Photography News

Every camera you have ever used, from a disposable Kodak to a $6,000 mirrorless body, does exactly one thing: it controls how much light hits a sensor. That is it. Everything else, the tracking autofocus, the computational wizardry, the menus nested seven layers deep, is in service of that one job. The three tools your camera uses to manage light are ISO, aperture, and shutter speed, and the relationship between them is called the exposure triangle. 

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Getting skin tones right in post-processing is one of those things that separates a good portrait from a great one. The difference usually comes down to a handful of specific adjustments most people skip. 

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Picking the right Sony body right now is genuinely complicated. The Sony a7 V sits under $3,000, yet this video argues it beats the Sony a1. 

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Dance of the Gnats © Toby Houlton | Scottish Nature Photography Awards

 

The Scottish Nature Photography Awards 2025 has revealed its winners, and the results are stunning. This year's winning shots prove you don't need to travel far to find something extraordinary, from gnats swirling in afternoon light to a garden spider spotted just outside a kitchen door. Photographers of all ages and backgrounds took home top honors across wildlife, student, junior, and video categories, each bringing a fresh perspective to Scotland's natural world.

 

From Scottish Nature Photography Awards

A photographer's eye for presenting overlooked subjects in innovative ways has earned him the title of Scottish Nature Photographer of the Year 2025. Toby Houlton from Invergordon won the Scottish Wildlife Behaviour category with Dance of the Gnats and was selected as the overall winner from environmental, abstract, botanical, wildlife and landscape entries representing the diversity of Scotland's nature.

Toby said: "My winning image was taken at Little Garve in Ross-shire. I had been walking back beside the river in the late afternoon, and there, in patches of dappled sun, the gnats were 'dancing'. A moment of inspiration made me realise that taking an image with a slow shutter speed would create the amazing light trails, and the hint of the darker woodland behind would provide the sense of place. The speed of these tiny dancers meant that multiple wingbeats were captured in the exposure, creating the patterns."

Judge Niall Irvine said: "It takes the viewer a little time to work out what they are looking at in this image, but it is so rewarding! The highlighted patterns created by the movement of the gnats, captured by the creative use of photographic technique, and the subtle woodland textures in the background give the image of these tiny creatures drama and impact."

Winning for the second year in a row, Junior Scottish Nature Photographer of the Year 2025 is Kiran Simpson (age 14) from Dunfermline, with his spider image The Leaf Eater.

 

The Leaf Eater © Kiran Simpson | Scottish Nature Photography Awards

 

Kiran said: "Right outside my kitchen door, under the glow of the outdoor light, I spotted this garden spider on its web, with a leaf caught in the silk beside it. Against the darkness of the night, the patterns on its body and its spiny legs stood out in incredible detail. I ran inside to grab my camera, knowing it might be gone by the time I got back. What I love most about this photo is that it was taken literally steps from my back door. It just goes to show that you don't need to travel far to find incredible wildlife; it's all around us if you just stop and look."

Judge Michael Prince said: "This striking macro photograph of a garden spider descending on a single thread towards an autumn leaf made me stop and take a much closer look. The brown and orange tones of its camouflage are perfectly adapted to its surroundings, leaving me in awe of this tiny creature. The spiky hairs on its legs even made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

"It was wonderful to see such a technically challenging photographic technique used so effectively to reveal the usually unnoticed life of a spider."

Rob Henderson won Student Scottish Nature Photographer of the Year 2025 with his In the Time Between portfolio, which explores the temporal relationship between white water lilies and Scots pines within the landscape at Loch Garten. Rob is studying MA Geography at the University of Glasgow, and photography formed a core component of his dissertation and coursework.

Rob said: “I was interested in capturing the contrast between the brief, seasonal presence of the lilies and the endurance of the pines through the yearly cycles. As both a geographer and photographer, I am drawn to the way landscapes can express change and time."

Niall Irvine said: "We liked Rob's portfolio on the theme of change because the images work so well together, allowing the viewer to get a sense of place while still picking out individual details."

Photographer and filmmaker James Appleton from Ullapool is the winner of the Scottish Nature Video Award 2025 for short nature films with Stac Pollaidh Wildfire. 

