Hello! Welcome to my website. Thanks for reading this. I’m Rick.
I am a professionally qualified photographer based in Dorset. I specialise in architectural, commercial, landscape and travel photography.
I have a weekly photography blog. And I am an all round nice chap. Please get in touch so we can create some great photos.
I am going to give you 21 Photography Tips That Will Actually make A Difference in this post. I am talking about things that really work and will genuinley help you. These are things that I have learned over many years as a photographer. These are not quick tips, some of these are ways of thinking about things differently.
Read MoreThis post was republished on Friday 8th March 2019 with a new title and introduction - 21 Photography Tips That WIll Actually Make A Difference.
It took me a while to come up with this title. I wanted to encapsulate this entire subject in one line.
Alternative titles were
20 things I wish I had known when I started my journey in photography
20 pieces of advice for new photographers
20 tips for photographers – things I wish I knew
20 things I have learned which will help you grow as a photographer
I went with the title at the top, which I hope explains what I am going to write about in this post.
These are 20 things that I have learned along the way, which I hope will help you in your journey in photography.
These are all my own opinions, based on my experiences in the last 11 years.
I hope you find them helpful.
A lot of these points are interrelated, and things will get a mention more than once, but at the end I will summarise with 10 key points what I have written about in this blog post.
They are in no particular order, just the way things came out of my head.
Don’t worry about the gear
Second hand gear is fine
Learn about composition
Get off the computer and get out there
Take less photos
Take more photos in interesting places.
Forget layers in Photoshop
Start with Lightroom
Learn Lightroom properly (before trying anything else)
Get honest critiques of your work
Join a professional body
Don’t research a location too much before going there
Practice, practice, practice. And fail. Fail lots.
Choose the people whose advice you trust and stick with them
Listen to podcasts
Start a blog
Buy a tripod
Don’t worry about social media
Follow your own mind, dreams and ambitions
Enjoy it
Get the best gear you can, but don’t break the bank. That is the first general point I want to get across to everyone getting started in photography.
And to be honest this applies to all of us at all stages of our journeys. In my humble opinion there is too much talk about photography gear. Much too much.
I have been using my Canon 6D for well over 4 years now, and it still produces great images. I have images in my portfolio that were taken with my 12 mega pixel Canon 5D. And do you know what – you cannot tell that they were taken with a 10-year-old camera.
My clients are not interested in my gear – all they care about is the images that I produce for them. I have never been asked (other than in passing interest) about the cameras and lenses I use. The only time has been when I was with a client who had an interest in photography.
Don’t worry about the gear – get the best you can and use it.
And another point – don’t take all your gear with you wherever you go.
I have my base gear in my Peak Design Everyday Backpack. This is a small 20 litre bag.
It looks like this.
In it I carry the following
A few other bits – memory cards, spare batteries, a Platypod and ball head, a couple of key filters, grey card, colour card, cloths and wipes.
Manfrotto 190 Go tripod (which fits in a side pocket and is strapped in place) with geared head
Not forgetting my Neewer Loupe Viewer.
And that is the base gear I use 95% of the time.
Peak Design Everyday Backpack on location in Santorini
Canon 6D, Canon 17-40mm lens, Platypod Pro
I have just written an article about this which you can read on the Improve Photography website titled Full frame DSLR photography without breaking the bank – this is how I do it
Read this article on Improve Photography
The first full frame DSLR I bought was a Canon 5D. I bought it from a photographer who had not had it long but had a change of heart and decided to stay with medium format.
That camera worked faultlessly for my formative years as a photographer, and I used this great camera on many commercial jobs.
I have lenses that I bought new, and lenses that I bought second hand. And can I tell them apart? Not really no. Of course, I know which are which, but in practical terms they all produce great results.
And a slight aside here but an important point all the same – lenses hold their value incredibly well.
Again, the last article I wrote on the Improve Photography website talks about this as well, and the gear that I use. I have linked to it above.
Classic lines in this compostion for an architect
This is the number 1 mistake I made for years and years. I was too busy looking at what gear to buy next and taking photos without really thinking about composition.
What happened?
I got bored with producing average photos. I bored myself to be honest. And this was when I started to think about my images, what I didn’t like about them, and how I might make them better.
I stopped obsessing about my gear, and instead concentrated on the pictures themselves.
I looked at the work of the best photographers, read books and took the time to critique my work. It was at this time that I submitted my first portfolio submission to the BIPP – that is the British Institute of Professional Photography.
My first submission was a complete revelation – a Hasselblad master called Bryn Griffiths very kindly and patiently critiqued the images I sent him. I had to rethink my submission, and quite a few of the images were removed from my portfolio and replaced with images that worked better.
This was the beginning really of my realisation of what really matters in photography.
