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Greek Island – Photos of Santorini

Photos of Santorini

Tag: Greek Island

Santorini photography tips – what I have learned – Part 2
Sorry – where was I? Oh yes.

I was telling you what I had learned – this is part two of my Santorini photography tips post – too long for a single post!

Camera bag

I use a Peak Design Everyday Backpack. This is on a day-to-day basis in the UK and also when travelling. When travelling I empty my bag completely, and split the stuff I need to take with me into stuff that goes in my checked luggage and stuff that goes in my camera bag, which is my hand luggage.

Here it is with a bottle of Prosecco in the tripod holder! Such a versatile bag!

And here it is on top of the caldera.

Santorini caldera” width=”790″ height=”593″ /> Peak Design Everyday Backpack on the Santorini caldera

I only take the stuff I need on a trip, and only take the one bag which easily carries all the gear that I need. I don’t want to be weighed down with loads of stuff – I am on my feet for hours and hours every day after all.

And I am quite old.

And I hate taking gear with me which I don’t get round to using.

I like to travel light and agile.

Data management

OK this is one of those things that I think I can improve on. I take all my blank, freshly formatted memory cards, which are stored in a secure, durable, hard waterproof case with yellow trims.

At the end of a days shooting I take any cards that I have used and put them in an identical case but with a red trim. This stays in the hotel room. If I drop my bag off a cliff the next day, which is a possibility lets be honest, all I have lost is the images I took that day. Forget my gear – that is insured.

I can’t replace the images that I have taken so reduce the risk by doing this. I don’t take a PC with me on trips anymore, just my iPad. I am thinking that I need to buy a device to give me an additional back up, some way of getting the stuff I have taken onto the cloud.

This is something I am seriously considering at the moment. I have not lost any data to date, but this is not a reason to not improve on what I am doing at the moment.

And thinking even more I did not backup my iPhone to the cloud – another thing that I need to think about.

Shoes

Yes shoes. I took these shoes to Santorini. Red Moshulu pumps.

I was travelling light after all. So light I did not give this a seconds thought. Until I got there that is. And it was fine on day 1. Well my feet were a bit achy but ok. Day 2 they were a bit fragile in the morning, and by day 5 there were physically sore from the constant daily pounding on the hard surfaces I was walking up and down.

I keep on writing about this to make sure I never forget to take proper walking shoes – these aren’t exactly heavy after all.

And I do have a pair of walking shoes, some lightweight grippy soled wonders made by Salomon which I have had for years now and enable me to clamber all over the place like a nimble mountain goat.

Well sort of.

Do not forget proper shoes.

Hats

It is cold at 4am in Santorini in April. And I have very little hair. So I need a hat. When you are sat there for a an hour on the top of the caldera before sunrise with the wind blowing it can get cold.

Me, Rick McEvoy on Santorini at sunrise

And then when the sun comes up it gets warmer but on this occasion it was still not hot until mid-morning so I need two hats – a thick woolly one and a thinner lighter one.

I happen to have two red North Face hats, which you can often see me wearing on those rare photos that I am actually in.

No jacket required

I checked the rainfall stats and decided to wing it with a fleece. That would deal with the light rain no problem, and if it really hammered it down I would be diving into shelter anyway.

That was the plan.

The reality is that where I was there was no shelter, so if it had rained I would have been well and truly done for. And with wet feet as well. Thankfully my camera bag is waterproof.

So, next time I am going to have a lightweight windproof shower proof top that will give me the protection I need – lightweight layers is the way forward.

Obviously in the UK I have a range of cold and wet weather clothing permanently in my car.

Snacks

Snacks are important. And I didn’t take any. So I had to just buy whatever I could find. This is a mistake I keep on making – I keep forgetting to get suitable snacks for 5am in the morning. I end up with things like Mars Bars, which are all good and lovely, but can be a bit messy out in the field and if not eaten melt and get squashed.

I need to come up with the best snacks for photography – now that I have written this I have reminded myself that I need to sort this before I leave for my next trip, and not wing it when I get there.

The other problem is that I tend to forget this when I am away. Sunsets merges into drinks and dinner, and when we get back to the hotel after dinner this is when I pack my bag. This is when I realise that I didn’t get any snacks. And by then it is too late to do anything – shops open at 10pm are pretty limited in Imerovigli after all!

Drinks

Really the same point as above – I normally end up with a can of Pepsi Max at 5am whilst I am sat all set up waiting for the sun to rise. Not the best drink for that time of the day.

Water and cordial concentrate are the fix to this – the problem is the quantity of water I need and how I carry it. Basically I need to be able to carry a second bottle.

Where to eat in Santorini

Well there are lots of places, but the one place that we really loved was actually a take away place in Imerovigli. I know tragic but it was that kind of busy trip.

As this is not a travel guide to Santorini I will get back to the photography stuff.

But the Chicken Gyros was completely ace!

Getting home

The worst part of any great trip is leaving. Yes we all have to do it. Going to the airport was the first time I had left the caldera in days, apart from when we walked to Oia that is.

The beauty of a small island is that the airport is never far away, if there is an airport that is.

Check out my other website Paxos Travel Guide for more on that! No there is on airport on the Greek Island of Paxos.

What is Santorini airport like?

My memories of Santorini airport are somewhat limited. I remember standing outside in the last of the sunshine before having to return back to the UK in April – that would be the last sun either of us would see in a while! And having checked in we walked into departures, which was pretty much a room with nothing other than basic WCs. And we just waited in that room for an hour before being released!

Insurance

Boring but important – make sure you are insured, and that your photography gear is insured. And if you are working commercially you will need Public Liability Insurance. And you will need general travel insurance.

Basically – be insured.

Importing into Lightroom

This is the first job when I get home. Well the first photography job that is. I need to get the images onto my PC external hard drive and also backed up to the cloud. And I also do a third backup to another external hard drive, which is stored off-site.

Only when this is done do I delete the images from my memory cards.

I always have the images in three separate places.

When I import images into Lightroom I apply develop pre-sets. These get my processing off to a start. I apply the following adjustments to every image on import.

I also add my copyright information in a metadata pre-set.

Last thing I do is put the images in a folder called Santorini 2017 – obvious and effective.

I also put the sets of three bracketed images into stacks, so only the first image is visible. This helps enormously with image selection.

I know that this slows down the importing process but I start to import from a card then go off and have a beer or do something else. Once the images have been imported from a card I put the card in a black fabric SD cardholder which lives in a drawer in my office.

Yes I really am that cautious with my memory cards.

Getting down to 20 images

Once the images are in Lightroom I then have to decide which images I want to edit. Now if I was starting afresh with this set of images, knowing how many images and what I want to do with them the process would go like this.