 

Still from Stac Pollaidh Wildfire © James Appleton | Scottish Nature Photography Awards

 

James said: "This was the result of a powerful two days documenting the human-made wildfire that consumed the slopes of Stac Pollaidh early in spring 2025. The resulting landscape, totally blackened, nevertheless has already begun to rebound with life."

Judge Harry Martin said: "Stunning cinematography and high-end production abound in James’s video entry. The judges were immediately hooked with the incredible drone footage and soundscape created in the first few seconds, illustrating how important it is to set up a story quickly and deliver interest in the opening sequences of a short video. With simple cuts, a variety of shot styles and a well-polished edit, James has perfectly captured one of the most dramatic wildfire incidents of last year." 

An exhibition tour and Portfolio Yearbook will be launched in the summer. 

For more informatio, please visit the Scottish Nature Photography Awards website.

Shooting with a digital camera after years of film can be a humbling experience. The gap between snapping shots and actually making photographs is wider than most people realize, and Steve O'Nions found that out the hard way on a street photography day in Liverpool. 

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Outdoor portraits in flat, lifeless light are one of the most common problems to solve, and a speedlight is often all it takes to fix them. 

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Monopods used to be just assistive tools for heavy camera setups. Now they can stand on their own. These two monopods take it further by being extra efficient, but which one is better for you? 

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Photographers are worried about AI coming to take their jobs. Fair enough, with all the new tools out there you might very well think that. Yet, it is simply impossible, and Aftershoot has finally proven that. Aftershoot AI works for you, not against you.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0SGhSOOF74

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This is an appreciation for the camera equivalent of when you drive a car for a long, long time and it holds up. This is for none other than what was my original photographic workhorse, the Canon EOS 6D Mark I.  

This camera has received both praise and backlash over the years — from its autofocus system to its slower frame rate to a range of other strengths and weaknesses. When I was just getting into photography, it was slightly after the 6D was announced back in 2012.

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Every profession has its unresolvable debates. Chefs argue about whether a hot dog is a sandwich. Musicians argue about whether music theory stifles creativity. Photographers have their own collection of eternal conflicts, and what makes them special is that nobody has ever won any of them. Not once. Not in forums, not in comment sections, not at workshops, and not at the bar after a shoot. Here are the ten battles that will outlive us all. 

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Getting that soft, misty look in your landscape and travel photos isn't about one secret trick. It's a combination of shooting conditions, light direction, and a handful of specific editing moves that most people either skip or don't know to try. 

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Getting a genuine portrait of a stranger is one of the hardest things to pull off in travel photography. The second someone knows a camera is pointed at them, they stop being themselves, and whatever drew you to them in the first place vanishes. 

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Mini sessions are one of the most common strategies portrait photographers use to fill their calendars, but the math behind them rarely adds up. When you account for travel, setup, shooting, editing, delivery, and client communication, you're often looking at a pittance even before taxes, equipment costs, or software subscriptions. 

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Shooting with a snoot or projector attachment unlocks a level of light control most setups simply can't match. Mark Wallace puts that to the test in a recent studio session, building off a lighting guide created by his colleague and then pushing into entirely original territory. 

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The latest winner of our popular daily photography theme which takes place in our forums have been chosen and congratulations go to ruurd (Day 31 - Butterflies).

 

Daily Theme Runners-Up

If you didn't win this time, keep uploading your images to the daily competition forum for another chance to win! If you're new to the Daily Theme, you can find out more about it in the Daily Theme Q&A. 

Well done to our latest runners-up, too, whose images you can take a look at below.

  Day 24

Dew Drop

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Day 25

Fast Shutter Speed

[COMMENT_IMG]portfolio|229038|3680943[/COMMENT_IMG]

 

Day 26

Boats

[COMMENT_IMG]portfolio|161002|3910470[/COMMENT_IMG]

  Day 27

Flowers

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Day 28

Towns & Cities

[COMMENT_IMG]portfolio|287982|3903444[/COMMENT_IMG]

 

Day 29

Micro Landscapes

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Day 30

Rain

[COMMENT_IMG]portfolio|51734|3916178[/COMMENT_IMG]

 

You’ll find the Daily Themes, along with other great photo competitions, over in our Forum. Take a look to see the latest daily photo contests. Open to all levels of photographer, you’re sure to find a photography competition to enter. Why not share details of competitions with our community? Join the camaraderie and upload an image to our Gallery.