Get the composition right and you have a great photo., be it on the best DLSR, a lovely Hasselblad, an iPhone, a point and shoot – any camera.
But a rubbish composition is a rubbish composition, and probably a rubbish photo, whatever the camera.
If you take two things from this I will be happy.
If you are happy to read on, then thank you.
To continue with the portfolio thing and the BIPP, last month I had my second portfolio assessment at the BIPP – this time for my Associateship.
And Associateship is defined by the BIPP as
And all those years on from the initial critique, all I was asked to change by Bryn was the white balance to some of my interior images – that was it.
I have worked very hard on improving the quality of my images, and this is the result.
Composition on a architectural photgraphy shoot
And I got my Associateship – I am now an ABIPP. And one of the points of feedback was the observation that I did not appear to crop many, if any, of the 40 images submitted. I had not thought about this, but it turns out this is the case.
I rarely crop an image. Like I say this is not a deliberate ploy, some attempt at a certain style, trying to be different.
No – this was pointed out to me and is the logical conclusion of the work I have done to date on my composition, and also taking the time and care when capturing images.
I will talk about my professional qualifications later on in this post.
Me on location in Santorini
Another mistake I made. Rather than getting out there taking photos I spent too much time working on photos in Lightroom and then every worse doing nothing with them.
Now I know we all need to practice to learn Lightroom but please give this some thought – apply some structure to your learning and you will progress in leaps and bounds. Do not do what I did, which basically was keep on doing the same things to more and more images, or you will stagnate.
I did.
And whilst learning Lightroom don’t but any plug-ins.
Sunrise on Santorini by Rick McEvoy travel photography
Being out with a camera is a joy that we should all embrace more than we do. I spend more time writing these days than I do taking photos – an occupational hazard – but when I get the opportunity there is nothing I enjoy more than sitting waiting for the sun to rise, or setting up my tripod to take a considered photo of a stunning building.
Even more of a joy when you have a lightweight backpack and are not burdened with 50kgs of back-breaking stuff!
Get out more, take the shots you want, work the scene by all means. And then move on.
It took me a while to realise that I was taking the same scene more than once. On architectural shoots I would work in a logical order around a building, and then at the end if I had time photograph as many things again from the beginning.
I think it was a lack of confidence at the time. And I never used any of the images I took again – the ones I took on the first place were without exception better.
These days when I am working on an architectural shoot I aim to capture as few images as possible. I photographed a very famous persons house the other week, and on the internals I took one or two shots per room.
I took the time to get my composition bang on for the views needed and that was that.
This of course relates back to the point about composition – take the time to get the composition right and you don’t need to move three feet to the left to take the same scene from a very marginally different viewpoint.
And you will thank me when you are going through your photos in Lightroom, or whatever software you might be using.
I love going through an architectural shoot and picking consecutive images as picks to edit. This tells me that I was working at my optimum.
I am not saying get out and photograph the most often photographed locations. For me that would be Durdle Door, which I have photographed twice.
No - get out to interesting places, not necessarily those that would feature in a “Top 10 locations to photograph in Dorset” kind of thing.
Take this shot, which was taken one New Year’s Eve afternoon at my local woods, which to my shame I had never been to before. In that one afternoon I get some really great stuff, and no-one knows or indeed cares where I took the photos. All people care about is the photos themselves.
Delph Woods, Poole - landscape photography in Dorset
But do not restrict yourself to the headline locations. I hear tales of lines of photographers at the headline locations standing shoulder to shoulder all taking the same image!
Go to places others don’t go, find things to photograph. Be original.
Seriously. I don’t use layers. I have a couple of times for sky replacements, which I try to avoid doing, but apart from that I don’t get layers.
I process all my images in Lightroom. I only go into Photoshop to remove things that I can’t remove in Lightroom. I have spent hours and hours trying to learn Photoshop – the problem was that I did not have a need for Photoshop, so I was trying to learn something I did not actually need.
All I use in Photoshop is the following
Clone stamp tool
Patch tool
Healing brush
And I resize images if I need them printing at specific sizes
Here is why I can get away with only doing these things in Photoshop, and why I don’t need layers.
I do as much work as possible in Lightroom – when I need to go into Photoshop I select Edit in Photoshop, and Lightroom sends the image to Photoshop. Once I am done I hit save and the image appears next to the original image sent to Lightroom.
The new file is a brand new Tif file, the original Lightroom file is exactly as it was before being sent to Photoshop.
I therefore do not need to worry about undoing the work I have done in Photoshop, as it is so minimal I can just do it again and produce another new Tif file.
This is why I don’t need layers, and why it doesn’t bother me either.