First pass – go through the images one by one, then hit the P key for any image I like the look of.

Once done I select the filter bar at the top, so only images which I have picked are visible.

I then go through the images again one by one, and anything I am not sure of using the U key I Unpick the image, removing the flag and removing the image from view.

I keep on doing this until I have a selection of images that I can look at in Grid View. I am now looking for the images that will make up a cohesive set. I make the images as big as possible in Grid View (getting rid of the side bars using Control Tab), and basically keep on unpicking till I am down to the number of images I want, in this case 20.

Once I have 20 images I put them in a new sub-folder called Picks. I then move the rest of the images into a new sub-folder called simply Rest.

Last thing is to add these 20 images to a Collection in Lightroom so I can view them using Lightroom Mobile on my iPad and iPhone.

Sorry last thing is to remove the flags – I don’t need them any more.

As to processing in Lightroom, that really is a subject in it’s own right.
- I work in a logical sequence, which is this.
- Crop/ Transform
- White balance
- Basic Panel
- HSL Panel
- Effects
And then I go to Photoshop to remove bits and clean up images.

If you want to know more about how I edit my images check out my main website and my weekly photography blog.

What about the other images?

I took over 2000 images, yet there are only 20 on this website. What am I going to do with the other images? Well there were going to be 100 images on 100 blog posts, but I realised that this would be a big mistake – I dont have the time for that much as I would like to.

I have other websites to create!

I have created a gallery titled My Big Fat Greek Photo Gallery with all the images that I have edited. There are 99 photos of Santorini in these five galleries.

I was not going to do much with the other images until I had this change of mind – I would like to make money form my photography work, so placing them on my own website was the right thing to do.

Once this is all done I am going to wait, possibly 6 – 9 months, before I add anything else to this website. I need to see if the website performs as hoped.

Lightroom metadata

Metadata on images used to be a real problem for me until I worked out one thing, which is this.

You only need to add metadata to images if you are going to put them somewhere other than on the hard drive where they live. Taking the set of photos of Santorini for example, I spent too much time trying to come up with a plan for the metadata, but in the end this is what I did.

Copyright info – this is applied on import

Filename, title, caption, keywords.

Out of all the photos I took in Santorini, I only need to worry about the metadata to the images that I am going to post to my website.

That is 20 images only.

Well 99 actually!!

I have done the work on the metadata properly for all 99 images – it didnt take too long in Lightroom and once done it is done.

There are some keywords which apply to all the images, such as

Santorini, Greek Islands, travel, tourism

I apply those to every image.

And then I add keywords relevant to each particular image – think of this as describing each image in words to a search engine.

Now I know people say that keywords are less important than they were, and maybe even irrelevant now, but I still feel this is worth doing. It took me circa 2 hours to keyword, title, file name and caption all the images on this website. And this was done in Lightroom, so only needs doing the once.

I change the filename of each image individually so the keyword relevant to that image is in the file name, and also in the title and description. The description field is a longer amount of text describing the image in more detail. I use the same text in the title as I do for the filename to be honest.

It really is that simple.

Keyword research

I use the free keyword search tool in Moz. I can do 10 keywords searches a month for free. I don’t use the Google keyword search tool any more. It is my understanding that this should be used when trying to find keywords for Adwords, ads bought via Google. Which I do not do.

The other thing that I do use is the Google search function – I see what the autocomplete does, and also other searches listed at the bottom of the page.

Things I wish I had done better

There are things that I could have done better. There are things that went just fine. And there are things that I have learnt.

All good stuff – what I want to do is develop what I have learnt and improve on certain areas, which I will write about here. These things are all relevant to helping you and I improve our photography in various ways. Photography is after all a love, a vocation and a journey.

We never stop learning.

Gear

What could I improve with my gear? I think the main thing would be the systematic photographing of it for commercial uses.

As to the gear itself it all worked perfectly, and I did not miss anything. There are a few specific things what I will write about later.

The only thing is that I would love to have a much smaller camera/ lens combo than my Canon 6D and various lenses. They were all good and lovely on this trip, but I find it too much of pain. Especially on family holidays where apart from when I go out to shoot a sunrise I have found myself sticking with my iPhone.

GPS capture

I need to make sure that the GPS is on and working as quite a few photos have the GPS data missing. And if I took iPhone photos at every location I know that I have the data there. More on this later under lessons learned.

Video capture

Basically I need to do more videos using my iPhone 7 Plus. Lots more videos
- Behind the scenes
- Images being taken – I love these
- Me talking to the camera explaining something
- Me talking whilst filming a location
- Videos showing my photography gear
- Video blog posts – something I have been thinking about for a log time now
Audio on video

The audio on my videos is quite dreadful I need to get a mic for my iPhone 7 Plus – I have one for my iPhone 5C but the lightning connector is now the headphone jack (thanks Apple) so my Rode Video Mic won’t plug into my iPhone 7 Plus.

That will provide a significant improvement in the quality of the videos that I produce.

More systematic approach to daytime shooting

Whilst I love wandering around and finding things to take photos of, and I don’t want to lose the spontaneity of my photography trips, I need to be a bit more systematic.

And I don’t want to pre-plan everything, and research locations to death so I am going to location A to get a shot, then location B for another shot etc.

There is a happy medium in-between the two, which is where I want to be. Have a bit of a plan, and make sure that I cover all the aspects of a location while I am there. That means not going back to places unless there is something new to be captured, and a bit more stuff in built-up parts of locations.

Lessons learned.

There are a number of things that I could do better. With everything I do I try to make improvements where I feel I need to. These are the things that I need to work on.

Backing up my photos.

I am not happy with my current plan. This has not caused me a problem, and I have not lost any images yet, but I think there are improvements that I can make here. I need to get some device that will allow me to back up my images to the cloud when I am on a trip.

Clothing

I need something that is lightweight, windproof, waterproof and small and light enough to be able to be folded away in my camera bag somewhere.

Image capture

I need to spend more time and thought on recording the image capture process – I am talking here about behind the scenes photos and videos.

Video

I need to improve the standard of my videos. I need to use my DJI Osmo Mobile. Well to use my DJI Osmo Mobile I need to take it with me. And to take it with me I need a bigger bag.

And If I get a bigger bag I will solve my coat storage problem, and also my water-carrying problem.

Getting back to the problem I need to vastly improve my video production – all I am doing at the moment is pointing my iPhone at things and hoping. Some of my more recent stuff has been much better to be fair.

I need to think more about my video capture and take it as seriously as my still image capture.

And I need to do more videos where I am talking to the camera and describing what I am filming.

Thankfully my videos are so poor improvements will be significant and easy to achieve.

