It has been many years since I owned a telephoto zoom lens of any kind. Burned by poor quality third party zooms of the 1980’s, I have consistently ducked getting another and always opted for primes when requiring telephoto focal lengths. This changed when researching a recent trip to the eastern region of Halkidiki in Greece. Part of the itinerary was to visit the town of Ouranoupoli which is close to the border of the Monks Republic of Athos.

Panoramas can be easily created in both Lightroom and Photoshop. The process in Lightroom is simpler and much more autonomous; providing access to a few easy-to-use tools ensuring great results. Unlike Photoshop; Lightroom does not require your images be in JPG format, meaning you can create a single RAW panorama file and then perform your usual post-processing tasks.

2018 marks the fifth year of the Photography Show at Birmingham’s NEC. Born from the ashes of the annual Focus on Imaging event, each year offers the chance to try out all things photographic. From brands that for decades have been cornerstones of the industry to the rise of new and innovative businesses, there is something for everyone. It is not just about kit though; anyone who takes time out from the allure of trying out exotic optics or handling beautifully engineered camera bodies (this means you Hasselblad!) can spend hours attending presentations by some of the best names in the business. One thing is for sure though, whatever you do with your time at the Photography Show, you will leave feeling inspired (and possibly a little lighter in the wallet).

As the years go by it has become apparent to me that Ethan and I take far too many digital pictures. Their stealthy monopolising of our hard disks has meant mandatory expansion not only of drive space in computers, but an equally costly exercise to maintain similar capacity of our backup solutions. Given that we retain three backups of our images (NAS, Cloud and secondary local storage solutions), a rational approach to image storage makes perfect sense.

This article is a companion to the one written about Win Hill, and is for those photographers who enjoy walking in the Dark Peak area of Derbyshire. Stretching for many miles along and above the Ladybower, Derwent and Howden reservoir complex, this stretch of ancient gritstone defines in many ways the properties of the High Peak. Blanket bog, sculpted rock outcrops and moorland…its mournful atmosphere concealing the ghosts of several aircraft wrecks. This is not an area I particularly like walking due to the depressing nature of the landscape; each time I visit, its essence seems to permeate my soul staining it with an unquantifiable darkness that requires exorcism by sleep to disperse! Having wrote that, there is no denying its photographic interest, which is the only reason for my occasional return.

Before we get started we would first like to apologise for our lack of content over the past couple of months; the end of 2017 went a little crazy to say the least. After arriving back from Dubai and Mauritius late November feeling slightly dazed and confused, it goes without saying that neither of us were prepared for Christmas and the associated gift buying that goes with it. The Christmas rush was on and to complicate things further, we were spending the big day up in Scotland meaning all the present buying needed to be sorted in advance. To make matters worse, we had one family member who had just gotten out of hospital, when another was rushed in. So, we are pleased start 2018 by saying everyone is fine and by unveiling a new PhotoArk!