Adobe Lightroom Classic 7.3 on my PC
Start with Lightroom. Don’t try anything else. Use Lightroom to organise your photos – the Library Module is incredibly powerful, and as far as I am concerned is the best software to use to catalogue your photos. I have been using Lightroom for over 10 years now and can honestly say that the latest version of Lightroom Classic is the best.
And once you have done this why edit your photos anywhere else?
I do as much of my editing as I possibly can in Lightroom – if I can edit an image in Lightroom and not go anywhere else to do more work I am a happy person.
A point of digression here – I have just upgraded the RAM in my Dell PC to 16GB from 8GB and it has made a massive difference to Lightroom. In the Lightroom Classic 7.3 upgrade performance improvements were added, but you needed 12GB or more to benefit from these improvements.
I started using Lightroom, and at the same time discovered the wonderful world of plug-ins. I bought the following
Photomatix Pro
Topaz Labs
On One Perfect Suite
Nik Collection
PT Gui
There are probably some others I bought which I can’t even remember.
And I played around with them, without ever mastering any of them.
And this was at the same time as trying to learn how to use Lightroom.
And when I got an iPad Pro I got even more stuff
Now I am working as a professional photographer what software do I use?
Lightroom
And when needed Photoshop
And Lightroom Mobile
Lightroom Mobile is an essential tool, which syncs with Lightroom Classic on my desktop.
I mean people who know what they are looking at. I don’t think that family members are the best people to critique your work – they love you after all (well I hope that do) and will not give you an honest critique.
Social media is a minefield, and not to be relied on for feedback on images. You have to remember that people scrolling through endless photos are probably liking your photo in the hope that you will see this and like one of theirs. And they have liked many other photos, giving each one equal time, care and attention – a second if you are lucky.
Find someone who you can trust to critique your work. I use the BIPP for this, and I write about this elsewhere in this post.
And when you have had a critique from someone who knows what they are talking about it is very very important to act on that critique.
This is another important point – learn something, then make sure you act on it. If you don’t act on something you learn you might as well have not bothered learning it in the first place!
I am a firm believer in professional bodies and professional qualifications. I have been a Chartered Member of the CIOB, the Chartered Institute of Building - MCIOB. This is the benchmark professional qualification for construction management professionals.
I was a member of the SWPP for some time – this is the Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers. Not an obvious choice for me, but this was in the early days of my journey into professional photography.
Now I am sure there is nothing wrong with the SWPP, but I left having not got a lot out of my membership.
I came across the BIPP – the British Institute of Professional Photography. I applied to join the BIPP, and to do this I had to submit a portfolio which was critiqued, rejected and worked on quite a lot before it was of a standard for entry level membership, LBIPP – Licentiate of the British Institute of Professional Photography.
This qualification is described by the BIPP on the qualifications page as
“Entry level qualification, showing an established professional level of skill and competence”
It took me a while to get a set of images to this standard and was the first professional critique I had experienced.
Last month I managed to gain my Associateship, ABIPP. This is defined by the BIPP as
It was much easier to select the images for this submission. I tried to do this a couple of years ago, but I was not happy with the standard of my work.
Not only do I get qualifications and recognition of the level of my work, the BIPP provide great information and the magazine they produce I read cover to cover every month. And I don’t read much else thinking about it.
Join a professional body – one that is relevant to you and the photography work that you want to do or are doing. Embrace that professional body and gain the qualifications available – it pushed me to a higher level of work and can do the same for anyone.
Another controversial point of view. There are many Apps you can get that will show you all the great images from a location, so you know exactly what you are going to get when you arrive at that very spot.
And if you pick a really famous spot when you get there you might be shoulder to shoulder with lots of other photographers.
This sounds like an absolute nightmare to me. So bad I have mentioned this twice in this blog post.
What is the point of going to a location and taking the same photos everyone else already has? And more to the point are doing at the same time as you?
And even worse, do you want to go to a location with photos others have already taken in the back of your mind?
I don’t.
I do not research a location other than the headline research that tells me that there is interesting stuff there to photograph.
I will give you an example here.
I was treated (by the wonderful Mrs. M) to a 5-day photographic trip to the wonderful Greek Island of Santorini. I had wanted to go there for years. I did no research at all.
The only thing I did work out was where the sun rose and set each day, and where that fitted in with the geography of the island. And what time of course.
Apart from that my research was all done out on location. I basically walked around potential locations on arrival and chose my spot for the first sunrise.I didn’t come across another photographer anywhere. Apart from one coach party that arrived too late for the pre-sunrise wonders that I witnessed.
Santorini by Rick McEvoy ABIPP travel photographer
The first sunset was basically us sitting on the terrace at our hotel – it was that easy. But sunrises were about getting out and about early.
Santorini sunset by Rick McEvoy ABIPP - Travel Photographer
OK it was not by luck that this was the view from our room!