More gear shots

Photos of my gear have value, and can be used in blog posts on my main website as well as on travel photography websites. These photos have a commercial value and need to be built into every shoot.

Story telling,

I need to decide what I want for a website before I go on a trip. This will be much easier having produced my first travel photography website, and work has already started on my second website.

Rather then getting back from a trip and wondering what to do with the stuff I have captured I now have a plan to take with me on trips so I am producing the content whilst I am at a location – a much more effective way of working.

And I can incorporate commercial and promotional shots into this story telling.

Daily journal.

This was the big learning point from my trip to Paxos, which was after I had started work on this website. This was the part of the realisation that I needed to approach this part of my photography business in a different way, which is what I have done. I wrote a daily journal while on holiday in Paxos, with nearly 15,000 words written on my iPad, which with refinement will end up being nearer 20,000 words with accompanying images, making about 1/3rd of the content of that website.

iPhone/ DLSR captures

This is a big one for me. I need to combine my iPhone photos and videos with the photos taken on my Canon DSLRs in a much better way.

And also take more videos on my Canon 6D.

Will this be as simple as importing all the photos and videos into Lightroom? It really could be that simple.

Time zones

I often forget to change the time on my camera. Infuriating but a mistake I really should not be making. Thankfully I can change the image capture time in Lightroom after the event.

Snacks and drinks

Yes I need to sort this. Basically I need more food and drinks when I am out and about on my feet for hours on end. And a bigger bag!

It seems that one of the main things is that I need a bigger bag!

My Santorini website

What was the end point of all of this? A brand new website called Photos of Santorini. And this is the last post on this website.

When I say last post I mean the last post for now. I might come back to this website and add more photos but for now this it.

One website, 20 blog posts about 20 photos, 99 photos in galleries, and one big post putting all the bits together. Two big posts in the end.

And that Big Fat Greek Photo Gallery – well I had to call it that!

If this proves to be a successful website it will act as the template for other travel photography websites from my travels all over this wonderful planet of yours.

Summary

I hope that you have found my round up posts titled Santorini photography tips helpful – you can get back to the first part of this post here.

And with that I will say goodbye for a while.

Oh yes – please don’t forget my other website Paxos Travel Guide which I am going to get back to work on now.

One last thing

If you want to buy an image, or want to speak to me about future collaboration email me at sales@rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk.

Rick McEvoy ABIPP – Photographer, writer, blogger
29/10/2018
Imerovigli or Oia sunset – get the best of both my way
A stunning sunset photo from Santorini taken from the cliffs of Imerovigli looking towards the town of Oia. A gorgeous glowing sunset and the lights of the town all add to this stunning scene.

This is the last image that I will talk about on my new website Photos of Santorini. I hope you have enjoyed seeing and reading about my photos.

Which is the best – Oia or Imerovigli sunset? I say the sunset view of Oia from Imerovigli – its a great view which is one of my favourite sunset views of Santorini. Why choose when you look at one from the other?

On this particular evening just look what was in front of me – just stunning.

And this is why I love Santorini so much – quite simply a stunning Greek Island with stunnig views.

One of the things that I have noticed is that in 5 days I got a great number of images that I could use commercially – well over a hundred. On a travel photogrpahy shoot I am normally happy to get one image that I will use per shoot, so to get so many in 5 days is just fantastic for me.

And all this makes me want to do is go back to Santorini and photograph the rest of this wonderful Greek Island.

Why do I like this photo so much?

Santorini is renowned for its views, and for it’s sunsets. And sunset colours don’t get much better than this.

In this photo we are looking at the small town of Oia, which is perched on the end of the caldera just before it drops into the Southern Agean Sea.

In the background you can see Sikinos and Ios, two small Greek Islands that I would love to visit, as well as some even smaller islands which don’t even have names (as far as I can tell).

I love the sunset colours in this image, with a range from magenta to light orange with lots of different shades in the middle.

You can see the lights of the buildings on the town of Oia, as well as Oia Port down to the right.

There is a solitary boat going round the headland – is that a sunset crouse or a fishing boat? Well will never know.

And in the background amongst all those lovely colours other islands dotted around the Southern Agean Sea.

Such a lovely scene which I was very fortunate to witness and photograph.

How did I decide on this composition?

Well that was easy enough – it was sat there in front of me. The caldera entering the photo bottom right and the islands above.

I have put the horizon pretty much in the middle of the image. This was a conscious thing, and is a big no no in photogrpahy – never put the horizon in the middle as it cuts an image in two.

This is one of the basic rules of photography.

Which it is good to break once in a while.

Why did I do this?

Simple – I wanted as much of the gradation of the orange in the sky as possible – that is one of the primary elements of this image.

And does anyone care about the rules of photography other than other photographers?

Of course not. No one cares. And I am not taking photos for other photogrpahers. And when I take photos I am thinking about the composition and not the rules of photography.

So there – thats the photography world told!

Where was the photo taken?

Where the number 7 is on the yellow tab.

Basically this yellow tab is the location of the lovely Kasimatis Suites, the hotel we were staying in.

What time of day was the photo taken?

18:23. Yep an actual sunset. And this image was part of a sequence of images capturing the entire sunset for at least an hour.

What photography gear did I use to get the shot
- Beer. I was at the hotel so had a beer on the go – most excellent.
- Canon 6D
- Canon 70 – 200mm F4 L Lens (focal length used 70mm)
- Manfrotto 190 Go tripod with geared head
- Peak Design Everyday Backpack
- Loupe Viewer
- No hat required (I need a cap)
- Oakley sunglasses
- Flip flops
What camera settings did I use?
- Aperture F8
- Shutter speeds 1 second, 1/4 second and 4 seconds.
- ISO 400
- Back-button focus
- Focal length 70mm
- AV Mode
- 10 second self-timer
- RAW format
I will say this again. F8 is my go to aperture. F8 is the sweet spot on my Canon 70-200mm lens, and gives me the sharpest images. And also for a shot like this depth of field is less of a worry so this was just fine.

And look at the exposure times. 1 second, 1/4 second, 4 seconds. I stuck with an ISO of 400 to keep the noise in the image down, giving me longer shutter speeds. But as I was taking photos on a study tripod on solid ground not a problem. No blur in the image (apart from the boat coming round the headland that is).

One interesting fact about the image.

I took 80 photos in total during this sunset, starting at 4:54pm and working through to 6:29pm. This was how long the sunset lasted, and also how long I had with that great light looking out from the hotel and surrounding locations in Imerovigli to the west and into the lovely lovely setting sun.

And, obviously, this was my favourite photo from that sequence.

Is there a behind the scenes video of this shoot?

