Welcome to the Blogs section of the website. Here you can browse through the blogs and read our articles and help guides, or look at the blogs that are dedicated to a place, a group meet or whatever it maybe you fancy viewing or reading. Each blog is filled with photographs, tutorials, discussion and a lot more!
The blog section is updated at least twice a week, so make sure you bookmark the site and call back soon, as there’s something for every photographer!


Hensol Woods, The People & More. In “American Color” DT Styles.
Today we made a visit to a woodland in the South East of Wales, known…

An Informal Selfie Shoot
I’ve been really lacking inspiration for photography lately. I go out weekly, take photos, but…

A Visit To The Ruins Of The 14th Century Capel Mair.
Today we visited Capel Mair, in Margam, Port Talbot, Wales. Capel Mair is a small…

Langland Bay To Caswell Bay And Back. Beautiful Coastline Of Wales.
Wales has some spectacular scenery, as you’ve probably seen over the years on this website.…

Fujifilm raw files and why they can look underexposed in Darktable
Many users of Darktable are Fujifilm camera users, and thankfully Fujifilm raw files work nicely…

Waterfalls, Darktable & How Shooting raw Really Can Save The Day!
I have my first new video of 2023 out now, and it is something very…

Waterfall country. Pontneddfechan
It was a glorious winters day, with it feeling more like Spring than it should.…

Making Darktables Quick Access Panel Much More Efficient With A Few Simple Changes!
The Darktable quick access panel is a great idea, and you can perform almost all…

Port Talbot Art Walk 2023
Port Talbot is a town known for many things, and not always good! However, it…

Rest Bay Porthcawl – A Day Of Photos, Stacking Images, Long Exposures And Panoramas
It was a stunningly beautiful January day, the sun was out, there was no biting…

Simply and quickly avoiding hue colour shifts with Darktables Filmic/Sigmoid modules.
Darktable is a fantastic editing program, but it is not without its faults. For many,…


Darktable: Filmic RGB, Sigmoid Or Neither?
Darktable is an amazing piece of software, however, the decision to develop a separate module…

My New Techniques For Editing Images (Examples)
For the last couple of years, I’ve been obsessed with getting things right in camera…

Using Frequency Separation to Retouch Portraits
Introduction Being a portrait photographer inherently comes with a responsibility to ensure the model looks…

The First Sunset Shoot Of 2023
I went out for a stroll with my eldest, and never intended to go out…

Darktable 4.2 Review And Overview
Another year is ending (and ended!) with a new Darktable release, and the free and…

My Photography Goals For 2023
I’ve been enjoying photography for a long time now, but I want to enjoy it…

A Selection Of Darktable Styles – Part 2
Darktable has its own presets that are known as Styles. They’re a powerful and useful…

My Top 7 Fujifilm Recipes I Use Most Often
There are so many Fujifilm recipes out there now, you just can’t keep up, so…

How important is it to photograph in raw instead of jpeg? A different reason to consider!
A question we’ve all heard asked a million times… “Do you shoot raw or jpeg”?…

Improve your photography with my 10 tips – By Stephen Davies
As we are in the age of the smartphone we are all now photographers and…

Editing Habits – The Big Poll Results
It’s always interesting to get an idea of how long the average person takes to…

Why you should invest time to learn Darktable
Darktable is a free and open source raw editor that you can download and install…

10 Days Of Christmas Festive Special Starts Soon!
It is that time of year again when for a week or so before Christmas,…

Fujifilm X-T3 long term review
It’s almost 2023, so I thought I would look at the Fujifilm X-T3 and give…

Mumbles – The Final Meet Of The Year (In new recipe “K Kolour”)
As you all know, I take a group of photographers out every week. This week…


A Walk Around The Lower Lliw Reservoir
As the year comes to an end as far as group meetings go, our penultimate…

8 Questions Photographers Ask – And the honest answers to them!
I have a new YouTube video out! Its a quick video where I honestly answer…

Penllergare Forest Walk (With The Viltrox 56mm)
Another week, and again I visit a forest. Today we were lucky as when we…

A Long Overdue Portrait Shoot
For many years I’ve been planning on having a selfie-portrait shoot. Today I had a…

A Climb To The Top Of Drummau Mountain
To say this was one of the best days I’ve had, and how proud I…

Autumn Park Walk With A Telephoto Lens
Autumn is supposed to be ending soon, but it has not quite reached it’s full…

10 Questions I’m Often Asked As A Photographer By Other Photographers
As a popular and prominent photographer in South Wales with my work with Great Photography…

Editing Made Simple In Darktable. A Video.
I’m back! Well, I haven’t gone anywhere, but I have not made any videos for…

An Autumn Visit To Craig Gwladys Country Park
Autumn is a wonderful time for photography. The colours, the textures, the mushrooms, the leaves…

DXO PhotoLab 6 Elite Review
Although not as well known as other software packages, the DXO name IS known from…

My First Red Mushrooms (Fly Agaric)!
I’ve been hunting red mushrooms (Fly Agaric) for many years, but I’ve never been successful,…


Fujifilm X-Mount 56mm F/1.4 Review
I recently reviewed the newer Viltrox 13mm F/1.4 lens for Fujifilm which I bought at…

A selection of Darktable Styles
Darktable has its own presets that are known as Styles. They’re a powerful and useful…


A Mushroom Hunt (And More) With The Viltrox 56mm
I had the opportunity to go out for a few hours and hunt for some…

Fujifilm X-Mount Viltrox 13mm F/1.4 lens review.
I’ve never really been one to use third party autofocus lenses, but a while ago…

Southerndown And Dunraven Bay Visit
A visit to Southerndown and Dunraven Bay in Wales was on the cards. It had…