This is an easy one. The more you practice the better you get. This is just a fact. There is the 10,000-hour thing – that is the amount of time it takes to become proficient at something.
I have probably spent 10,000 hours in Lightroom – I don’t suggest you do that by the way.
I am taking about getting out and taking photos.
Practice any type of photography that you find interesting. Don’t restrict yourself to landscapes. Try other things. If you don’t like them fine.
Here are 14 quotes about failure from the inspirational James Dyson, which I have extracted from the website Logo Maker
“I could buy companies, tart up their products and put my name on them, but I don’t want to do that. That’s what our competitors do.”
“I made 5,127 prototypes of my vacuum before I got it right. There were 5,126 failures. But I learned from each one. That’s how I came up with a solution. So I don’t mind failure.”
“The key to success is failure… Success is made of 99 percent failure.”
“We’re taught to do things the right way. But if you want to discover something that other people haven’t, you need to do things the wrong way. Initiate a failure by doing something that’s very silly, unthinkable, naughty, dangerous. Watching why that fails can take you on a completely different path. It’s exciting, actually. To me, solving problems is a bit like a drug. You’re on it, and you can’t get off.”
“Enjoy failure and learn from it. You can never learn from success.”
“Anyone can become an expert at anything in six months, whether it is hydrodynamics for boats or cyclonic systems for vacuum cleaners.”
“You are just as likely to solve a problem by being unconventional and determined as by being brilliant.”
“I learned that the moment you want to slow down is the moment you should accelerate.”
“Everyone gets knocked back, no one rises smoothly to the top without hindrance. The ones who succeed are those who say, right, let’s give it another go.”
“It is said that to be an overnight success takes years of effort. So it has proved with me.”
“We always want to create something new out of nothing, and without research, and without long hard hours of effort. But there is no such things as a quantum leap. There is only dogged persistence—and in the end you make it look like a quantum leap.”
“In business you will be wrong, by and large, 50 percent of the time. The trick is to recognise when you have gone wrong and correct the damage—not to worry, at the moment of making the decision, whether it is the right one.”
“In order to fix [something], you need a passionate anger about something that doesn’t work well.”
“Risk aversion is a hapless approach for a company that’s hoping to develop new technology. It’s tempting in a downturn. But long-term research and development, expensive and often filled with failure as it is, is the only route to discovering it. By taking the cautious path, companies risk a drought of ideas.”
And look what happened to him…..
There are lots of people with lots of opinions and lots of advice. And they are all valid in their own ways.
Problem is that they all say slightly different things. As I said none of them are wrong necessarily, just different.
This piece of advice will hopefully help.
I found myself jumping all over the place, picking up bits of advice here and there and trying to apply them.
And achieving nothing.
I have now narrowed down to a small number of people whose opinions have proved sound and relevant to me over the years.
And as I said somewhere else, if you pick up a piece of advice that is useful to you please use it. That was another mistake I made over and over.
These days I act on things I learn whenever I can.
To digress slightly, I have Post It pads in my car, and always have a notebook with me. Anything that I want to remember I write down, and later add to my iPhone in an App called Wunderlist.
Later I sort all these notes and add them to Evernote.
Check out the book How to be a Productivity Ninja by Graham Allcott
I recommend these. My favourites shift over time, but these are my favourites at the moment
Improve Photography
Peta Pixel
The Togcast
The Grid
This Week in Photo
The No Name Photo Show
RAW Talk
Six Figure Photography
Creative Marketing Show
He Shoots He Draws
The Sprouting Photographer
None photography podcasts that I enjoy
Beyond Busy
The Solopreneur Hour
Voom Podcast
Smart Passive Income
BBC Friday Night Comedy
The Danny Baker Show
Flintoff, Savage and the Ping Pong Guy
Test Match Special
Tailenders (I am a massive cricket fan)
Some of these I listen to all of, some I listen to part of, some the subject is of no interest. It just depends. But if a podcast is not of interest to me I just delete it straight away and move on.
And my favourites have shifted over time – I now am listening more to podcasts on entrepreneurship, business development – that kind of thing.
Don’t necessarily restrict yourself to podcasts about what you are interested in – you can learn things from any good photography podcast. The example here is the Sprouting Photographer. This is mainly about wedding and portrait photography, not my bag at all. Some episodes I don’t listen to at all, but I give them a try first as there are often little gems within them that I have found incredibly useful.
If you are new to podcasts try the ones listed above, and anything else that you find, and give them a go. You will soon find the ones that are relevant to you.
I also listen to podcasts when I am cutting the grass. Peta Pixel podcast has the best audio quality, so I save them for the lawn mowing. Sure you are delighted to hear that Sharkey!
And I watch blind photo critiques on The Grid when I make it onto the cross trainer
Talk about efficiency!
