David Wagstaff-Myers Photography

Helmut Newton’s remark that women do not live in front of white paper and his preference for shooting in smart hotel rooms gave one reason. Why? Studios are excellent in many ways, but real and existing rooms offer lots of sets and have a narrative plausibility. One of them might fit the artistic requirement for a particular shoot. Costs, geography, and convenience are other respectable reasons. A hotel is neutral ground (which neither the model nor the photographer’s home is) and has slight and distant supervision. A touring model may well book a room overnight or longer. One option is to book a rather nice large room, and besides sleeping in it and preparing to meet the coming day may offer availability in it for shoots, intending to at least defray the cost of the room.  This perhaps works best in or near a sizeable town. A photographer may also be touring, or away on other business, and mix a shoot with it, or perhaps repeatedly use a local hotel in daytime [0]  ...

Here’s a fun list of what not to do on a photo shoot, this in no way includes everything you shouldn’t do.  Please comment below with more things that you shouldn’t do on a shoot, and we will add those with a name credit and a link to your website.  Forget vital gear (Camera, Lenses) Forget secondary gear (Flashes, Batteries, etc.) Stand in a dangerous place Step too close to a propeller or athlete with a fisheye lens…. Talk about how everyone is a pro photographer now since the iPhone camera is soo good… Ugh Blame a bad photo on your gear. Steal another photographer’s angle without thanking them in advance. Leave your pack unattended in a crowd. Leave the lens cap on as you go to take your first shot. Act superior to other photographers at an event. Use words that make your athletes feel uncomfortable… Act too artsy and walk around framing the shot with your hands Ignore what your athletes ask you to shoot. Forget to change your ISO when the la...

  1. Practice Depth of Field Let’s start with the basics, shall we? It is absolutely essential that you practice balancing your shutter speed with your aperture (and other settings like your ISO) to get the right exposure. But good photography is more than a perfectly balanced histogram, and depth of field is one of those artistic decisions that can completely change the impact of an image. If the term isn’t ringing a bell, depth of field refers to the range of focus in your image. For example, a headshot with a dreamy, blurred background has a shallow depth of field, while a sweeping mountainscape with sharp details from the point of view all the way to the distant cliffs has a very wide depth of field. Depth of field is controlled through your aperture settings. A wide aperture (achieved with a low f-stop number such as f/1.4 or f/2.8) will give you a more shallow depth of field, while a narrow aperture (and higher f-stop number) will offer a wider one. Challenge yoursel...

  Some places simply overwhelm the senses the moment you arrive. Bempton Cliffs, on the spectacular Yorkshire coast, is one of them. Long before you see the birds, you hear them. Tens of thousands of seabirds fill the air with an almost constant chorus of calls while the unmistakable scent of a busy breeding colony drifts up from the cliffs below. Looking out across the North Sea, white specks quickly become recognisable as Northern Gannets, Kittiwakes, Guillemots, Razorbills and, if you're lucky, Puffins. The sky is never empty. As a photographer, it's one of those places where every direction offers another opportunity. Choosing the Right Equipment For this trip, I travelled relatively light, carrying my  OM System OM-1 Mark II  paired with the  M.Zuiko Digital ED 100-400mm f/5.0-6.3 IS  lens. For wildlife photography, particularly at coastal colonies, this combination is difficult to beat. The OM-1 Mark II is designed around speed. Birds rarely wait for photo...

One of the joys of photography is discovering stories that quietly challenge our assumptions. Spend a day at a clay shooting ground, and you quickly realise this isn't about stereotypes. It isn't about men in tweed discussing cartridges over a bacon sandwich. It's about people who love a sport that demands concentration, discipline, patience and respect. On this particular day, what really caught my attention wasn't the shooting itself—it was the women. Hence the slightly tongue-in-cheek title... Girls and Their Toys. Before anyone reaches for the comments section, no, these aren't toys. They're beautifully engineered sporting firearms, treated with enormous respect by the people who own and use them. The title simply reflects the enthusiasm we all have for our hobbies. Photographers become obsessed with cameras and lenses. Cyclists with bikes. Anglers with rods. Clay shooters? They appreciate a beautifully balanced shotgun just as much. And that's perfectly...

  It's very easy to photograph a steam rally. It's much harder to photograph  what a steam rally is really about. Anyone can come home with hundreds of pictures of immaculate traction engines lined up in neat rows. They're impressive machines and deserve to be photographed, but after a while every engine begins to look rather like the last one. When I visited the Dene Valley Traction Engine Rally, I tried to slow down and ask myself a different question. What is the story? For me, the answer wasn't simply steam. It was people, craftsmanship, heritage and the quiet moments that exist between the noise of whistles and the clouds of smoke. Many of these photographs were deliberately converted to black and white. I wasn't interested in the bright paintwork or colourful fairground atmosphere. Removing colour lets texture, light and expression become the subject, and somehow feels entirely appropriate for machinery that belongs to another age. The Forgotten Workhorse The ...

Does listening to an audiobook count as reading? It’s a surprisingly heated debate for something so harmless — one that quickly divides people into camps of “real readers” and everyone else. The statement was simple enough: “Listening to an audiobook doesn’t count as reading a book.” Really? Now, before anyone reaches for their metaphorical pitchforks, let me say this: I understand where the argument comes from. There is something deeply romantic about sitting in a comfortable chair, a physical book in hand, turning pages while the world quietly carries on around you. I love books. I love bookshops. I love the feel of a well-thumbed paperback and even the slightly guilty pile of unread books beside the bed that silently judges me every evening. But here’s the thing. An audiobook is still a book read. Or perhaps, more accurately, a book experienced. Because what exactly is the point of reading? Surely it isn’t the mechanical act of moving your eyes across ink on paper. The poin...