asking how this was done.   So the photo was taken this morning in the town centre, a particularly quiet morning with only a couple of people about. There’s a very continental look about this particular part of town and I wanted to capture that without familiar faces. Smart Photo Editor is an inexpensive PC package which offers a huge number of “preset” effects for photos – but not so simple that you can’t customise them if you wish. Community-maintained there are new filters arriving all the time – and so…
Read More

The Age of Camera Phones has Arrived

Not only have recent smartphones stepped up to the mark when it comes to camera resolution (48Mpx for the Umidigi S3 Pro, 40Mpx for the Lumix,  28Mpx various Chinese phones, 16Mpx and 20Mpx common on many medium range and even budget phones) and now sensitivity (large pixel size on many new models lets in more light). One of only few issues left to negotiate is zoom, digital zoom is basically a con and very few phone cameras have any sizeable zoom capability. While phone cameras do not have large apertures due to the tiny lenses, various software “solutions” have appeared which, while not as good as the real thing, can…
Read More

PocoPhone F1 with Pixel 3 App

Last year I write about our day-trip to Gibraltar and my then new Panasonic TZ-70 camera. Shortly thereafter we headed off back to blighty and have only just returned to Spain. Our first few days were marvellous but then the weather went sour and so here I am, blogging, staying indoors to keep warm. My favourite phone of the moment is the Xiaomi Pocophone F1 and has been since late last year. From a photography perspective it is pretty hard to fault this phone as the pictures are great, Two of my few gripes have been night-vision quality and limited panorama options and so I’m delighted to announce that thanks…
Read More

Not Forgetting the Phone Camera

No doubt when my sparkly new Panasonic camera turns up I’ll get all excited about it, so this is a good time to remind myself just how good my phone camera really is… The original of this un-retouched panorama is absolutely huge. Took this shot this evening during our walk over the hills around Galera. And here’s another completely un-retouched photo from the same session (don’t worry, I’m not turning purist).
Read More

Odrvm 4K Action Camera

Slightly out of the normal, I’ll grant you but I thought this was worth doing a short piece on because of an alternative use for this camera. So what we have here is the Odrvm 4K Action Camera, which comes as a complete kit, in my case from Amazon. Here’s the story. I’ve been looking for one of these for ages for Spain, I have a decent camera, an SLR which would be wonderful were it not for the weight. Despite a lifetime dabbling in photography, I’ve never gotten used to carrying around a large camera in the hot summers of Spain which is where I plan to be this…
Read More

Using Snapseed on your Phone

Often you’ll hear that you need to use proper tools for decent photography. Well, I’m here to tell you that today in an age of mobile phone Apps, that is not entirely a true statement. If you’re an enthusiastic amateur who always carries their phone with them – you might want to read on. For some time now my wife and I have been spending our summers in Spain where it is HOT and pretty much the last thing I want to do on a very hot day – is carry around a camera. My phone however goes with me everywhere and hence tends to get a lot of use.…
Read More

The Rise of Prisma

Some time ago I wrote about a little App called Prisma – something which takes your photos, sends them off to a big computer and turns them into works of art – or rubbish depending on your viewpoint – I go with the former description though clearly at the end of the day it is possible to mess up with any of these tools if you are really bad at it.  Well, Prisma had a couple of issues – limited resolution and the strange need to crop your photos to square – on top of that they put a small ad on the photo – still great to use but…
Read More

Some Pictures

Well, this is a photography site! A small selection of pictures I’ve taken recently – some in their original form, some processed. I’ll explain what I’ve done and why… The photograph above was taken in Galera (Spain) this summer in one of the many evening events – some religious, some just an excuse to party. This was taken with a mobile phone and despite my best efforts you see here an issue that affects all cameras to one extent or another – dynamic range. The phone camera is just not able to capture the massive range of brilliance from the bright incandescent lighting through to the shadows in the streets…
Read More

The Death of Picasa

Of all the software I’ve used over the years to process photos, Picasa has always been my favourite. It has a reasonable number of tools and it is FAST. To put that into perspective, for many years I held several roles within the Federation of Small Businesses or FSB in the UK and one of the more delightful roles included responsibility for the organisation’s national conference website. These would be held around the country and for years I took a DIY approach to the conference website photography.  Every year, we paid for two photographers to take countless pictures of political and business figures speaking at the Conference and then staff…
Read More

Turning Photos into Art

I do know people who don’t like to mess with photos – and that’s fine – I do as you may have seen in other posts. So much so that recently I’ve been looking for mobile phone software that might help turn pretty ordinary-looking photos into something a bit special. I got more than I bargained for. A little App called PRISMA is but one of a growing number of programs that attempt to “interpret” photos to produce artworks – and they are getting very good at it. If you have a top notch photo there is little point in resorting to gimmicks – but let’s face it, not all…
Read More