Write about your experiences. Writing is a great way of capturing your journey, recording the good and bad, and allowing you to share your experiences not on social media but on your own part of the internet.
Be it a blog on your own website, or on a WordPress blog – just start publishing stuff on a weekly basis and you will be amazed where this takes you. I have been producing a daily blog now for nearly 2 ½ years, and many doors have opened up as a result.
I get asked regularly to add links from old blog posts to other articles written by other people which are relevant to what my core business is – photography of the built environment in all its shapes and sizes.
If you are going to start a blog, choose a niche and stick with that – it will pay dividends in future years.
If you have any aspirations to make money from photography start a blog right now. Go on – stop reading this and do it.
When I started off taking my photography seriously I bought a tripod, a big heavy thing with a big heavy head.
And it was heavy.
And guess what?
I left it in my car. I had so much gear in a large backpack. So much gear that the tripod was just too much.
And as a result, I only used my tripod at night.
I have mentioned elsewhere in this post about my gear – I travel light and with my hands free.
I use my tripod for every architectural image I take. The only exception to this is when I need to use a painter’s pole to get high, or my Platypod to take a photo from the floor, or where there is just no room for my tripod, normally squeezed into a corner of a room.
Canon 6D on Platypod Ultra, Dorset
I use a Manfrotto 190 Go tripod with X-Pro geared head. The tripod is lightweight, sturdy and easy to use. I have bigger tripods, but they are difficult to use when I am taking interior photographs, as I have to normally get back right into the corner of a room.
Manfrotto tripod on location on an architectectural photography shoot, Dorset
Manfrotto 190 Go tripod on location in Santorini
The geared head is essential for composing architectural images.
And I use exactly the same set up for landscape and travel photography. I use exactly the same gear, set up and camera settings. The only exception is when I am walking around a location grabbing shots, which is not that often.
I have found that my composition has improved significantly when I started using my tripod more. It slowed me down and made me think about each and every shot much more.
The result of this was less images, and the ones that I took were much better than before I used the tripod.
This ties back to what I said earlier about composition and taking less photos.
I don’t really get social media. It has not brought me any photography work that I am aware of. And I find it quite boring.
But everyone says we all have to be on it, we all have to be seen on all the social media platforms.
Someone please tell me why?
This is what I have done to satisfy the perceived need with minimal effort.
I have automated as much of my social media output as I can. I have a daily photography blog, and I share this content automatically from Squarespace to some social media channels and do manual shares to other channels.
Instagram output is shared to other channels using the great iPhone App IFTT – If This Then That.
And I don’t respond to every comment, thumbs up, like. I just post some stuff and that is pretty much it.
I do worry about my website, the content on it, and how people find my website when putting search terms into Google. This is where I put 95% of my effort – social media platforms come and go, and we do not control them.
Don’t worry about social media too much, instead focus on your own part of the internet.
Listen to the advice of the people whose opinions you value but choose your own path. And stick with your chosen path. I have too many times deviated from a chosen course of action.
I have started doing something, and then heard or read something and found something new to do.
Now I am following a planned course of actions, based on everything I have learned to date. And I am sticking to that plan, just tweaking it when I find better ways of doing things.
I set some targets for my photography business for 2018, which you can read here. And since I set them things have changed, and one of the targets I am not doing at all – I have a different way of achieving what I want to but my own way.
Of course, things change over time – I was going to go all in with stock photography in January but am now going in a completely different direction with that particular thing.
But the general principle of what I am trying to do, which to be fair has taken 10 years to produce, is the plan that I am working to.
And on that point, you have to give yourself time to figure out where you want to go with your photography.
Enjoy your photography. Work hard at it but enjoy it.
Even if you want to be your full time paid gig it is still something to be enjoyed. I don’t take photographs anywhere near as often as I used to. I seem to spend more time writing and responding to emails than I do taking photos.
But guess what?
When I manage to get out somewhere new at sunrise it is an absolute joy. I work on my photography business all the time, but there is nothing like being out on location at sunrise.
Last month I witnessed this sunrise from the beach in Altea in Spain. And also saw this stunning church at sunrise on another morning.
Sunrise in Altea, Spain by Rick McEvoy Travel Photographer
The church on the hill at sunrise, Altea, Spain
For both of these occasions there was no one else there – it was just me and the most natural thing of all, the breaking of a new day.
An event that will never happen again, and it was just me there at that time in that location.
No matter how much work I spend on my photography business that feeling never goes away – the sheer joy of watching and photographing something that will never happen again.
And these are those 10 bullet points I promised right at the beginning.
Get the best gear you can afford.
Only get the gear you need.
Don’t get any more gear.
Have one bag you can carry comfortably.
Get and use a tripod.
Get out and shoot.
Learn Lightroom.