No.

How did I process the image?

This is the RAW image – check out that sensor spot to the right – that has to go (which of course it did). And look how dull flat and lifelss the RAW image is. But all the base data is there that I need to create the photo at the top of this post.

And this is the image having been processed in Lightroom (I know the dust sensor spot is still there).

You can see most of the processing that I carried out to this image in the screenshot.And you can also see that the reproduction of the colours is realistic – I have just emphasised what was there, rather than doing any funky Photoshop trickery. That is not what I am about.

Talking of Photoshop this image was finished off in Photoshop removing that hideous sensor spot and any other distractions and errors.

What could I have done to improve the image?

I didn’t like the wider composition. Could I have done a tighter crop? Well lets see.

Not sure if that is better or not. Actually it is fine either way – sometimes a change in composition can make a difference, sometimes not so much.

And what are my thoughts on this image?

Well doing that tighter crop got me thinking, which is never a good thing.

Either way I love the sunset colours and the depth the other islands give this image.

A great way for me to finish my sequence of photos of Santorini.

Enough of me – what do you think of this image?

One last time (for now) – what do you think of this sunset view of Oia from Imerovigli?

And do you prefer the cropped imaged?

Please let me know – I love hearing what you all think of my photographs.

And I hope that you have enjoyed this post and my other posts all about my photos of Santorini.

Now that my work here is nearly done please check out my other travel photography website Paxos Travel Guide, which should be completed by the end of December 2018.

One last thing

If you want to buy this image, or want to speak to me about future collaboration email me at sales@rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk.

Rick McEvoy ABIPP – Photographer, writer, blogger
26/10/2018
Stunning view of Fira and Nea Kameni Island from Skaros Rock
The spectacular view from Skaros Rock looking towards Fira, the capital of Santorini. Colour is provided by the lovely yellow spring flowers which contrast with the deep blue sea. To the right you can see the volcano called Nea Kameni

I have said this on more than one occasion, but I will say it again – there are some fantastic views from the Greek Island of Santorini.

But this stunning view of Fira and Nea Kameni Island from Skaros Rock is one of my favourites. And in this post I will tell you exactly why.

Nea Kameni Island is the actual volcano bit by the way! I have just found tha tout researching this photo!

Why do I like this photo so much?

There is so much about this image that I like.

The bright blue of the sky. The lovely deep blue sea.

And the yellow of the flowers that dominate the foreground.

And finally over ot the left the famous white buildings of Santroini sat on top of the caldera.

And then there is the view – quite simply a stunning view from the top of Skaros Rock giving a great perspective on the caldera.

How did I decide on this composition?

I spent a good hour on the top of Skaros Rock. The first five minutes were spent breathing and drinking after the climb to the top of Skaros Rock.

And sweating. Nice I know!

Or as I like to call it consdering potential compositions.

I’ll let you into a secret here – sometimes when I stop to take a photo on a strenuous walk I am not taking a photo – I am just having a sneaky rest!

I wanted to get the sense of the scale of the view from the top of Skaros Rock, and contrast the blue of the sea with the yellow of the flowers, getting some white buildings into the picture too.

I moved all around the edge of the rock until I got the curved shape that you can see in this image – this was the natural frame for he composition I was looking for.

Where was the photo taken?

This is the view from the built-up bit of Imerovigli looking down onto Skaros Rock – which is where I took the photo from.

This was taken on my iPhone by the way.

And this is Skaros Rock and the path up to the base of the upstanding rock at the top. If that makes any sense?

And for completeness, here is an extract from Lightroom showing where I took the photo – as ever it is the yellow tab.

Not that you needed this last bit of info to find Skaros Rock! It is that rock bit with it’s own name!

What time of day was the photo taken?

13:09:47 to be precise. And why not?

Here is a picture of the actual set up of my Canon 6D on my Manfrotto 190 Go tripod – yes this is exactly how I took the photo.

And you can see the last of the cloud lingering around that earlier on that morning had completely covered the sea forming a surreal carpet – check out my other posts for a great photo of this – even if I do say so myself!

What photography gear did I use to get the shot?
- Canon 6D
- Canon 17-40mm F4 L Lens
- Manfrotto 190 Go tripod with geared head
- Peak Design Everyday Backpack
- Loupe Viewer
- No red hat – I was nice and warm by this time after a good, energetic climb up Skaros Rock. Ok I was hot, sweaty and knackered!!
- Oakley sunglasses (lenses marked with drips of sweat that I could not get rid of)
- Red shoes (in need of a clean after the climb)
- No snacks required – just water! And I took two bottles with me this time which makes a change!
Yes I climbed all the way up Skaros Rock, and down again, and to the bit at the front with the other church wearing those silly red pumps. Here it is in this iPhone panoramic photo taken from the other side of Skaros Rock.

What camera settings did I use?
- Aperture F16
- Shutter speeds 1/80th second, 1/320th second and 1/20th second.
- ISO 100
- Back-button focus
- Focal length 17mm
- AV Mode
- 10 second self-timer
- RAW format
What a surprise that I used 17mm on my 17-40mm lens! I have noticed this a lot – that and that I take a lot of photos with my old faithful Canon 24-105mm lens at 24mm. Interesting.

I think I need to get a 14mm fixed lens – that will sort me out and give me more width which I love for my travel photogrpahy work.

One interesting fact about the image.

I was the only person on Skaros Rock when I took this photo. In the hour I was up there I saw four other people.

Nice and quiet, even at that time – just how I like it!

Is there a behind the scenes video of this shoot?

Yes – well sort of. I have a short video looking down on Skaros Rock before I left the built-up part of Imerovigli – you can see the footpath and the last of the fast moving clouds in the video here.

I am not sure why I did not take lots of videos of this location – Skaros Rock offers excellent 360 views of the caldera which you don’t get from anywhere else.

How did I process the image?

This is the processing carried out in Lightroom.

Basic adjustments and corrections are done on import of all images into Lightroom. Further processing was carried out using the Basic Panel and the HSL Panel, along with localised dodging and burning.

Blemishes and edge of frame irritations were removed using Photoshop.

Not too much needed to be done to this image,

What could I have done to improve the image?

More cruise ships would have been ether but there was only one there when I took this photo.

You can’t have everything now can you??

And looking at the image a higher viewpoint would have been good, giving the foreground more of a frame for the background.

Problem with this is that I took this photo from the top of a large rock, a very large rock at that. A rock big enough to have it’s own name.

And it is difficult to get step-ladders into my hand luggage, and I dont have a bag long enough to carry my painters’ pole. Not that I would carry my step ladders to the top of Skaros Rock!!

