Monthly Recap 🔴 Apr26
Photography related posts, videos and hopefully a source of inspiration!
Flickr portrait of the month (Most liked)
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Founded in 2013, I share my experiences and reviews of Leica, film cameras, lenses + more. View the last 100 blog posts and search 400+ articles. Photos? See Flickr and Instagram.
Last month
March saw me in Lanzarote and Tenerife. One trip was a dream trip, the other a nightmare. We’ll get to that. All the latest coming up together with YouTube videos and blogs posts from the last 30 days.
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Lanzarote photoshoots
After an enjoyable photoshoot trip to Lanzarote at the end of 2025 I arranged with the models to visit again in 2026. Goal was simple. Fly to find winter sunshine (and warmth) and meet 3 model friends, all that I’ve work with multiple times before. What could possibly go wrong.
I had high hopes and even packed my Hasselblad 501c (paired with my Leica MP) to capitalise on the situation. A long 4.5hr flight awaited (2hrs is OK but 4hr+ just feels like forever). I try to write blog posts or Substacks to kill time but it’s always the worst part of these trips). At least it would be worth the effort.
Weeks of planning, packing and repacking camera gear it was go time. I took off from the UK in rare winter sunshine..and landed in.. cold rain and wind. Great start!
I realised the apartment I’d booked was not as I remembered so that threw me off with my creative visions for the photoshoot. No balcony, no big window illumination the bed. I’ll still make it work.. I said to myself. I open the door to what seemed to be a converted garage or storage unit. It was like a nicely decorated cave with almost zero light inside. I had to keep the door open for light it was that bad. How did I screw up so badly? Perhaps booking when overtired but this must be a PW (personal worst).
It’ll be fine, I’ll shoot the 3 models outside. I have my storm drain location I like to shoot in. Oh wait, because of the heavy rain it’s now full of water so that’s a no go. OK let’s do a morning run recce and find some alternatives.
That was a complete waste of time.
Day 1 – model 1 cancelled on day one and postponed to day 2. Model 2 had real work issues (roof was leaking from the rain so had to fix that emergency). She cancelled.
Day 2 – model 1 cancelled again and model 3 also cancelled and postponed to the afternoon. That then was cancelled after I waited around in my cave for 5 hours. Perhaps day 3 (my last day)?
Day 3 – ghosted. (For older readers this means the model stops replying to messages).
After all the planning, travel and efforts I just sat in my cave writing more blog posts for most of the visit. I made myself do a few photowalks, I did a few runs and I did jump in the sea, but overall a complete waste of time.
One model I saw had real issues to attend to with the rain damage but the other two there was no excuse. I think Lanzarote just got crossed off my destination list for the coming years. The highs and lows of model photography. Normally I’m good at expecting cancellations but these guys really caught me off guard.
See Patreon for the Lanzarote BTS video.
Here is a photo from a previous Lanzarote trip where a UK model flew with me and we did a multi-day photoshoot. I don’t think I appreciated Sophie so much until I had 3 days of cancellations. (I wrote to here and told her so).
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Tenerife Client Job
I’ll likely do a full Substack write-up for this one but in brief, a model friend in Tenerife set up her own business and wanted me to do photos for her. She offered me her nice apartment for a few days as payment.
I’d stayed there before a few times in the past so I knew what to expect. I thought why not share the fun and invite a friend but they need to be able to do the “job” as well as be cool to hang out with. I invited Tobi.
In the mornings we ran and explored. Tobi did the driving, I did the cooking. When not shooting for the client job I made content for YouTube (see the Contax-Leica video + more clips to follow).
After stormy “UK-like” weather in Lanzarote (I forgot to mention that) Tenerife was also being battered by the elements. Severe weather warnings were so bad ahead of the trip I asked Tobi if we should cancel.
Finally I got lucky. While the south of Tenerife was being drowned and blown away (signage down, beached eroded, lots of damage) we were staying in the north which saw mostly sun. Teide even had snow on the top.
I took this photo one morning just messing around and it’s become my most liked Flickr photo of 2026 (and perhaps even 2025 too).
The trip was amazing but it didn’t quite go to plan. We expected to shoot some of the models from the client job out on location but it turned out they were all too busy to get time off. As such Tobi was my model for this shot (see the setup in last night’s YouTube video).
