I just saw a lens review on a camera equipment hire company's web site. It made me reflect on how the publishing industry has changed in the past decade or so. When I started reviewing equipment for magazines, I was in a position of authority. It was before the web, so the only advice photographe...

I'm buying nuts and seeds to attract birds to the garden for a future shoot. I already have blue tits who've decided to nest in a box I put up a few weeks ago so that was a result. Yesterday I bought a replacement fat square. It was called a Peanut Fat Feast, okay it was only a £1 but "fea...

We all get fed up with daily email spam, spam phone calls and pointless junk mail through the letterbox. Well most of it's pointless, but this one that arrived in today's post beat the rest. The main message to get you to open the letter was "You can ignore me if you want to." So I...

I spent a few hours at one of my favourite locations - Black Clough. Annoyingly people have decided it's a place to have picnic...but it's in the middle of nowhere so not designated a picnic spot and, as such, has no bins or collection service. Any sensible person would understand this and take thei...

I was intending writing Happy New Year with a sparkler for my last photo365. But I'm going to be rather busy this evening so I thought I'd have a go now as it's technically the last day, even though it's only half one in the morning! So I set the Olympus E-P2 up on a tripod and used a torch to ...

When you photograph highlights out of focus they create blobs of colour, known as bokeh. The shape and size of the blob is dependent on the aperture configuration of the lens and the focusing point. They best looking ones are with lenses with more blades so a circle is created. I bought a couple o...

My older son came up to stop over. We went for a bike ride yesterday and a curry in the evening. Today it rained all day so we had a few battles on Call of Duty MW3. Then we headed into town so he could check out some trainers. The rain on his black car looked interesting so I took a few shots from ...

I cycled around Clumber Park today and took this shot in Hardwick village through the window of an old red phone box. It's a mix of reflections and see through grotty glass areas.

I spent a day in Nottingham looking round the sales. I always call in Fopp records, and today picked up the old film by Ken Russell - Altered States on dvd and a Sigur Ros deluxe limited edition of með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust. That was easier to copy and paste than try and type! I spotte...

I decide to go for a walk to get some fresh air after a full day easting and drinking. So the Boxing Day walk was around Whisby Nature Park nr Lincoln. The cafe was open so I called in for a bacon and and sausage sarnie and then had a look round their lower floor Our Changing World Exhibition. A...

Lazy day today after lovely Christmas dinner, so I decided to photograph the bottle of bubbly that we drank to celebrate over lunch. Happy Christmas everyone

When I was a little boy I used to play with marbles a lot. As well as the usual games I invented my own. I used to roll them off the top of the stairs and watch them bounce down and see how far they would go. I then started adding obstacles, things that I had to try and hit. So they bounced down and...

I just did the standard bauble in shot Christmas card pic for ePHOTOzine. I used a red cloth background to add extra colour and make the lights go brighter. Here's a version without. The background is the patio window. A reflector (nearby Christmas card) was used to fill light in on the bauble. ...

If you've followed my photo365 you will know I'm a fan of shallow focus, and bolting things on the front of a camera that weren't designed to be bolted on. My latest purchase is an 85mm f/1.8 Canon FD lens. You can buy lenses of this type on eBay for far less than the modern versions. And this one i...

Having been inspired by the pepper splash series that Dave Ovendon posted a few years ago, Ive been meaning to have a go myself. My first recollection of this type of photography was a brilliant photo posted by iraddict way back in the early days of ePHOTOzine. It was a green toy with a comical face...