But the painters’ pole – maybe I can get a bag big enough to carry my small painters’ pole??

And what are my thoughts on this image?

I like this image as it gives a great view from the top of Skaros Rock looking south which I have not seen before.

No this image is good – happy with it.

I do have a lingering regret about not taking photos from this location at other times, and also of not taking lots of videos.

This was truly a very dramatic location with lots of great photographic possibilities – I do not feel that I have done this location justice.

So that being the case I think I need to go back there!!

Enough of me – what do you think of this image?

Do you like this photo of the view of Fira and Nea Kameni Island from Skaros Rock?

Let me now what you think – it is always great to hear from visitors to my website new and old – all your comments are very welcome .

One last thing

If you want to buy this image, or want to speak to me about future collaboration email me at sales@rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk.

Rick McEvoy ABIPP – Photographer, writer, blogger
24/10/2018
Is this the best view of Fira from the path to Imerovigli?
This is the view of Fira, the capital of the wonderful Greek Island of Santorini, photographed from the path from Imerovigli one sunny April afternoon. In this photo you can see how Santorini has developed, with all those white buildings sat on top of the caldera

Santorini is a small island which packs in the views all over the place. We have all seen lots of images on the internet of those famous white buildings of Santorini, but I try to provide slightly different views.

Is this the best view of Fira, the capital of the Greek Island of Santorini? I think so. This really is a spectacular view, which was taken on my Canon 6D on the walk from Imerovigli to Fira.

Why do I like this photo so much?

One thing I like to capture in one of my photos is context. And if you haven’t been to Santorini before you might not appreciate how the famous white buildings of Santorini have developed on the top of the famous caldera.

And this view taken on the main pedestrian route from Imerovigli to Fira shows this perfectly. This is not that common a view of Fira, which surprises me as there were plenty of people on the footpath that day.

Or so I thought.

I realised how quiet the walk from Imerovigli to Fira was when we got to Fira – there were endless people filling the footpaths making the town almost unbearable.

So I like this photo as it gives context and scale to the capital of Santorini.

You can see exactly how the town has grown on the top of the caldera, and also all those lovely white buildings.

And if you look really carefully you can see the cable car cables appearing out of a building!

How did I decide on this composition?

As we were walking along the path I was obviously taking in the views and Fira growing in front of me as we got closer. I waited until I found a white church which I could include as a foreground feature, which you can clearly see.

I also wanted to get the shoreline to show the full extent of the caldera, and ended up getting the concrete structure which is where tourists are dropped off from the cruise for a day on the island. You can either walk or get the cable car – more on that in another post.

Talking of context this photo also shows the scale of the caldera on which all those lovely white buildings have been constructed.

Where was the photo taken?

Right where the number 10 is.

Or to be more precise.Where the number 5 is.

Is that precise enough for you? I couldn’t zoom in any more and make the number 5 go down to 1 for just this image but this is near enough I guess?

What time of day was the photo taken?

12:40pm. We were walking to Fira for an explore and a spot of lunch. I had been on the go since about 4am that day, getting some great sunrise photos from the top of the caldera. And after the cold of the morning on the caldera the daytime heat was a lovely change for me.

It is funny how we can adjust to such varying temperatures in the same day. And to the complete lack of sleep/ rest!

What photography gear did I use to get the shot
- Canon 6D – here it is! Well I thought I should show you what it looks like!
- Canon 24 – 105mm F4 L Lens (focal length used 17mm)
- Hanheld – my Manfrotto 190 Go tripod with geared head was in my bag
- Peak Design Everyday Backpack
- Loupe Viewer – yes I still use it even hand-held
- No red hat
- Oakley sunglasses
- Red shoes (feet aching a bit)
- Kasimatis Suites breakfast fuelling me
What camera settings did I use?
- Aperture F16
- Shutter speeds 1/500th second, 1/2000th second and 1/125th second.
- ISO 400
- Back-button focus
- Focal length 24mm
- AV Mode
- 10 second self-timer
- RAW format
One interesting fact about the image.

When we got to Fira we found a restaurant right in the centre of the capital of Santorini. We ordered a beer each and sat there. It was right next to one of the main footpaths through Fira. And was it busy!

And we sat there for an age, too tired and hungry waiting for our food to arrive, which took an absolute age. So tired and hungry we just sat there in silence!

When the food finally came it was excellent – chicken gyros with chips. One of my favourite Greek meals!

Is there a behind the scenes video of this shoot?

No. But look what we got when we were in Fira. And yet another use for a Peak Design Everyday Backpack. A bottle of Prosecco carrier!

And see that white thing that my camera bag is resting against? That is one of the legacies of the wine cellar days. Kasimatis Suites used to be a wine celler, or as they are known locally, cavana.

There are remnants of the buildings former use all over the place, which make random appearances in other photos on this website.

How did I process the image?

This is another bracketed set of images merged together in Lightroom using the not surprisingly named HDR Merge feature.

This is what I did in Lightroom. Not too much in terms of processing to be fair.

Now you will have noticed there is a problem!

Yes there is some stuff missing. Here is the actual image. When I straightened the horizon I lost some stuff around the edges. I could have used Constrain to crop which would have basically cropped in the image removing the bits of white but I didn’t want to do that.

I wanted the full image, so had to fill in the blanks.

Now if only there was some software that could fix this…..

Time to jump over to Photogshop. I used the Clone Stamp tool to fill in the blanks, and then used the Patch Tool to improve the standard of the edit to the point where you can’t actually tell what I have done.

That is always the intention with my digital image processing – that is looks natural.

What could I have done to improve the image?

Well I could have taken the shot with the horizon level to save me some work in Photoshop, but apart from that this is the view.

Maybe I could have waited for a cruise ship to arrive and get that in shot to the right. That would have balanced things nicely.

And what are my thoughts on this image?

I wanted to get a view of Fira perched on top of the caldera. And that is what I captured.

I like this image, and it tells the story I wanted to tell with a single image.

It tells the story of the capital of Santorini, Fira, perched on the top of the caldera. And of those lovely white buildings.

And the steep drop down to that lovely blue water.

Enough of me – what do you think of this image?

Let me know if you like my photo of Fira from the footpath to Imerovigli.

One last thing

If you want to buy this image, or want to speak to me about future collaboration email me at sales@rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk.

Rick McEvoy ABIPP – Photographer, writer, blogger
16/10/2018
Probably one of the best Santorini photo locations?
Picture of sunrise on the Greek Island of Santorini, with the view looking towards Imerovigli from the top of the Santoini Caldera. Never before have I seen both cold blue and sunrise warmth in the same image

A fundamental question when going on a photography trip is where to take photos from. Now I don’t do extensive research before I go on a trip, but I do have a quick look so I get a general idea of what I will be wandering around.