Painting Effects

I used this number in one of my blogs recently and of course the first thing that happened was people asking how this was done.   So the photo was taken this morning in the town centre, a particularly quiet morning with only a couple of people about. There’s a very continental look about this particular part of town and I wanted to capture that without familiar faces. Smart Photo Editor is an inexpensive PC package which offers a huge number of “preset” effects for photos – but not so simple that you can’t customise them if you wish. Community-maintained there are new filters arriving all the time – and so…
Read More

The Age of Camera Phones has Arrived

Not only have recent smartphones stepped up to the mark when it comes to camera resolution (48Mpx for the Umidigi S3 Pro, 40Mpx for the Lumix,  28Mpx various Chinese phones, 16Mpx and 20Mpx common on many medium range and even budget phones) and now sensitivity (large pixel size on many new models lets in more light). One of only few issues left to negotiate is zoom, digital zoom is basically a con and very few phone cameras have any sizeable zoom capability. While phone cameras do not have large apertures due to the tiny lenses, various software “solutions” have appeared which, while not as good as the real thing, can…
Read More

PocoPhone F1 with Pixel 3 App

Last year I write about our day-trip to Gibraltar and my then new Panasonic TZ-70 camera. Shortly thereafter we headed off back to blighty and have only just returned to Spain. Our first few days were marvellous but then the weather went sour and so here I am, blogging, staying indoors to keep warm. My favourite phone of the moment is the Xiaomi Pocophone F1 and has been since late last year. From a photography perspective it is pretty hard to fault this phone as the pictures are great, Two of my few gripes have been night-vision quality and limited panorama options and so I’m delighted to announce that thanks…
Read More

Not Forgetting the Phone Camera

No doubt when my sparkly new Panasonic camera turns up I’ll get all excited about it, so this is a good time to remind myself just how good my phone camera really is… The original of this un-retouched panorama is absolutely huge. Took this shot this evening during our walk over the hills around Galera. And here’s another completely un-retouched photo from the same session (don’t worry, I’m not turning purist).
Read More

Odrvm 4K Action Camera

Slightly out of the normal, I’ll grant you but I thought this was worth doing a short piece on because of an alternative use for this camera. So what we have here is the Odrvm 4K Action Camera, which comes as a complete kit, in my case from Amazon. Here’s the story. I’ve been looking for one of these for ages for Spain, I have a decent camera, an SLR which would be wonderful were it not for the weight. Despite a lifetime dabbling in photography, I’ve never gotten used to carrying around a large camera in the hot summers of Spain which is where I plan to be this…
Read More

Using Snapseed on your Phone

Often you’ll hear that you need to use proper tools for decent photography. Well, I’m here to tell you that today in an age of mobile phone Apps, that is not entirely a true statement. If you’re an enthusiastic amateur who always carries their phone with them – you might want to read on. For some time now my wife and I have been spending our summers in Spain where it is HOT and pretty much the last thing I want to do on a very hot day – is carry around a camera. My phone however goes with me everywhere and hence tends to get a lot of use.…
Read More

The Rise of Prisma

Some time ago I wrote about a little App called Prisma – something which takes your photos, sends them off to a big computer and turns them into works of art – or rubbish depending on your viewpoint – I go with the former description though clearly at the end of the day it is possible to mess up with any of these tools if you are really bad at it.  Well, Prisma had a couple of issues – limited resolution and the strange need to crop your photos to square – on top of that they put a small ad on the photo – still great to use but…
Read More

Some Pictures

Well, this is a photography site! A small selection of pictures I’ve taken recently – some in their original form, some processed. I’ll explain what I’ve done and why… The photograph above was taken in Galera (Spain) this summer in one of the many evening events – some religious, some just an excuse to party. This was taken with a mobile phone and despite my best efforts you see here an issue that affects all cameras to one extent or another – dynamic range. The phone camera is just not able to capture the massive range of brilliance from the bright incandescent lighting through to the shadows in the streets…
Read More

The Death of Picasa

Of all the software I’ve used over the years to process photos, Picasa has always been my favourite. It has a reasonable number of tools and it is FAST. To put that into perspective, for many years I held several roles within the Federation of Small Businesses or FSB in the UK and one of the more delightful roles included responsibility for the organisation’s national conference website. These would be held around the country and for years I took a DIY approach to the conference website photography.  Every year, we paid for two photographers to take countless pictures of political and business figures speaking at the Conference and then staff…
Read More

Turning Photos into Art

I do know people who don’t like to mess with photos – and that’s fine – I do as you may have seen in other posts. So much so that recently I’ve been looking for mobile phone software that might help turn pretty ordinary-looking photos into something a bit special. I got more than I bargained for. A little App called PRISMA is but one of a growing number of programs that attempt to “interpret” photos to produce artworks – and they are getting very good at it. If you have a top notch photo there is little point in resorting to gimmicks – but let’s face it, not all…
Read More

Painting Effects

I used this number in one of my blogs recently and of course the first thing that happened was people asking how this was done.   So the photo was taken this morning in the town centre, a particularly quiet morning with only a couple of people about. There’s a very continental look about this particular part of town and I wanted to capture that without familiar faces. Smart Photo Editor is an inexpensive PC package which offers a huge number of “preset” effects for photos – but not so simple that you can’t customise them if you wish. Community-maintained there are new filters arriving all the time – and so…
Read More

