When the Huawei P30 Pro was launched it was everywhere, every ad I seemed to see online extolled the virtues of this new kid on the block with its quad camera and sleek look with the mermaid back.  I got in touch with my friends at Three and they quickly sent one out for me to road test.

I've used the iPhone ever since the iPhone 3G and I've tried many times to swap to other things, I've tried the Samsung range a couple of times but overall I've never found anything which comes close to my iPhone, whatever generation it was.

I've been using the XS Max since it was first released having upgraded from the X (pronounced 10) and I absolutely love it.  The portrait mode makes many images indecipherable from the ones I shoot for clients with my pro body equipment.  So much so that the only time I use my pro bodies is when I'm being paid for portraits or weddings.  My Instagram is 99% iPhone photos and the only times I've ever felt it could have been better were at night when it's virtually impossible to use portrait mode with good results.

The Huawei P30 does look sleek, it's lighter than the iPhone and overall, it feels shiny, it's maybe too shiny, to the point where I knew I was bound to drop it if I wasn't careful.  I tested it over a period of days and barring one feature, I really wasn't impressed although it is to be noted that it is around £600 cheaper than the latest iPhone.

Instagram stories were a fail for me completely, it either posted them with the voice out of sequence to the photos or the sound was so awful, it felt like I was talking from the inside of a tin.  The portrait mode on the camera was good but it didn't recognise Holly Bobbins face in the same way that the iPhone does.  It does, however, come with a separate aperture mode and for the most part, this makes for better images though it should be noted that the images straight out of the camera are much cooler and have a magenta tinge.

The only mode where it completely outdid the iPhone is night photo mode when it produced an image in the dark which I'll be honest, I was not expecting.  If it had of produced similar astounding images in other modes then I might have considered upgrading although I'm still not a huge fan of the Android operating system although that may be down to personal taste.

It goes without saying that I really wanted to love this phone, a phone with 4 cameras produces immense capabilities if you're a photographer like me who doesn't always want to be attached to a bulky DSLR but for now I'm going to be sticking with my current phone, well at least until the next version of the iPhone is released this autumn.

I was loaned a Huawei P30 Pro from Three, I was not paid to write this article or recompensed in any other way.

Christmas in London with the iPhone Xs Max

I love London, when you don't live there it becomes a magical place, a romantic getaway or a family trip, a special thing you don't get to do very often.  The lovely people at Three invited Harriet, Looby and I on a photowalk around Shoreditch and I snatched their hand off before they could even say "Come to London."

After a seriously early train to the capital, we arrived in Shoreditch, now for all of my time I've spent in London I'd never been to Shoreditch but I'll definitely be going again, Shoreditch is simply amazing, it's full of street art everywhere and not just any old street art, you'll even find some Banksy.  it's literally a photographers playground and next time I'll be taking my camera.  On this occasion though, the photo walk was to show the amazing capabilities of the new phones, the iPhone Xs and the iPhone Xs Max, now I should say that I'd already upgraded to the Xs Max and I'm a bit of a geek at the best of times so I knew about the adjustable fstops in portrait mode which I have to say is an amazing feature, being able to adjust the aperture after you've taken the photo is an incredible feature, you can't even do that with a high end DSLR.

I was super lucky to have Looby with me because unlike at home where she spends her life with her head in her phone she was actually willing to pose, in fact, she was pretty much the ultimate model!!

We spent 3 hours meandering around the streets of Shoreditch and even went to the iconic Brick Lane which was super busy, we had a scrumptious lunch and we ended the walk part of the day at Spitalfields market.  Next was a trip around London to squeeze as much as we possibly could into just a few hours, Harriet had never experienced London before so we wanted to make it the best day ever for her.  In just a few hours we went to Harrods, we had dinner in Covent Garden, we went to Christmas in Leicester Square, we went to Trafalgar square walking through the west end, "where's the Palladium?" said Harriet, "You're standing under the entrance" said me.  We even went to see Buckingham palace at night before a mad dash back to Kings Cross in an Uber whereupon we made our train, the last train out of London with 5 minutes to spare, I blame The Queen for that one, I shan't mention the train journey home too much but it took 4 hours via Lincoln, was filled with drunk rugby fans and LNER had triple booked everyone's seats.  Let's just say we were exhausted when we made it back to Newcastle after midnight.  You know what though, it was totally worth it.  We get few chances to visit London so it's crucial to pack as much in as possible and it's not every day you have to walk more than 10 miles, it's no wonder my Fitbit actually checked that I hadn't suddenly put it on Mo Farrah whilst I sat by a pool somewhere.