So the fundamental question is this – is the caldera one of the best Santorini photo locations? In my opinion clearly this is a yes – I took all the photos on this website on the caldera, and only left the caldera (reluctantly) to go home!

Why do I like this photo so much?

Simple. It is the first image that I have captured which shows so clearly the different colour temperatures before sunrise and during sunrise in one image. To the right the light is cold and blue, and to the left you can clearly see the warmth provided by the rising sun. And you can also see the transition from cold to warm in the clouds in the sky.

I have never captured this before in one image in quite such a dramatic way – that was the beauty of the location I was taking the photo from. And the beauty of taking photographs on the wonderful Greek Island of Santorini. Every day on Santorini the sunrise was different – it was quite amazing to witness.

The image also gives a great representation of the topography of the island, with the buildings visible on the top of the caldera to the west, with the island gradually falling down to the sea to the east.

And it also shows the value of getting up early in the morning and getting out there! Even on holiday I love doing this.

Sorry that reminded me – my favourite images tend to be ones taken at sunrise, which is my favourite part of every day. There is something special about being the only one out there watching a new day unfold.

How did I decide on this composition?

I had already walked past this location and made a mental note of the unrestricted view of Imerovigli and so much of the island. I was up and about early that morning and quickly found this spot again.

I realised that from this viewpoint I could show the topography of the island from a different angle, as well as the coastline on both sides of the island. To be honest I have not seen this particular view before. Not that I do extensive research before I visit a location.

I wanted to show the contrast in the coastlines, the east coast having gentle sloping land down to the sea, with the west coast consisting of steep plummeting cliffs.

I wanted to show the shape and size of the caldera on the main island.

I also wanted foreground content which showed the terrain away from the built-up areas.

I wanted to represent Santorini in one photograph.

Where was the photo taken?

The photo was taken from the top of the caldera, right where the number five is on the Lightroom Map extract.

This is a great location to take photos from – just to the left is the church that features in some of my other images you can see on this website.

This is one of the reasons why GPS in a camera is so important in my travel photography – I can see exactly where I took every photo which is invaluable in the work that I do.

And also the reason I scout my own locations so I get the compositions that I want, and not the headline shots that everyone else seems to go for.

What time of day was the photo taken?

Just after 6am in the morning. I was up long before 4am on this morning as I knew where I was walking to for the sunrise.

What photography gear did I use to get the shot
- Canon 6D
- Canon 17 – 40mm F4 L Lens (focal length used 17mm)
- Manfrotto 190 Go tripod with geared head
- Loupe Viewer
- My red hat
- Oakley sunglasses
- Pepsi Max
- Red shoes (feet already acheing by now)
What camera settings did I use?
- Aperture F16
- Shutter speeds 1/50th second, 1/200th second and 1/13th second.
- ISO 400. I was surprised that I used an ISO of 400. But thinking about it the clouds were moving, and I didn’t want the shutter speed too slow or I would have got blur in the clouds. ISO 400 on the Canon 6D really isn’t a problem – the sensor can give a super clean image at this sensitivity.
- Back-button focus
- AV Mode
- 10 second self-timer
- RAW format
One interesting fact about the image.

Well the range of colour temperatures for one thing – I have never captured them quite like this before. Other than that no dramas on this shoot.

Is there a behind the scenes video of this shoot?

Yes – there is the 360 view I captured using my iPhone not long before the image was taken. You can check it out on YouTube.

How did I process the image?

Firstly I merged the three images together in Lightroom to create a single image.

The challenge with this image was to get the white balance correct, as I had two colour temperatures in the same image – talk about mixed lighting!

To get the white balance correct I used the eye dropper tool and selected a neutral part of the clouds, which I found in the end! I went to the middle of the image, where the two light sources met. All you need to do is move the eye dropper tool over what looks like a neutral part of the picture, and get the three numbers as close as possible, and then click and tht is that done!

After that processing was done in the Basic Panel in Lightroom, which I did using the Vibrance slider before moving on to the HSL Panel. Here I played around with the colours and luminances – what I was trying to recreate was the scene that I remember seeing with my own eyes. I can still picture that wonderful scene with the warm light to the left and the cold light to the right – such a stunning natural occurrence.

I finsihed off the image with a bit of cleaning up in Photoshop, removing sensor dust spots and irritations around the edges – no major editing to be fair.

What could I have done to improve the image?

Hmmm. Well I could have moved somewhere else and got a lovely white church in the foreground but I wanted to convey the topography of the Santorini caldera without a building in the composition.

I am after all looking to capture a range of images, not throw everything into every image.

Less is more.

And to be honest I am very happy with this image.

And what are my thoughts on this image?

I like this image a lot. Once I had selected the first 20 images for this website this was the first one that I uploaded. This is one of my favourite photos of Santorini.

I love the two colour temperatues in the image – I have never captured these before.

And I also like the fact that in one image I am showing the contrasting landscape, with the gentle slope to the east and the cliffs of the caldera to the west. You can just see the white buildings of Imerovigli on the top of the caldera in their spectacular, iconic Santorini location.

I wanted an image that told the story of Santorini in one image, and also an image that was different from most of the photos of Santorini that you see on the internet.

Enough of me – what do you think of this image?

Yep what do you think? Please let me know as at the end of the day I have an emotional attachment to this photo.

And I really do appreciate feedback on my photographs.

One last thing

If you want to buy this image, or want to speak to me about future collaboration email me at sales@rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk.

Rick McEvoy ABIPP – Photographer, writer, blogger
04/10/2018
What are my best photos of Santorini?
Photo of the view from one of the white buildings of Santorini looking towards the end of the Caldera and Oia

I have been on a photography trip to the wonderful Greek Island of Santorini. I got some great images, but how do I choose my best photos of Santorini? Well this website is all about my photos, that and a little bit about the wonderful island itself. And I’m not going to lie to you, I am very excited to share my best work on this website.

So I ask the question – what are my best photos of Santorini? Well this one of them. I love this view from one of the famous white buildings in Imerovigli looking down from the top of the Caldera towards Oia in the distance.

I will write about this photo in this blog post. I will describe what I was thinking before I took the shot, how I captured the image and a bit about post-processing. Not too much but hopefully you will enjoy reading this post.

Why do I like this photo so much?

Well this photo has a lovely feel to it. And that is important to me.

The white painted walls of the building in the foreground are warmed with some lovely evening sunshine, giving them a lovely warm glow contrast with the lovely evening light and the flat sea in the background.

The white building is is placed on high, giving a view looking down on the sea and the lower lying caldera taking you to the white buildings of Oia on the headland.