The Age of Camera Phones has Arrived

Not only have recent smartphones stepped up to the mark when it comes to camera resolution (48Mpx for the Umidigi S3 Pro, 40Mpx for the Lumix,  28Mpx various Chinese phones, 16Mpx and 20Mpx common on many medium range and even budget phones) and now sensitivity (large pixel size on many new models lets in more light). One of only few issues left to negotiate is zoom, digital zoom is basically a con and very few phone cameras have any sizeable zoom capability. While phone cameras do not have large apertures due to the tiny lenses, various software “solutions” have appeared which, while not as good as the real thing, can…
Read More

PocoPhone F1 with Pixel 3 App

Last year I write about our day-trip to Gibraltar and my then new Panasonic TZ-70 camera. Shortly thereafter we headed off back to blighty and have only just returned to Spain. Our first few days were marvellous but then the weather went sour and so here I am, blogging, staying indoors to keep warm. My favourite phone of the moment is the Xiaomi Pocophone F1 and has been since late last year. From a photography perspective it is pretty hard to fault this phone as the pictures are great, Two of my few gripes have been night-vision quality and limited panorama options and so I’m delighted to announce that thanks…
Read More

Not Forgetting the Phone Camera

No doubt when my sparkly new Panasonic camera turns up I’ll get all excited about it, so this is a good time to remind myself just how good my phone camera really is… The original of this un-retouched panorama is absolutely huge. Took this shot this evening during our walk over the hills around Galera. And here’s another completely un-retouched photo from the same session (don’t worry, I’m not turning purist).
Read More

Odrvm 4K Action Camera

Slightly out of the normal, I’ll grant you but I thought this was worth doing a short piece on because of an alternative use for this camera. So what we have here is the Odrvm 4K Action Camera, which comes as a complete kit, in my case from Amazon. Here’s the story. I’ve been looking for one of these for ages for Spain, I have a decent camera, an SLR which would be wonderful were it not for the weight. Despite a lifetime dabbling in photography, I’ve never gotten used to carrying around a large camera in the hot summers of Spain which is where I plan to be this…
Read More

Using Snapseed on your Phone

Often you’ll hear that you need to use proper tools for decent photography. Well, I’m here to tell you that today in an age of mobile phone Apps, that is not entirely a true statement. If you’re an enthusiastic amateur who always carries their phone with them – you might want to read on. For some time now my wife and I have been spending our summers in Spain where it is HOT and pretty much the last thing I want to do on a very hot day – is carry around a camera. My phone however goes with me everywhere and hence tends to get a lot of use.…
Read More

The Rise of Prisma

Some time ago I wrote about a little App called Prisma – something which takes your photos, sends them off to a big computer and turns them into works of art – or rubbish depending on your viewpoint – I go with the former description though clearly at the end of the day it is possible to mess up with any of these tools if you are really bad at it.  Well, Prisma had a couple of issues – limited resolution and the strange need to crop your photos to square – on top of that they put a small ad on the photo – still great to use but…
Read More

Some Pictures

Well, this is a photography site! A small selection of pictures I’ve taken recently – some in their original form, some processed. I’ll explain what I’ve done and why… The photograph above was taken in Galera (Spain) this summer in one of the many evening events – some religious, some just an excuse to party. This was taken with a mobile phone and despite my best efforts you see here an issue that affects all cameras to one extent or another – dynamic range. The phone camera is just not able to capture the massive range of brilliance from the bright incandescent lighting through to the shadows in the streets…
Read More

The Death of Picasa

Of all the software I’ve used over the years to process photos, Picasa has always been my favourite. It has a reasonable number of tools and it is FAST. To put that into perspective, for many years I held several roles within the Federation of Small Businesses or FSB in the UK and one of the more delightful roles included responsibility for the organisation’s national conference website. These would be held around the country and for years I took a DIY approach to the conference website photography.  Every year, we paid for two photographers to take countless pictures of political and business figures speaking at the Conference and then staff…
Read More

Turning Photos into Art

I do know people who don’t like to mess with photos – and that’s fine – I do as you may have seen in other posts. So much so that recently I’ve been looking for mobile phone software that might help turn pretty ordinary-looking photos into something a bit special. I got more than I bargained for. A little App called PRISMA is but one of a growing number of programs that attempt to “interpret” photos to produce artworks – and they are getting very good at it. If you have a top notch photo there is little point in resorting to gimmicks – but let’s face it, not all…
Read More

Painting Effects

I used this number in one of my blogs recently and of course the first thing that happened was people asking how this was done.   So the photo was taken this morning in the town centre, a particularly quiet morning with only a couple of people about. There’s a very continental look about this particular part of town and I wanted to capture that without familiar faces. Smart Photo Editor is an inexpensive PC package which offers a huge number of “preset” effects for photos – but not so simple that you can’t customise them if you wish. Community-maintained there are new filters arriving all the time – and so…
Read More