Here are some of the camera edits. I already shared phone edits soon after the Carnival.

Venice in 2023

I am looking forward to returning for Carnival in 2024

Thank you to all the models, masks and organisers who have helped make it such a splendid year.

2023 favourites gallery

I continued to do fun themed events organised by Salli Gainsford and model trips with Keira Lavelle and Rachelle Summers.  And of course there was a visit to Venice Carnival.

Link to pictures

https://fancifulphotos.slickpic.com/go/venice-carnival2023

The trip was organised by Rachelle Summers so was primarily about taking pictures of models in the landscape but there were plenty of opportunities to see wonderful landscapes and even some wildlife.

Namibia is a huge country with a small population.  Not surprisingly we had long drives between locations!  And saw a lot of sand in the desert! The group consisted of four photographers, two models and two (very brave and competent) drivers.

One day we visited an abandoned mining town where the sand had taken over.


Another amazing stop was Fish River Canyon, which for me was even more spectacular than the Grand Canyon.


The locations just kept coming and another favourite was Deadvlei. Just incredible!
And then there were camels and flamingos....


All in all it was an amzing (and exhausting) trip. More pictures can be seen in this gallery: Namibia pictures

I do quite a few model shoots in the UK and usually abroad. I visited Venice for the first time in 2019 and find it inspiring (I am hoping to visit again next month but nothing is certain yet). I am still working out what I like in landscapes.  A new style this year was Acro Yoga which was fascinating.

No cityscapes for me last year because of Covid but I did have an amzing visit to Iceland so do have some landscapes.

And I went on some great themed shoots organised by Salli Gainsford (see a previous blog post for more details).

And two shoots abroad with models went ahead in Norway and Spain.

To see the full gallery click here: https://slickpic.us/2284732M0ZY

Roll on 2022!

The first event in July was all about Elves and wolf hounds. Tegan Elizabeth and Marta Svetek looked amazing.

Then in August it was Vikings at Guy's Cliff near Warwick. Tegan was there again and this time Tony Lane and Katelyn Eames were looking rather threatening!

An unexpected bonus was to get to one of the Wonderland events.  Huge thanks to my friend who wasn't able to go and offered me the place.  Katelyn was there again, looking completely different and Matthew Andrews was just awesome as the Red Queen.

The final event I got to was on Halloween and was Harry Potter themed.  Tegan was there again and Ben Davies.  Tremendous fun!

Of course there are lots of other people involved in making this events happen.  To mention just a few: Shropshire Falconry for the birds of prey, Tracey Honiahaka Fowler for the dogs, Serah Eames for make-up, Mike Baker with lighting and lots of volunteer helpers. 

I am already booked on some for next year and in the meantime have enjoyed zoom sessions with free training and sharing of expertise.  For more information about these events go to www.salligainsford.co.uk/events

It is a beautiful and inspiring country but you need to be persistent to get the pictures.  Aftera lovely drive to the South East of the island we checked out some locations that are normally awesome.  Alas some sea mist was creating a murky look ratherthan the awesome we hoped for. We kept looking and suddenly the driver spotted an opportunity!  We had to trek a bit to get in position but this ended up being one of my favourite pictures of the trip. 

The organiser of the trip, Mark Andreas Jones, was also the driver and trainer in Landscape Photography. He knows Iceland so well he follows the weather so we went where the likelihood of good pictures were and he booked accomodation as we went. It made for a very personalised trip.

When we went to the north of the island we took pictures of amazing waterfalls - including Aldeyjarfoss and Godafoss.

And we finished our circular tour of Iceland by going to one of the most famous waterfalls, this time in the South West: Kirkjufellsfoss.

We finished around Rjekyavik because we had to get PCR tests before we came home (very efficiently done) so we found some sea stacks that were pretty spectacular. One of the group, Ian, walked to the edge of the cliff to give some perspective.  He is quite tall but looked tiny!

It was an exhausting but memorable trip.  I am still not sure if I want to go there in winter but I may well visit again.

I mainly took pictures of models at this time and was concerned I would not be able to show enough variety but in the end I was able to show movement, control of light and so on.  We had a judge come to give advice on the panels before they were finally put forward and it was very interesting hearing his comments on different people's panels.  The more I heard the less confidence I had in my panel.

Then my photograph's were displayed and there was much amusement when the judge assumed I was a man because of the content of the photographs.  He was very complimentary about the demonstartion of abilities shown but shared my concern that because the photographs were all of models that there might be an issue.

I wasn't able to go to the actual judging day but was absolutely thrilled to get a message to say I had passed and was now a Licentiate of the Royal Photographic Society.

I have improved since then but am still learning every day.