And the white buildings of Oia are barely visible in the darkening light just before the sun sets.

This is what Santorini is all about.

How did I decide on this composition?

I wanted to use the hard building structure to contrast and frame the natural environment in the rest of the image.

I couldn’t get the right angle for the concrete to lead you into the background landcsape – there just wasn’t enough room to get the composition I really wanted.

The famous white buildings of Santorini provide such a contrast to the stunning natural landscape. As an architectural photographer I try to capture not only the built environment but also the the surrounding environment and how the two interact.

And of course the impact of man on the natural environment.

I wanted to convey the topography of the island, with all those buildings perched on the top of the caldera with the cliffs dropping down into the sea.

And I wanted to create a slightly different image, which i hope I have done?

Santorini really is a dramatic island, and the way the buildings have been constructed on the top of the caldera is really quite remarkable. A small Greek Island, but a stunning one to photograph.

Where was the photo taken?

This photo was taken from the top of some steps between two white buildings on the outskirts of Imerovigli looking towards Oia. The island in the background is Sikinos.

What time of day was this photo taken?

The photo was taken just after 4.30 one April afternoon. I was heading off to capture sunset on the caldera from the top of the caldera on the edge of Imerovigli.

What photography gear did I use to get the shot
- Canon 6D Mk 1
- Canon 24-105mm lens – focal length 24mm
The image was taken handheld. No filterrs used.

Check out my full gear list on my photography gear page.

What camera settings did I use?
- Shutter speeds – 1/500 second, 1/2000 second, 1/125 second
- Aperture – F16
- ISO 400
This is an HDR image. I took three images, the first the correct exposure (1/500 second), the second two stops under exposed (1/2000 second) and the third image two stops over exposed (1/125 second).

I take three images so I can capture a greater range of basically what I can see – single image capture has its limitations and HDR (High Dynamic Range) allows me to capture more range in an image.

One interesting fact about the image.

I waited for the boat which you can see just below the headland and Oia. I wanted one boat in the sea to break it up.

I had quite a wait and boat was smaller than I had hoped for!!

I took this photo at the top of some steps, and for some reason I got rather a lot of strange looks, possibly due to the time I was stood there waiting for the boat to appear.

And it was boiling hot at 4.30 even in April. so I was probably looking a bit of a sweaty mess!

Is there a behind the scenes video of this shoot?

No. It is bad enough shooting in the built-up parts of Santorini and as the shot was hendheld I couldn’t make a video of me taking the photo.

How did I process the image?

Firstly I merged together the two stop under exposed and two stop over exposed images in Lightroom using the HDR Merge tool.

This is the correctly exposed RAW file completey unprocessed.

Travel photography, Santroini, Greece by Rick McEvoy Photography

I know. Its rather dull and lacking in colour! But that is what a RAW file lookes like.

I merge the two files together in Lightroom, giving me a single file with the extended dynamic range of the two image captures merged nicely and naturally to give this look.

After that processing in Lightroom is mainly concentrated in the Basic panel and HSL panel. I do a lot of basic correction on import.

I finshed off the image in Photoshop removing sensor dust removal and minor blemishes.

What could I have done to improve the image?

I would have preferred the concrete wall bottom right to have been further to the right and lead the eye into the picture more.

And I would have liked a big shiny white cruise liner in the image. I could have added a big white ship from another photo but I don’t do stuff like that.

And what are my thoughts on this image?

I like it. The image conveys one of the features of Santorini – the white buildings planted on the top of the caldera overlooking the sea with amazing views all around.

I think I have captured the feel of Santorini, which is very important to me. The white building in the foreground has a warm glow from the later afternoon sun which I excluded deliberately from this shot.

Enough of me – what do you think of this image?

Whilst I love this photo of Santorini that I have taken what do you think? I would love to hear your feedback on my photography work – at the end of the day it doesn’t matter what I think as I took the photo!

No your opinion is very important to me – if only I like it then I have failed!

Please get in touch via the comments box – I love to hear what people think of my photography work and reply to every comment.

One last thing

If you want to buy this image, or want to speak to me about future collaboration email me at sales@rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk.

Rick McEvoy ABIPP – Photographer, writer, blogger
28/09/2018
Which are my favourite Santorini pictures?

When I say my favourite Santorini pictures I mean pictures taken by me. I am not saying that these are the best pictures of Santorini – far from it. I am just saying that these are my favourite pictures that I took when I went to Santorini.

This website is about Santorini, my photos and photography.

It is not a guide to Santorini – it is the story of me and my experiences taking photos.

I hope that this makes sense.

How many photos did I take on my trip to Santorini?

Well I took quite a few photos on this trip. Over 2000. I will write about image selection in a separate post. Image selection took a long time – much longer than I was hoping.

How many photos have I selected for editing?

I narrowed the number of images I want to edit down to 135 images, which I reduced after editing 53 images.

How did I choose the images to edit?

Slowly is the answer. Too slowly. And over too long a period of time. The problem was that I was not sure what I was choosing the images for – I did not have a plan for what to do with these images.
And now I do.

My new website, photos of Santorini

This was the missing link. What to do with the photos I took in Santorini? Chuck them in a page on my main website, https://rickmcevoyphotography.com/

No. I wanted to do more than that with these images.
So no – a new website which you are on right now.

My favourite pictures of Santorini

Once I had decided to produce a website dedicated to Santorini, my favourite photos and how I got the photos things began to make sense.

I managed to narrow over 2000 images down to my favourite 20 pictures of Santorini, which I will write about on this website, one post per photo. That is a nice simple organised structure that I can work with.

These posts will include behind the scenes photos and videos, as well as the tails of how I got to the locations, how I captured the images and why I only had one pair of shoes!

I will also describe in detail how I edited some of the images – not all of them – that will be far too dull.

And what about the other edited images?

I will add all these images that I have edited to a gallery so you can view them all. This gallery will of course include my favourite 20 photos.

Not too serious

My website photos of Santorini is not too serious – I hope that you all enjoy my photos and my stories of getting the images.

Introduction over.

The next post will be my favourite picture (taken by me) of the wonderful island of Santorini. How I got the shot, the gear I used, my camera settings and how I processed the photo.

One last thing

If you want to buy an image, or want to speak to me about future collaboration email me at sales@rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk.

Rick McEvoy ABIPP – Photographer, writer, blogger

30/08/2018
Photos of Santorini – what’s this website all about then?
Picture of sunrise on the Greek Island of Santorini, with the view looking towards Imerovigli from the top of the Santoini Caldera. Never before have I seen both cold blue and sunrise warmth in the same image

Hello and welcome to the second blog post my new website, photos of Santorini.

