Cold winter nights in London. Steamed up windows. People exhaling hot air and cigarette smoke. Love it. Here are a few pictures I took over the past few cold weeks in and around Central London. See more on my Instagram profile. #instagram #londonphotography #steamywindow #streetphotography

I hardly ever look at Instagram in a browser. Why should I? But last week’s redesign made it more appealing to look at. Simpler is almost always better. It’s clean, flat and great for browsing individual profiles. (If you know the url). But it’s still completely useless if you want to search for a user or a hashtag. I understand Instagram doesn’t want users to switch from the app to a browser (would they anyway?), but the limited functionality is a mystery to me. Anyone care

How can being curious help your career? This is the main question behind our video series called Curiosity & Opportunity, I’ve co-created with Ian Sanders (iansanders.com). In episode three, shot entirely on an iPhone 6, we meet Dan Rubin, photographer, designer, creative director, for whom the iPhone has become one of the tools of the trade. Dan has a gigantic following on Instagram and Twitter, he travels the world extensively and can often be seen and heard as a speaker at

It’s the fifth edition of the contest and the deadline for submissions is fast approaching. So if you fancy submitting yours (fees apply), see the submissions page for categories, terms and conditions and other details. The page fails to mention the prizes – a 16GB WiFi iPad (which generation?) and inclusion in the IPPA Interactive Annual (apparently available on iTunes, although I couldn’t find it; maybe they didn’t publish them in previous years, who knows?). There’s no inf

If, like me, you never publish your pictures on Facebook, or you simply want to make your photography more social using other platforms, this post is for you. This is part of a presentation I made on social tools for photographers during my monthly photographers group meet-up, where I focused on several alternatives to Facebook. The presentation assumed a minimal or no knowledge of these tools, hence the basics. If you interact with many photographers on Google+ or Tumblr, y

If you haven’t updated to the latest version of Instagram – released today – do so. They have reworked the app to give it a new interface, improve functionality  and add some new filters. What’s more, all filters now come with live preview. The previous update also enabled users to add selective blur, but the experience wasn’t great. Now, the tilt-shift functionality has been improved and adding selective blur has been made really easy and fast. You can also decide whether t

Since its inception Instagram has been adding one feature here one feature there and slowly has become really robust. The latest update gives users the ability to see which images they’ve liked on Instagram. Until now you liked something and within five minutes it was forgotten. Unless you remembered the photographer’s name, or unless the image was tagged, you couldn’t find it again. Now you can. If you update to the latest version (v1.18.17), you gain an extra option called

Instagram image by Giron, via Extragr.am UPDATE: This is a very old post. Since I originally wrote it in 2011, I’ve started uploading non-smartphone images as well. Instagram has become much more than just a place for smartphone photography, so the post below is less relevant. The iPhone, initially derided for its poor camera quality, has undoubtedly convinced many amateur, semi-professional and professional photographers to expand their photographic horizons. Hundreds of app

If you read my previous post about Instagram, you know I’m a convert. It’s a fun app. It offers good value for no money – particularly after the latest update. Now it has also crossed into ‘traditional’ media – television to be more precise. But first, the update. The latest incarnation of Instagram offers several enhancements, most notably the ability to create tilt-shift images. Overnight, just like that, a relatively new and until recently niche technique has gone mainstre

I’ve been resisting it for months. Instagram, the iPhone app everyone seems to be using at the moment. (I was tempted to say “Instagram, the latest fad” here, but I’m sure it would come back to bite my ass.) I thought I didn’t need yet another photo app on my phone, yet another way of sharing my images. But a rapidly growing number of friends and online contacts have been using the app over the past few weeks and I was simply curious. I knew it combined the ease of use with a