AI Assistants and Their Failings
23rd February 2026
Your camera may be at risk of falling. Here’s how to fix it.
5th September 2026
I feel incredibly fortunate to live in Northumberland. I often tell people that it is truly a photographer’s paradise. Nevertheless, capturing great images of our beautiful county takes more than just lifting a camera to our eye and pressing the shutter release.
Creating a unique photograph requires proper planning and thoughtful composition.
I guess most of us want something to hang on the wall, rather than just a simple record of the scene we captured.
I used to take my camera everywhere. When I went for a walk, it would hang around my neck. Similarly, on my early-morning bike rides, I packed it into the panniers. Back then, on family trips, I always made space for my camera bag in the car’s boot. I considered it pointless to be a photographer if I didn’t have a camera with me. I knew that if I left it behind, Murphy’s Law would ensure perfect subjects and magical light appeared.
Over time, I discovered that even though I always carry my camera, almost all my best photos come from planned shoots. It’s all about being in the right place at the right time. There are so many considerations, such as travel time to the location, the sun’s position, the state of the tides, the weather (including the direction the clouds will be moving), the terrain, and the camera and lens settings, to name a few.
Things can still go wrong, and they do. A friend turned up at a waterfall to photograph it only to discover there was no water. They had meticulously planned it, but had not taken into account that during this summer, it hadn’t rained for weeks.
That notwithstanding, planned shoots generally produce far better images than spur-of-the-moment ones.
There have never been better tools available for planning photoshoots than now.
If you come to one of my landscape workshops, you will discover the ins and outs of planning a shoot and how to place yourself in the best location.
