and Sculpture on Exmouth beach, Devon, England, during the seaside town’s annual festival held during Spring/Early Summer. The low and gentle sculpting light aided by Fuji Velvia 35mm film helping to bring the images (and sand creations) to life.

lements of Spain. This was originally part of a commissioned shoot in Andalucia, Spain, focusing on property people and lifestyle. In these images Ronda, Tarifa, Conil de la Frontera, Vejer de la Frontera, Grazalema and the white town of Casares.

All images are now available for licensing.

Andalucian Elements part I is here

owerman’s Nose is one of the classic rock formations on Dartmoor, Devon, England. This distinctive granite outcrop has the profile of a human face. The image was shot on a Bronica GS-1 with Fuji Velvia producing a high quality medium format 6×7 image.

THE LEGEND

A huntsman called Bowerman lived on the moor around one thousand years ago. When chasing a hare he and his pack of dogs unwittingly ran into a coven of witches, overturned their cauldron and disrupted their ceremony.

The witches decided to punish him, and the next time he was hunting, one of the witches turned herself into a hare, and led both Bowerman and his hounds into a trap as punishment. The witches turned them to stone – the huntsman became the rock formation now known as Bowerman’s Nose with the dogs the broken stones at his feet.

ighting a thatched house fire at Buller Square, Crediton, Devon, as the fire spreads across thatched roofs. The blaze started at around midday and involved 100 firefighters, police and emergency medical staff. Twelve hours later smoke was still rising. The fire affected a row of five thatched cottages before spreading to a sixth property. No one is thought to have been injured.

This area of the town is one of the oldest, a Saxon settlement having been made here. It is also believed to be the birthplace of Saint Boniface.

t is often difficult to know where your stock images have been used due to the restrictions on contacting buyers by some stock agencies. Thanks to GIS (Google Image Search) and Tineye not only has this been made easier, it also throws up some image infringements (generally where people or companies believe that “anything on the internet is free” and have a rude awakening to the realities of life in the 21st Century courtesy of intellectual property (IP) lawyers specialising in photographic infringements).

It was great to see that some of my stock images had been used for these two Arizona Frommer’s guides (in addition to a number of others elsewhere). I have always loved the American West and Southwest and the opportunity to visit is rarely turned down. Thanks must go to Lisa and the Salvatore clan for their hospitality without whom these pictures might never have been made…

dding an ability to shoot some images quickly and of enough quality for social media uses (Facebook, Google+) is useful in providing clients more “bang for their buck”. This shoot, for Ski Famille was in the ski resorts of Les Gets and Reberty in France, and, where time allowed, the brilliant quality of the Samsung Galaxy S2 was used to shoot some latest snow and resort view images for Facebook.

While phones (whether iPhone or whatever) can now provide high enough quality for this target, the images are still very much lo-fi; heavily processed and compressed jpgs in sRGB as opposed to the hi-fi Canon 5D MarkII images which are shot in RAW and carefully post-processed into the larger colour space of aRGB, colour-corrected, burned and dodged etc and have a much larger file size with quality photosites and pixel density.

Having said that, the ability to fulfil immediate social media needs using the smartphone camera is a boon and in demand. Having the ability to fulfil that demand with this phone is a pleasure and another weapon in the photographic armoury.

For more information about custom ski and property shoots for brochures, web and Facebook get in touch here

easons greetings and a successful, happy & healthy New Year 2012 to clients and friends worldwide from Lightworks Commercial Photography.

his image of the Temple of Kukulcan at Spring equinox, Chichen Itza, Yucatan, Mexico, is now on display at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore as part of their “All Things Round” exhibition that runs until September 2012.

In the late afternoon on the equinox, the northwest corner of the pyramid casts a series of triangular shadows against the western balustrade on the north side that shows a serpent wriggling down the staircase – truly visionary art and architecture. Timing is everything with this image, it happens only twice a year and only then if the weather is favourable.

The American Visionary Art Museum can be found here http://www.avam.org/

lements of Spain. This was originally part of a commissioned shoot in Andalucia, Spain, focusing on property people and lifestyle. In these images Ronda, Tarifa and the white town of Casares. All images are now available for licensing.