Thomas is a professional fine art photographer and writer specialising in photography related instructional books as well as travel writing and street photography.
All in Travel
Every time I go to New York, I end up spending an inordinate amount of time in Grand Central station. Mainly, because we usually end up staying nearby, and it is a handy throughway to other avenues. But it’s also because it’s kind of a magical place. It is like something out of a movie, and it probably has been in many. Every time you walk through it, there are stories happening all around you.
A little while ago, we decided to take a few days break away from the hustle and bustle and headed off on an adventure. We wanted to go somewhere out of the way. Where we ended up was probably about as far away as you can get in Ireland without actually leaving the mainland or going on a ferry. For the longest time I had wanted to visit the top of the island, and so my wife booked us into a hotel on the northernmost peninsula not he northernmost county in Ireland: The windswept and very beautiful Inishowen peninsula in Co. Donegal. And what a place it is.
Back in April my wife and I took a road trip to the northern most region in Ireland, the Inishowen peninsula in Co. Donegal. We were there for a few days and took the opportunity to photograph the northern most point on the island of Ireland, as well as some of the incredible beaches in the area.
In part one of this series, I talked about my visit to the Danish capital of Copenhagen last May. In this second part, we travelled on to the Swedish capital of Stockholm and were treated to an unusually warm early May weekend, which led to an amazing few days in the beautiful city.
Earlier in the summer I spent some time in New York City and I took various photos while there, although I’ve been a little behind in editing them. As part of the trip, we spent some time in Brooklyn and I got some good shots, but I am only getting around to properly editing them now. I thought this might make a good video, so I recorded a session of editing 4 of these using Capture One.
Earlier this year, I had a chance to visit two of the cities I’ve always wanted to see: Copenhagen and Stockholm. Ever since visiting Oslo a few years ago, I’ve really wanted to see the rest of the region and Copenhagen and Stockholm were on the bucket list. So, when I got the chance to see both of these cities, I jumped at the chance. This wasn’t going to be a strictly photographic trip - I was there with my wife on a business trip, but it was still an opportunity to get to visit these wonderful cities.
I first visited Cambridge a couple of years ago and I absolutely loved it. This was my third visit since then and my first visit post lockdowns. There is something really nice about the city. It’s small, like a big town, and it has a combination of history and grandeur as well as the peaceful parks and riverside. It also has great cafes and great food.
After two and a half years, I finally got to travel overseas again last week. It was the first time travelling in the new reality of the semi-sort of but not really - post(ish) COVID-19 world. It was a part work trip, part “get away and clear your head” type of trip, and it involved two countries, and multiple forms of transport. Hey, if you’re going to do it, do it right.
Like many people, while I’ve been lucky enough to travel abroad quite a bit, I haven’t actually spent much time exploring my own country of Ireland, and I’ve actually been to surprisingly little of the island. With Covid making international travel complicated and not something I particularly want to partake in right now, we recently decided to take a few days holiday in the southeast of Ireland. One of the most interesting places we visited was to the Hook peninsula to visit the famous Hook Lighthouse
I’ve been trying to spruce up my office for a while now, and I wanted to get some wall art printed to hang up behind my computer. As I had been going through some old projects and shoots, I came across an old set of images I had shot of NewYork to turn into a panorama, so I figured that would be a good option. So, below I will detail some of the steps I took when creating the finished image (above).
On one of my trips to New York, back in 2009, I was walking through Central Park on a beautiful sunny day, and wandered across a baseball game. I had never seen a baseball game in real life before and was chuffed to see this, it being such an icon of Americana, and this only being my second trip to the country.
Being cooped up at home for over a month now, like many people I’ve resorted to going back over old photos and projects as something to do while we can’t go out and shoot. I was going through my archive and something made me start looking at some old New York photos. I have a lot of fond memories of visiting the city and so, I decided to put together a little trip down memory lane, with a little virtual exhibit.
Back in June I spent a week in New York, and while I was there I didn’t do much photography, as I was mainly there for a holiday, and also I was recovering from a bad chest infection that I had had the previous month. Even so, I couldn’t resist the call of the camera, so I still managed to get some shots in.
I was offline for much of last week as I was travelling for a few days across Europe with my wife for both business and a vacation. We started in Germany and then took the train to Brussels, before spending a few days off in Amsterdam for the weekend. I normally try to minimise the amount of gear I travel with when not specifically going for photography, and this time I decided to cut it right down.
I’ve been taking a little break this week, and I got to spend some time in London. The city, like the rest of the UK and Ireland, is currently experiencing a heatwave, and as someone who doesn’t do well in the heat, I’ve found it quite oppressive and hard to function. Anyway, I haven’t really been taking many photos, but here are a random few from the few days in the city.
Sometimes, it’s all too easy to get a bit too caught up in getting the perfect shot, or trying to live up to some expectations that you set yourself when out shooting. I do this all the time, and sometimes, I perhaps take photography too seriously. This is fine when its work related or for a serious project, but it's also important not to lose sight of the joy of photography. Sometimes it’s good to shoot something for the fun of it, and not be too worried about the outcome.
I was recently back in one of my regular overseas haunts, the beautiful German town of Heppenheim. I’ve been there several times before now, and you can find some of those previous visits documented on my blog. The sleepy little German town is partly modern, but also partly medieval, and that is its real charm. In this post you can see some of the photos that I took while there.
I've finally finished editing the final part (final, for now!) of my Travel Vlog series and it's now online on my YouTube channel. In this episode, I go to the little town of Heppenheim in Germany to enjoy a few days in the beautiful countryside, and to photograph the gorgeous medieval town and its surroundings.