Practice. Fail.
Learn.
Enjoy.
I hope you have enjoyed this post – if you have any comments or questions you can either comment on this blog post or email me at sales@rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk
I am a photographer based in Dorset specialising in
That’s it. No weddings. No people. No animals.
And also on being a photography blogger and all-round internet marketeer.
Construction product photography in Dorset
BASF Walltite sprayed insulation
Now this was an interesting shoot. Walltite Spray Foam Insulation by BASF on a construction site in Poole. The insulation was being sprayed under the felt before being enclosed with plasterboard.
This was a stunning new development, and I managed to capture a picture of the insulation with a view through one of the window openings towards the sea. I was trying with this shot to place the product in it’s context, which was being built into a luxury house with a sea view.
This is the original image which has a brick and some other debris on the floor. I would not dream of issuing an image like that to a client these days!! But this is what I issued at the time! And to be honest there is mo much mess on a construction site sometimes it is best to leave as you find it. I might add a version with these bits removed.
But all shoots provide new learning and things that help me develop and improve the quality of my commercial photography work.
Rick McEvoy Photography
Today I start work on my new portfolio for submission to the BIPP for hopefully upgrading my membership status to Associate.
According to the BIPP, Associate is defined as
“Associateship (ABIPP)
A high standard of craftsmanship and creative ability”
“My current level is licentiateship - (LBIPP)
Entry level qualification, showing an established professional level of skill and competence”
I achieved this in 2014.
I am a believer in professional qualifications. My MCIOB (Member of the Chartered Institute of Building) has served me well over the many years since I achieved this key professional status.
Licentiateship gave me the confidence that I was at a professional standard, and Associate is my aim, after two years of hard but enjoyable work.
So I need to get my portfolio polished, finished and issued. So forgive me but I will write pretty much about the set of 30 images I am going to produce until I am done. As I wrote about in an earlier post, I am concentrating on the following areas
Architectural photography
Commercial photography
Industrial photography.
I will have a set of images, and a new set of hope page images, by the end of April 2016. When I say architectural photography I mean anything in the built environment.
I went to Wikipedia for a definition of architectural photography, and found the following
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architectural_photography
“Architectural photography is the photographing of buildings and similar structures that are both aesthetically pleasing and accurate representations of their subjects. Architectural photographers are usually skilled in the use of specialized techniques and equipment.”
Then I thought – what about commercial photography?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photography#Commercial
Commercial photography is probably best defined as any photography for which the photographer is paid for images rather than works of art. In this light, money could be paid for the subject of the photograph or the photograph itself. Wholesale, retail, and professional uses of photography would fall under this definition
Finally, I tried industrial photography
“The page "Industrial photography" does not exist.”
Oh!
Not to worry. I might even start up my own page on Wikipedia. That would be interesting!
Just for fun I checked myself, and guess what…
The page "Rick mcevoy" does not exist
I really might start my own pages. I could be an internet success.
Back to reality. I am going to work on the set of 30 images for submission to the BIPP, starting right now.
Please pop back to my blog tomorrow to see if I have produced anything yet!!
Bracklesham Bay by Rick McEvoy Hampshire Photographer
A strong contender for my Hampshire photography page is this sunset shot taken at Bracklesham Bay in Hampshire.
A nice image for a Saturday morning after a long week.
Having spent all yesterday going on about the photography work I specialise in, namely
Architectural photography
Commercial photography
Industrial photography
I have decided to change course, and post and write about a nice picture of Hampshire.
I love shots like this. This really was a case of being in the right place at the right time. And the funny thing is – I have never been back? Only been there once. Oh no sorry I went back once and the weather was hideous, but I really must return, to what is an unusual Hampshire coastal view for me – I am much more familiar with being on the other side of Hampshire.
This image was edited dome time ago. I am enjoying going back to older images and seeing what I can do with them now with the tools I have and the knowledge gained since taking and editing some of my old landscape photography work. I am also doing this with some of my architectural photography work to.
I will post the new versions on my blog in the future, along with the original edits, and try to explain the difference.
Hopefully the new images will be better, but you never know….
If you don’t see an updated version of this Hampshire landscape photography image you know what happened…
Thanks for reading this post, please come back to my blog tomorrow at
www.rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk/blog
for another post about something photographic. Not sure what it will be yet but hopefully another nice image for a Sunday.
Also check out my Hampshire photography page at
www.rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk/hampshire-photographer/
Having spent all yesterday going on about the photography work I specialise in, namely
Architectural photography
Commercial photography, and
Industrial photography
You might, quite rightly, question why I post landscape photography work on my website.
Well there are a number of reasons for that.
Firstly, I like to.
I like going to nice, new and interesting places. Who doesn’t? And when I am there I like photographing these places. And during my working day when I am out and about I am always looking for things to photograph.