On this website I will be posting and writing about some of the photos of Santorini that I have taken on this wonderful Greek Island. I will start with my favourite twenty photos for now, each post being all about a single image.

I want this website to be more than just my photos and me trying to tell you how great they are. As well as my photos I will be writing all about this wonderful island, to which I am already planning my next visit.

I want my website to be an interesting and useful resource that attracts visitors.

Destination websites

This is my first website about a specific destination. My main website is rickmcevoyphotography.com – this is where you can find out all about my commercial architectural photography work.

It is my plan to have a variety of travel photography websites, covering different places I have been to, which I hope will lead me into going to places to take photos and write about them to produce new websites.

There is a big world out there, and I want to see it and photography it.

A bit about me

I am a photographer living in Dorset on the south coast of England. I specialise in photographing thinks that don’t move. I photograph buildings and their surrounding environments.

I don’t photograph weddings, christenings, family portaits or fluffy animals. I photograph buildings and places.

I also love travel and writing, so guess what, the beginnings of a travel photography website happened earlier on this year.

What do I know about websites?

Not a lot. My main website is a template website for which I pay a monthly fee to Squarespace. Photos of Santorini is a WordPress website built from scratch. I will write about the production of this website on my photography blog, but this website will be all about Santorini and my photos.

I am going to write a number of posts about the island of Santorini itself, which I will work on over the next few months.

How long was I on the island of Santorini?

5 days with my gorgeous wife. 4 sunrises, lots of time walking around in the day and a few sunsets.

I am a massive fan of sunrise – I love being there at the beginning of the new day, and on Santorini every sunrise is completely different.

How I got the shot

I am going to write about how I actually took the photos. This is something that I have never properly captured before, and this time I have some photos of my camera set up and also videos taken on my iPhone of the scenes I was photographing.

Videos

I have uploaded some videos to YouTube, where I have my own YouTube channel – not great quality at the moment granted but there is some interesting stuff there.

What will my websites be all about?

I want to produce travel photography websites providing great photos and lots of information about destinations. This website is my first go at this, so please bear with me as I get into the swing of things.
- Travel photography website?
I need to work on this – what is my thing going to be?
- Destination photography?
- Travel guide to Santorini?
- Rick’s guide to Santorini
- Everything you need to know about Santorini?
I like Rick’s guide to Santorini – there is something I can work with there brand wise.

This is something that will fall out of the research that I will be carrying out as I build this website. The important thing here is not the website but the content of the website.

Content is king, and I need to work out what will be the best content.

How many photos will there be?

There are currently 99 photos in a folder in Lightroom. I have edited 53 of them, and have the last 46 to do. I am going to do this after I have sorted out the structure of my website.

I was wondering about calling this website 99 photos of Santorini, which I quite like. The problem is that I don’t really want to constrain myself with a fixed number of images – I want a freer more fluid feel to this website.

Image processing

When I talk about how I got the shot, I will also include the post processing.

I am going to write a number of posts, which will include the following titles

How do I research a travel photography destination?

What gear do I take on a photography trip?

What gear did I use?

What gear did I not use?

How do I prepare to take photos at sunrise?

How do I actually take photos at sunrise?

What gear do I want for future trips?

What do I do after sunrise has happened?

How do I look after the images that I have taken until I get home?

How do I organise the images from a trip.

How do I select images to process in Lightroom?

What is my image processing workflow?

Getting to and from Santorini
When is the best time to visit Santorini?

Why is Santorini such a great place to take photos?

Where do people come from to visit Santorini?

What are the best places to visit in Santorini?

How was the caldera formed in Santorini?

These are just a few ideas for titles for blog posts.

What about the image themselves?

I have not decided yet how to display the images – at the moment I just have the processed images uploaded in a single simple gallery. I am using a basic theme at the moment – I just wanted to get the website out there.

What pages am I going to produce?

I will create the following pages

Home page

Blog

About Rick (me)

Contact Rick (me)

Buy photos

Yes – buy photos. The photos on this website will be available for sale here and here only. I have dabbled with the stock markets (not the high flying stock market – photography stock) and have experienced the soul crushing selling a great image for 53p. I need to sell 50 images at this rate to see any money at all, as the minimum pay out is £25.

No, I am worth more than that.

When will my website be complete?

My aim is to have my website complete with all the pages added, all the images edited, uploaded and displayed how I want them, and also 40 blog posts written and on there.

That is the plan. And then I will leave the website and see what happens. I am hoping that I will generate traffic and a passive income. If this works I will start work on the next website.

What will the next website be?

I have two options – one that I have already been to, and one that I am due to visit shortly. They are both Greek Islands, both interesting and appealing and lovely in their won ways.

And when will I return to Santorini?

Soon is the answer – hopefully the back end of this year.

What will I photograph when I return to Santorini?

I want to explore the entire island, and photograph all the major locations. And then, once I have done that, I want to explore the lesser-known parts of Santorini. I am not a photographer looking just to take the same photos everyone else already has – what is the point of that?

No I want to produce a great set of images of a location, a set of images that have my style all over them – my end game is that people look at a photo and know straight away that I took it!

And when I am producing all this content and doing all this research this will feed directly into my future photography and writing about this special Greek Island.

And what is the content going to contain?

As you will have seen from reading this post I have lots of ideas about the content of this website – I need to spend some time and research what people will find useful, helpful – what people will ask questions about on the internet.

The content is going to be a mix of information about Santorini, all about the photos on my website, and answering the most frequently asked questions about Santorini as a place to visit.

It is getting this focus that is the key – the content will ascertain the success or otherwise of my website.

I cannot rely just on the photos I have taken, but need to produce an interesting mix of well written relevant posts about Santorini.

What are the most common search terms in Google?

According to my research these are the top 10 search terms.

1 – Santorini

2 – Santorini holidays

3 – Santorini hotels

4 – Wedding photography

5 – Flights to Santorini

6 – Santorini Greece

7 – Greek Islands

8 – Santorini weather

9 – Santorini weddings

10 – Holidays in Santorini

Whilst I am not writing with SEO in mind this gives me a great insight into what people are searching for, and gives me a steer as to the content I will be producing.

Summary

There you go – welcome to my new world of possibilities.

My website is going to be a mix of all things Santorini, and hopefully one of the go to websites on the internet with great information and great photos of this stunning Greek Island.

I am looking forward to working on this new venture, which is scheduled for completion by the end of September 2018.

For daily updates on the production of this website head over to my photography blog in September.

One last thing

If you want to buy any of my images, or want to speak to me about future collaboration email me at sales@rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk.

Rick McEvoy ABIPP – Photographer, writer, blogger
11/08/2018