Watching the sunset in Island Bay, Wellington

Freelance writer & fine art photographer

My interest in photography began when my parents bought me a Ricoh KR-10m camera over 20 years ago. Since that day I progressed from colour negative to slide and black and white film and finally to digital, when I bought my first digital SLR, an EOS 350D, in 2006. During that time I’ve taken photos in over 60 countries, studied for a degree in photography and worked as Technical Editor for EOS magazine. Now I’m a freelance writer and I make a living writing about photography. In recent years I’ve lived in the UK, China and New Zealand, which is now my home. My clients include EOS magazine, Craft & Vision and Peachpit Press. I also carry out technical editing on forthcoming photography books, and design photography courses for Foto-Classes.

My photography eBooks

At the end of 2011 I started publishing photography eBooks on my own website. Most of the titles are Canon specific, written for owners of EOS cameras. I’ve built upon my experience working for EOS magazine and years using Canon cameras to create a unique resource. Find out more and see the collection here.

Craft & Vision

I write photography eBooks for Craft & Vision. They have published my eBooks since April 2010 and sold tens of thousands of copies.

The concept behind Craft & Vision is brilliantly simple. High quality photography eBooks at an unbelievably low price. For less than the price of most photography magazines, you get an eBook written by a master photographer. And I’m proud that my photography eBooks are available alongside those of authors like David duChemin,  Michael Frye and Piet Van den Eynde. You can see my Craft & Vision eBooks here.

EOS magazine

As a writer for EOS magazine my job is to research and write detailed articles about the Canon EOS camera system. The magazine is unique because we write in-depth pieces based on a sound knowledge of EOS cameras. The articles are illustrated by photos taken with EOS cameras. We don’t assume that our readers have the latest camera models either – our magazine is just as relevant whether you have an EOS 300D or an EOS 7D.

EOS magazine is different from other photography magazines because we specialise in writing about just one camera system. We don’t dumb down and we realise that while our readership ranges from near beginners to professional photographers, the bulk of our readership are experienced photographers with many years of experience. Our aim is to show you how to get the best out of your EOS camera and take better photos with it.

Foto-Classes

I’ve written a photography course on black and white photography for Foto Classes. The course will be available soon and I will update this page then.

Peachpit

I am the author of Exposure and the Histogram, a short book published by Peachpit Press. I also write articles about photography for the Peachpit website:

Exposure and the Histogram (this articles covers some of the concepts covered in the book of the same name).

Take Control of Colour in Your Digital Photos

Get Dynamic Black-and-White Results with the Topaz B&W Effects Plug-in

Snapseed for the iPad: Professional Results from a $4.99 App

How Aperture Affects the Image Quality of Your Photograph

The Wonderful World of Close-up Lenses

Technical Editor for Photography Book Publishers

Towards the end of the production cycle photography books go through a technical edit. The job of the technical editor (that’s me) is to read through the text of the photography book (supplied as PDF files), carry out a fact check and return the files to the publisher annotated with comments about the content.

This is an essential part of the process of creating the book as the project managers at the publishing company are not necessarily experts on photography – they need someone else to double check that the book’s author meaning is clear and the book’s facts are correct. My work as Technical Editor for EOS magazine gives me a wide background in the technical areas of digital photography, particularly in relation to the Canon EOS camera system.

These are the things that I look at on a technical edit:

• Check the information provided about camera details and settings is accurate, and that sentences that describe camera settings make grammatical sense.
• Check the camera settings provided for any photos in the book. It’s easy to make mistakes when adding this information. A simple typo, such as 1/10 second instead of 1/100 second, or f18 instead of f1.8, can make a big difference. My job is to look at the settings provided and make sure that they match up to the photo.
• Make sure that any information about cameras or equipment is up to date. Look at any images of equipment to see if there is a newer or more appropriate model that should be illustrated instead.
• Look for misleading or biased information. Most authors are only familiar with one camera system, if the author is a Nikon author, for example, I can check that the information provided is also accurate from the point of view of a Canon user. I also look for anything that seems wrong or odd in any way.

Photo Tuts+

I also write articles for photography website Phototuts+. The articles are approximately 1500–1800 words long and deal with the creative and technical aspects of digital photography. I’ve covered topics as diverse as black and white photography, travel photography, prime lenses and taking moody photos. You can click here to read them.