I am dreadful really.
I actually take notes of places that might be worth a visit on my IPhone, or I take a shot on my IPhone so I have the location and potential subject matter of my next masterpiece tagged electronically.
Honestly how did we manage not that long age before all of the technology?
And film cameras. I am old enough to remember them. I used to have one, well several actually.
So yes as well as my commercial work I have this other area of work, principally travel photography and landscape photography.
When I don’t have the commercial pressures of my commercial photography I can relax into my other, personal (to start with) work. And I can also experiment in Lightroom and Photoshop.
I taught myself sky replacement using some of my landscape images. And I have used some of my landscape photography skies in my commercial work, so there is an inevitable crossover.
This is why I have split my website into commercial work and my places galleries.
So you can tell them apart now but still access both.
It has been said that a photographer’s personal work is a better reflection of their photographic style than their commercial work.
I guess in my case that is 50% true. I enjoy my travel photography and landscape photography, but equally enjoy my commercial work. It is just that they are done in different circumstances, with different constraints and pressures.
Blimey, where did that come from?
Thanks for reading, and please call back tomorrow for the image I was meant to be writing about today at
www.rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk/blog
And please check out my places website pages at
http://rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk/bournemouth-photographer/
http://rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk/cornwall-photographer/
http://rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk/dorset-photographer/
http://rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk/hampshire-photographer/
http://rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk/london-photographer/
http://rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk/poole-photographer/
I have been reviewing the content of my home page, what is says, and the messages it gives out. And, more importantly, what people visiting my website think.
My tagline?
I need to focus more on what I specialise in, which is;
And what do I photograph?
Building exteriors and interiors, construction sites, refurbishment projects, commercial spaces, completed developments, construction products.
So that is basically buildings.
Buildings in the public and private sectors. Commercial, retail, industrial, residential, and education premises, as well as plant, utilities and infrastructure.
One thing that makes me different from most photographers (I would imagine) is my experience working from heights, access platforms, scaffolds, boats, confined spaces and other controlled environments.
And I am offering a new aerial photography service using a drone.
Architects, builders, developers, consultants, designers, agents, property owners and house holders in both the public and private sectors.
So that is who I work for, my specific target market, the environment where I excel photographically.
So why should someone use me as their professional photographer?
Well it’s nice of you to ask.
I provide a personal, bespoke, high quality, efficient professional service to each and every client. I combine technical photographic excellence and creative composition with expertise in Lightroom and Photoshop to provide high quality, individually edited images.
The combination of these skills along with the use of the latest techniques and technologies and my industry experience ensure that you receive a high quality, hassle free experience.
That is me, my photography, what I do, who I work for, who I want to work for and what I am best at doing.
In one page.
Which was not as easy as I thought to capture.
So there you have it. That’s it. All about me!
Thanks for reading this post, please come back to my blog tomorrow for a post which will have a brand new image I promise at
www.rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk/blog
Oh yes sorry I forgot to say where I do all this good stuff.
Bournemouth, Poole, Sandbanks, Dorset and Hampshire are my primary locations, but I also work from time to time in, and am looking forward to working more in the future in, Cornwall, Devon, Surrey and Wiltshire.
And London.
So. The day after the day after. How did it go?
It’s like having a new computer. Much much faster.
And I have over 600GB of space free on my laptop.
And access to all my images through Smart Previews.
I also have huge additional capacity in my external drive, which should keep me going for a couple of years.
And I imported Monday's shots into my external drive fine, adding the import back up to my laptop hard drive. This is fine and just needs managing as part of my backup regime.
To keep my workflow consistent, I need to import images when in my office, where my external drive is. Sure there are other option which I can explore such as taking a smaller hard drive with me and importing to that then merging catalogues later but I really don't need to worry about that for now as most if the time I import in my office.
The other big limitation is that you cannot take a Smart Preview from Lightroom into Photoshop. I have to remember this and only edit in Photoshop in my office. Again I can live with that as if I am in Photoshop I am normally viewing things on my large external monitor anyway.
And you can merge to HDR and Panorama using Smart Previews. Oh no sorry just tried that and you can't.
Next is to explore that little known feature of Lightroom in a browser.
And I am also going to be making better use of collections. I refer back to Terry White in episode 216 of the grid with the best way of explaining Collections. Think of Collections as a playlist for your images. If you have 10,000 songs, you put them into playlists. You do to listen to them one after the other now?
Thanks for reading this post, which I hope helps those of you experiencing the same issues as me. Now I am going to edit some images on my new speedy laptop! Make sure you pop back to my blog tomorrow at
http://www.rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk/blog
where I will post one of these images edited as a Smart Preview whilst not connected to the actual physical file! Amazing I have to say.
