Watermarks and people who help themselves to my images. I’ve never been a fan of either, but the former is required (in my opinion) to help fight against the latter.

I use watermarks on images I post online in order to:

Deter people from using my images without my permission.
Ensure viewers know who the images belong to, should they be used despite the watermarks.

I also only make lower resolution images publicly available to help prevent them being usable for anything other than online viewing.

As with any visible method of protection, there are downsides to some watermarks:

They can be cropped out …more

For several weeks, I’ve been unable to return to Anglican Cathedral tower for the Thursday evening viewings in order to keep fine tuning my technique due to the poor weather we’ve been experiencing.  Thursday, just gone, was the last scheduled night viewing from the roof of the tower.  So, I decided I would pay a visit come rain or shine.  The addition of the Liverpool ONE Wheel on the skyline gave me even more reason to go.  To my good fortune, the weather was almost ideal; plenty of clear, blue sky, interesting cloud formations and most importantly it was dry!

Here’s …more

After my first attempt at shooting a time lapse sequence from the roof of the Anglican Cathedral tower, I returned with plenty of time to figure out a different way of supporting my camera and keeping it off the floor.  From the results, it looks like it was a success.  It’s just a shame the weather wasn’t as kind as it was the previous week.

Never the less, the city still makes for a fascinating show.  So, let’s get on with it!

On my next visit to the tower, I think I’ll try something else. The position on the roof I’ve …more

Until 26th November 2009, the Anglican cathedral in Liverpool is allowing evening access to the tower roof.  A new lighting system has been installed which means visitors are now able to enjoy a very unique view of Liverpool after dark until 8pm on Thursdays excluding 5th November which is a real shame.

I’ve been on the roof before and it really is a spectacular view over not just the city centre, but also of the surrounding suburbs and even across the Mersey to Wirral.

Last week, I was on the roof again as the sun was setting and I took the opportunity …more

Like most people, I find it difficult to detect gradual changes. For example, when you don’t notice the change in people you see everyday, but you notice the changes in those you don’t see often. The same can be said for things such as the movement of the sun, clouds, tide, flowers which open and close with the sun and other such phenomenon.

One way to make these gradual changes more visible is to record snapshots over a longer period of time and then review them over a shorter period. Like drawing a line on a wall to …more

Watched this?

Pete saw this and was insistent we have a whiteboard installed during our exhibition. So, we did!

Whilst Clay Enos found his subjects on the streets, we engaged the people who came to visit the exhibition. This might seem like shooting fish in a barrel, but it really wasn’t. Getting your portrait taken is probably one of the things you’d least expect to happen at a photo exhibition. After all, the idea is to go and look at photos. Right? So, the process still involved approaching a stranger and asking them to stand in …more

Here’s some video footage from the private viewing/launch party for the Fab Collective’s Up to Something exhibition.

Fab!

Yesterday saw the private viewing and launch party for the Fab Collective’s first exhibition at St. Luke’s bombed out church in Liverpool city centre.

Months of planning and preparation finally culminated in the showcasing of a variety of different images and photographic styles in one of Liverpool’s most iconic buildings.  Everything from the pre-launch publicity to the hanging system for the prints was finely orchestrated.  The only thing we couldn’t do much about was the weather.  If you’re familiar with St. Luke’s at all you’ll know that it doesn’t have a roof.  By the time the doors were open, the …more

Throughout August 2009, the Fab Collective will be hosting their first exhibition entitled, “Up to Something”, at St. Luke’s (the bombed out church) in Liverpool.   The exhibition will be open from Saturday 1st August tight the way through the month, but only Thursday – Sunday 12pm – 4pm.  It will be completely free to anyone who wants to come along.  So, if you’re in town why not drop by.

On Saturday 23rd May 2009, I, together with about 20 other members of the Fab Collective, took our cameras to Lark Lane in the Aigburth district of Liverpool.  Our mission was loosely defined as to document Lark Lane; the people, the shops, the community.  As an added bonus, the monthly farmers market was also being held at one end of the street.

Now, Lark Lane is an interesting street in itself with a very strong community feel.  The main road is lined with cafes, bars, restaurants, beauty salons, everyday shops as well as novelty shops and even a tattoo parlour.  Looking …more

Around the tail end of 2008, a diverse group of Merseyside-based photographers found each other through the power of Flickr and decided they wanted to work together as a collective and put on an exhibition to showcase their work and also the city which brought them together.

Through the months that followed, much discussion took place both online and in real life together.  Through a great team effort, this has resulted in the formation of the Fab Collective and the booking of St. Luke’s church for an exhibition in August 2009.

Since its birth, the Fab Colective have undertaken a number of …more

In March, the Mrs and I went to the Lake District for a week-long break, staying in cottage in Bassenthwaite just outside of Keswick. It was a much quieter visit than some of our previous due to the extended snap of cold weather and with it being in the school term.  Unfortunately, the weather at times was just too much and it either prevented me from getting my camera out of my rucksack or it forced us to cut our walks short and head back to shelter.

Amongst our plans was a trek to the Skiddaw summit and another to …more

Where does the time go?  There is so much going on in my life right now that there’s barely time to stop and take photos of the roses.  January has been a total blur.  Post-Christmas means back to work and it also means spending some time working on the house to get it into a saleable state.

Photographically, January yielded three shoots; the first was Liverpool’s Transition party celebrating the end of the city’s year as the European Capital of Culture, the second was with the Wirral Flickr group at New Brighton, and the third was spent photographing the Chinese New …more

Yesterday saw Liverpool’s main day for celebrating the coming Year of the Ox with the traditional lion and dragon dances together with accompanying firecrackers.

It’s been a few years since I’ve spent the day in Chinatown during celebrations mainly because, well, when you’ve seen the lion dance a dozen times it kinda gets a bit samey.  This year is different because it’s my first Chinese new year with a DSLR and it was an opportunity too good to miss.

Something new to me was that the surrounding roads had all been closed for the celebrations.  Presumably, this had something to do with …more

What a day it’s been today!

It all started a little while ago when I received an email from someone who worked at the Liverpool Daily Post newspaper telling me about a book of images they were publishing as a review of Liverpool’s year as Europe’s Capital of Culture.  It was to be a sort of year in review guide and was to feature a selection of photographs from staff photographers and those who submitted their images to the Liverpool Daily Post’s Captail of Culture 2008 Flickr group.

Since I’d been submitting some of my Flickr images to their group, I was …more