The next photo was just a backup shot (on digital) and us goofing around doing a selfie. It came out better than I could have imagined (and just shot with the Mandler 35mm f2 on my SL2-S).
Here is a sample of the work for the client. I’ve had worse jobs!
All this because a model reached out to me 5+ years ago and invited me to the island to take photos for her (paid). She liked the images back then and this lead to now. Life is all about contacts and making lasting connections it seems.
Workshops
With me being away there was no teaching in March but I have a week teaching in Dallas in April which will be exciting + one of my usual London workshops.
Get in touch if you’d like to spend a day together now the weather is starting to improve!
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Future travel plans
Here are my provisional travel plans. Maybe I’m coming to a city near you or somewhere you’d like to visit. Feel free to contact me to organise a workshop.
APRIL 2026
- Dallas – Private workshop (Student invited me to join her for 7 days)
- France – Boys cycling holiday (I’ll be taking my camera of course)
MAY 2026
- TBC – I need to book somewhere but not yet finalised
- PhotoLondon – Not travel but in the diary to meet Patreon friends
JUNE 2026
- Prague – Private workshop (UK student will meet me there)
- TBC – I need to book somewhere but not yet finalised
Coming to London?
Check my availability if you’d like to meet up while you’re in London –
Leica+Model Workshops
Digital photographers
If you follow me you know I love Leica cameras and my preference for film vs digital.
- Digital cameras – Leica CL, SL 601, SL2S, M262, M10P + Lumix S9
- Lenses – See all lens reviews. I’m testing a few I can’t mention yet
- Editing with presets – All my images are RAW + LR preset
View GearList for recommended products & discount codes
Film photographers
- Film – I bought Kodak XX for 2026 but currently shooting colour
- Cameras – Really enjoying the Leica M4 and Leica MP 0.85 combo
- Film Developing – I use 1:3 Kodak Xtol + dash if Rodinal in 3 reel tanks
- Film Scanning – See this video for how I scan film using a Valoi Easy120
- Printing – Darkroom prints in my bathroom – Mostly 5×7 + some 8×10
- Photobooks – Check availability + Receive updates
2026 Colour film project.. continues
Since joining Substack I’ve felt inspired to give colour film another chance (as a B&W guy). So far the colour film experiment is going mostly well – I’ve now developed 24 rolls (using Cinestill Cs41 Simple Color powder mix).
For Tenerife one of the rolls I shot was Lomography 400 Color’92 and this time it really exceeded my expectations. I think this film enjoys bright conditions (but not too overexposed). You don’t have the latitude of Portra 400.
As I shared on Substack (see more photos there), I love colour film for those better than real colours. I also love film for the surprises it brings. The photo below was shot in 2019 and the film sat undeveloped in my fridge until March 2026 – Niki, Budapest.
Talking of surprises, did a mention that Lanzarote was a complete disaster. It gets worse!
So to make myself feel better in Lanzarote I walked around trying to shoot some film of random nothing-ness in the average weather. I finish the roll of expired Fujicolor C200 only to see that it had already be mostly exposed. I’d somehow missed my notes on the film leader “24 frame shot with Nikon FM, 2021”.
Not only did it rain, and the models all cancelled. I also trashed what could have been great photos shot in happier times! Sybilla, Tenerife. 2021
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can this replace my leica cameras?
Latest blog posts
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- “What’s the problem with this photo?“- Free to view
- “How I store my camera lenses (2026)” – Members
Coming up next month..
I have the private Leica workshop in Dallas for a week coming up in April. Mostly an unknown but I’m excited. I’ve booked a few UK models (and a hotel) to test some new gear for YouTube. It’ll be nice to carry more lighting gear than my usual Ryanair 1 bag limit! At the end of the month I head to France for a cycling trip.
There might be some new lenses dropping in April so hopefully they arrive in time for me to take away to test. I’ll finish my colour film developer in April and then the plan is to get back to mostly black and white (and focus on creating some decent images for the next photobooks). I also want to shoot more 120 film this summer.. if I can pull myself away from my 35mm Leicas!
YouTube video – spotlight
The first video in April you might have already seen. Leica cameras are nice but it’s light which makes for great photos. This Leica-sized device means we now have no excuses! Watch here.
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