I am a photographer living and working in Dorset. I specialise in architectural photography, commercial photography and industrial photography. And I can do other photography stuff too - just ask!
http://www.rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk
Mupe Bay, Dorset, by Rick McEvoy Dorset Photographer
I have decided to post from time to time some of my favourite images amongst my usual daily posts. Some of these have been published before, some not.
These are purely and simply images I like. Personal work. No buildings or construction sites. Well there might be thinking about that.
But definitely some of my favourite images which I hope you all like.
This shot was taken from Arish Mell beach in Dorset, looking towards Mupe Bay. One of my favourite pictures of Dorset. Well favourite taken by me that is.
I took this shot some time ago whilst working on a commercial diving contract. As an aside that truly was great work, covering commercial diving in the beach with this for the view.
And whilst there and waiting for slack water I had time to take the odd image. Whilst I always liked the original image I didn't learn to love it till I learned how to really use Lightrooom.
The original version of this I processed was ok.
Adequate.
Average you would say if you saw it.
So some years later when going through some of my old images of Dorset I looked at this shot again and decided I could do much better.
And I think I did.
This is one of my favourite Dorset images, which you can find in the gallery on my Dorset Photographer page at
http://www.rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk/dorset-photographer/
Please pop back to my blog tomorrow at
http://www.rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk/blog
where you will find a mix of posts about my commercial photography work, architectural photography as well as personal work, the odd bit of photo news and other thoughts.
As always you can contact me by phone, email or using the contact form which can all be found on my website at
Hay bales, Dorset
I live in Dorset. As a photographer in Dorset I am very lucky.
There are two strands to my photography.
Commercial photography, commissioned work for clients, and landscape photography, where I explore, experiment and try new things. My landscape photography work is available to purchase direct from my website, and is also available through two commercial image agencies, one in the UK, one in the USA.
This image to me is a classic image of Dorset. Hay bales warmed by the golden light of late summer sun under a blue sky punctuated with white fluffy clouds.
Very English.
And very Dorset.
Composition of this shot gives a sense of depth through the field, from the front hay bale to the ones in the distance on the top of the field.
The timing of the shot gives that late sun with its golden glow. I can tell by the direction of the shadows roughly what time this image was taken!
Procesing wise, all done in Adobe Lightroom.
No Photoshop required.
And most importantly to me no cropping. This is important as it means that when sat down at my computer with all the time in the world I cannot do anything with cropping tomprove the composition.
Which means I got it right in camera. Excellent.
Well enough Dorset sunshine for a cold grey Dorset day.
Thanks for reading, please visit my website where you can see lots more of my images of Dorset.
http://www.rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk/
i also have new images on my Hampshire and Wiltshire pages which are well worth a look!
#Dorset photographer
#classic Dorset view
#photographer in Dorset
#commercial photography
#landscape photography
#Dorset
#Hampshire
#Wiltshire
#hay bales
Poole Quay sunrise, Dorset
Taken last week, this is exactly what I was looking for, if not quite how and when I expected it.
I parked up on Poole Quay at 6.30am, in plenty of time for sunrise, and sat in my car and drank my coffee. What was the weather doing.
Cloudy. Thick, grey, dull cloud.
Great.
This is the lot of a landscape photographer. Especially in England. The weather is in charge. So there is lots of waiting around.
I have started taking more shots in cloud recently, trying to produce something different when others might not be.
This is a real problem with my commercial photography, and especially architectural photography, where my client wants a certain elevation in nice warm morning sun.
When I say a problem I am talking about the weather, and what actually happens on the day.
In England, the word I use to describe the weather is
Unpredictable
You can calculate when the sun will be in any position.
But not if.
But this problem with commercial photography makes landscape photography such an adventure.
Back to the shot.
I dragged myself out of my nice warm car and assembled my gear, remote plugged in, camera settings and GPS on, then camera on tripod.
This is how I work. Fully prepared at all times from when I leave the car to when I get back to it.
So I got out of my nice warm car and walked up to the Poole Lifting Bridge.
Still cloudy. So I took a test shot.
Dull.
Now what? I took some shots of the bridge itself which are quite interesting. So I decided to walk down Poole Quay, with Poole Port and Sunseeker across the water.
And the clouds started to move and change, and the sky got brighter between the clouds and the land. And then the sun appeared.
And this shot. One of many taken, and one of the best. This is a 2 shot HDR Lightroom merge.
And this one shot made all that effort worthwhile.
Thanks for reading this post - please do visit my website at
http://www.rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk/
where you can find out more about me and my photography in Dorset
http://www.rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk/
#architectural photography
#photography in dorset
#Poole Quay
#Poole Port
#Sunseeker
#Poole Lifting Bridge
#commercial photography
#landscape photography
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#Poole
#Dorset