Olympus Pen E-PL8 2022 new camera review.
I like to make sure I really know a camera before I make a review…

Swansea Architecture, People And Marina
There are times when you go out and everything is just right. The weather, the…

Two New Lenses! My Mission Is Complete!
When I first started using Fujifilm, I always intended to use all prime lenses (or…

Margam Pulpit And Castle With The Olympus
A trip to Margam Pulpit and Castle. I already did a recon mission of this…

A family day out on the Pontwalby trail
The great thing about having the Olympus EPL8 is that its so small and compact,…

A Walk In The Park With The 50-230mm
Today was a day for some recon on a destination to take the photography group…

Castles, Animals And A Church At Merthyr Mawr
Today we visited a castle we had never been to before, a beautiful church we…

Where I want to go with my photography lenses (my current road map).
I’ve been making some changes lately, I’ve sold some of my Fujifilm gear and I’ve…

A Trip Around Neath Fair Market Stalls
Like clockwork, the fair arrives at Neath town centre every September on the second Tuesday…

Why the camera you use (probably) doesn’t matter.
We live in a world where we want, want, want, and this goes for photographers…

The Beach, The X-T3, The 50-230. What Fun!
I’ve had a couple of short little walks out as I try and get myself…



A Walk Along The Coast. Mumbles To Blackpill
It was such a gloomy morning, but the photography session had to go on! By…

Family Day At Margam Lake And Abbey
Its still the school holidays! It feels like they’ve been going on for ages. Anyway,…

I have bought into a new camera system! My first impressions and images.
Oh no! Rumours were rife last week that I was leaving the Fujifilm ecosystem behind.…


Clyne Valley With A Yashica 5cm Manual Lens!
So today I went on a group meet. Sadly, I didn’t stay the full length…


Quickly get a workable image in Darktable
Darktable is the go to free photo editing software for many people. It’s powerful and…


An day of ICM at the beach.
I have already experimented with ICM (intentional camera movement) as can be seen in this…

Butterflies, Bees And Macro
I’ve only had chance to pop into the garden lately to take some photos, and…

Website and life update
Welcome everyone, and thank you for taking time to read this. I thought I would…

Garden Close-Up Photography
As I’m awaiting my operation and generally trying to relax and fend off the pain,…

Why I’ve grown to love (and hate) the XC15-45mm
I’ve owned the XC15-45mm for the last four years, and used it quite extensively. I’ve…

An Experiment In ICM (Intentional Camera Movement)
I’ve not been too well lately, and after a spell in hospital, and now the…

Photography At Brecon (The People, The Cathedral And More)
Brecon, in the middle of the Brecon Beacons in South Wales is a historical garrison…

Why I started Great Photography Walks meets and Facebook pages and what I think about it and it’s future.
In 2017 I had some free time on my hands after finishing full time work…

One Camera One Lens – Honest photography capturing life.
Honest photography capturing life… Because a camera should never lie.

A Day At The River With A Vintage Lens
Ah, The Quays in Neath Port Talbot is a lovely place to visit. A circular…

DXO PhotoLab V5 Elite Review
I’ve reviewed many software packages over the years, and own many packages from all the…


My new favourite focus mode. Its fast, accurate and amazing!
I’ve always been a fan of the basic and most commonly used half press to…

Stunning Tenby And Area (Filmed In New MGA Classic Pro)
I was lucky enough to have a visit to Tenby in West Wales recently, and…

One Camera One Lens Renewed For A Third Year
There’s a lot of celebrating this weekend, what with the Queen’s jubilee celebrations all around…

Fujifilm Recipe & Colour Grading Resource
The aim of this article is to give a resource to Fujifilm users who like…

Dehancer Review: The ultimate film emulation plugin.
It’s very much in vogue right now, especially among Fujifilm photographers, to try and make…

A visit to Pontsticill. Reservoir, trains and nature
The last time I visited Pontsticill, near Merthyr in South Wales, it was winter. There…


Wildlife Down The Docks (And the power of pre-shot on the Fuji)
Went for a quick stroll down the docks, a few hundred yards from my house…

Llyn Llech Owain Nature Reserve
This was the very first time I had been to Llyn Llech Owain, near Cross…

Using the 7.5mm fisheye lens as a rectilinear wide-angle lens (with images from Laugharne Castle)
I haven’t used my TTArtisan 7.5mm fisheye lens enough over the last few months, and…

A visit to Laugharne. A stunning historic coastal village.
First of all, I didn’t realise it’s been 11 days since I last posted, I…

Is the experience of using a 35mm film camera really different to a digital camera?
It’s funny, all my life I’ve been taking photos. Through a lot of that time…

Flowers! My favourite time of year is starting now!
You know I love photography, but sometimes I get a little bored of photographing certain…

Aberthaw, a place of three very different areas (in NEW Vintage Summer Chrome recipe)
It’s always great going to new areas, and even more so when the weather is…

A Visit To Llanelli Wetlands. Images of birds and the video of the day!
After a few days of being really busy, I have managed to get the second…

A Visit To Llanelli Wetlands
Ah birds… I love seeing them fly around, but photographing them is another thing. There…

Bluebell Fields, The Family & New Recipe “Velvia Colour Plus”
It’s that time of year again, when the bluebells are growing, and it’s an excellent…

No more raw (as standard)
Since cameras were able to shoot in both raw and jpeg, I’ve shot in both.…

A day at Kenfig for Infrared, HDR and a long, long walk!
Firstly, no video today. I am still not feeling 100%, so I didn’t record any…

Bedford Park: Nature, Ruins & Adventure!
A visit to somewhere I’ve never been before, and although only a stones throw away…
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Your capsule summary of classic negative references your efforts to create an authentic classic chrome,,assuming u meant classic negative
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