FALLING SOMEWHERE AS RAIN

An impromptu visit to Southport beach, armed only with my iPhone and a spare hour. Without suitable footwear, I was confined to the sea wall and a thin strip of dry beach, but various apps such as FIMO, Blackie and Hipstamatic gave some satisfactoty results.

Costa's One of my favourite places for photography is the island of Cyprus. I have visited the vicinity of Paphos several times in recent years and always find something new to shoot. Besides being an ideal location for infra-red photography, due to the strong sunlight, it's a country with a rich history and beautiful architecture. Certain parts of the city, away from the tourist areas, are economically depressed and quite run down. Its also a well known fact that if a new building remains unfinished - ie. if the roof are still need finishing, then the owner will not have to pay certain taxes, so many of the buildings look run down, even though they are perfectly habitable. Tourism being such a mercurial beast, businesses appear and disappear rapidly, leaving shops and houses empty and abandoned, as money and interest moves quickly. Don't Tell the Bees Immediately outside the city, in the old town, the more rustic way of life is still very prevalent and flourishing in the s...

A recent weekend in the capital gave me the chance to play tourist amongst the many sights of London. Rather than use the mirrorless camera and be hampered by using a large camera in crowded spaces, I favoured the iPhone and made use of the catalogue of photography apps to take advantage of the speed and convenience of handheld shooting. The phone came into its own for street photography and was especially useful shooting on the fly during busier periods, or in large crowds. The proliferation of interesting architecture and colourful scenery, meant that I could indulge my love of filters and colour grading, as well as high contrast black and white. Whereas I was a little nervous at first about shooting street, or carrying a camera, it soon became very apparent that photography was an everyday occurrence, especially near anything remotely famous or photogenic, so I soon settled in and took more time over my shots. It was clear that other enthusiasts were hard at work documenting reality...