Looking for the ‘ah-ha’ seems to me to be an excellent mantra for any photographer. Although in truth I sometimes search for that not by stepping back but by zooming in. For me the important thing is not to settle for the obvious, for the first angle that occurs to me.
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Paris is not alone in being as much a collection of villages as it is a single city; but its villages have to be among the most charming of any city's. And none more so perhaps than Montmartre, set high on a hill, with its basilica, the Sacré Coeur, visible from miles around.
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When you visit a city regularly, you can make time to explore new areas, as well as revisit favourite corners. And you can look for quirky details to photograph as well as the obvious sights. In Paris o, I was on the look out for colourful and interesting street art in the different neighbourhoods we explored.
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It’s no secret that I’ve badly missed travelling abroad over the last eighteen months. It’s not that we were always travelling, far from it, but we always knew that we could. And most years we would go abroad three or four times, on a mix of weekend breaks and longer trips.
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Studio photographers can spend a lot of time getting the light just right, changing the angles, adjusting the brightness and colour. Landscape photographers don’t have that luxury; we have to work with the light we have, or wait until it changes naturally.
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Art Nouveau, or Jugendstil as it is also known, was an art and architecture movement of the late 19th to early 20th centuries, at its height 1890–1910. As an artistic philosophy it proposed that art should be a way of life, and that everyday items could be beautiful too. It was inspired by nature – flowers, animals, natural forms. In the old buildings of Riga it is at times at its most flamboyant and exuberant.
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At half-time during Newcastle United games at their home stadium, St James’ Park, one song is always played. 'Coming home Newcastle' was written by Ronnie Lambert, the Geordie busker. In it he captured the feelings of exiled Geordies returning home from abroad or London. He also reflected the love that Geordies feel for their native city.
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If like me you enjoy a wander around an interesting neighbourhood just as much (if not more) as seeing the major sights of a city, Santiago’s Barrio Lastarria is likely to appeal. This is the perfect area to stroll through and enjoy for its ambiance and street life. And it's a great district in which to photograph street art.
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If you enjoy candid photography there is no better country to visit, perhaps, than India. I have never been anywhere else where people are so comfortable to be photographed and that is its one downside, as they can be too eager to pose as soon as they see your camera. However, a posed photo can be as effective as a candid shot if you are photographing people within the setting of their workplace.
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Anacortes struck me as an easy-going and slightly quirky small city. It's the sort of laid-back place where a brief stop can easily turn into a couple of hours as you stroll its downtown streets, pause for a leisurely coffee, pop into a shop or two.