Thanks to Three for hosting us, thanks to Rob the photographer who I loved chatting too as I don't really know all that many photographers so it's always great to geek out a little and thanks to Looby and Harriet for joining me on our epic day in London.

Is it really worth upgrading to the iPhone X just for the camera?

In November last year I upgraded to the iPhone 8Plus purely and simply for the camera, I have enough phone contracts because I pay for all of my teens on the condition that I get the newest phones and really they don't mind that at all.  So after using that until a few weeks ago I decided to loan and iPhone X from my lovely friends at Three who I've worked with lots of times now.

I'd tried an iPhone X in the shop when it came out but I really didn't like the swipe up instead of the home key and I wasn't at all convinced I would like the fact that you unlock the phone and pay for things by using your face, hell, I don't even like my face!!

The phone came, I unboxed it and I was safe in the knowledge that I could use it for a month and then send it back, I really was sceptical about the fact it's got a whole new camera system and could it really be better than the 8Plus?

Let me tell you, it took me 3 days to not only completely fall in love with the phone but by the Saturday I'd been in store to do the upgrade on my own contract.

The iPhone X completely knocks it out of the park when it comes to photography, I'll give you an example of when I was in the lake district with the iPhone X and my DSLR which had a £1500 lens attached to it, I didn't really believe that a phone retailing at just over £1k would equal £2500 of professional photography equipment but you know what?  I was wrong!!

Now I would tell you which on was taken with which but that really would spoil the fun so which one do you think was taken with an iPhone X and which one was taken with a Canon professional body plus a Canon L Lens?

One of them was quickly edited with Instagram and the other was edited with Lightroom but the differences are completely subtle.

Now I'm someone who's always believed that it's not about the camera it's about the person behind the camera and also that the best camera is the one you have with you at the time.  I know after using the iPhone X for nearly a month now I no longer feel the pressure to take my big camera unless I'm specifically shooting for a stock photography agency and then the only difference really comes down to pixels rather than quality.

So, let me show you some more favourites from this last month taken with the iPhone X

I think we'd all agree that for something which you can just have in your pocket all of the time it does a pretty great job and really for me it's a little scary just what a good job it does, I don't think there'll ever be a time when we don't have digital SLR's but at the same time, technology is progressing so quickly, it's only a couple of years since Apple introduced portrait mode which could throw out the background and it's come on since it was first launched in Beta on the iPhone 7Plus.  If you can replicate the effects of a £1500 - £2000 lens with something you can carry in your back pocket, well the world is your oyster and it's a sign of the times that photography will never be the same, I do still think there are times when my big camera is always going to out perform the iPhone and thank goodness but if they're this good now, can you imagine the progress over the next 10 years, maybe one day I'll just need to go to weddings with six small iPhones in my kit....I'm joking about that, no, really it's way too scary to even imagine that.

Thanks to Three for the loan of the iPhone X and for introducing me to my own new phone.

London, We Love You!

I'm lucky to have one of those careers where I don't know what's going to happen next so when I was offered a day in London to go to play with the latest iPhones by Three I didn't pause before accepting, especially as Looby was also included in the offer.

I'd say that Thursday was a gift, it was one of those rare magical days when the planets align to create near perfection, we had a plan to go to Harrods, and then the event at the Three discovery centre in Islington followed by a swift trip to Hamleys at Looby's request.

We travelled down at 8am and got home at 11pm exhausted because we'd also managed so squeeze in a trip to Buckingham Palace, Looby noticed an open window and concluded The Queen must have been looking for us, the same as she had when we'd had a trip to London when Looby was just 4 years old.

I think there's something magical about London, perhaps because I don't have to live there on a daily basis, I know my way around from all of the time I've spent there in another life and I'm pretty good at negotiating The Tube though I will say £18.50 for an off peak day ticket for Looby and I, we're used to just over £5 on the metro!!

So we began our trip at one of the most magical places of all, the Harrods Christmas department, you'll know from previous articles that I have a big of a love of department stores but Harrods is something else, I mean where else could you purchase a reed diffuser for £22,000 or a Suitcase with internal desk for £99,500?  Luckily all Looby wanted was this years Harrods Christmas bear which at £19.95 I think was a bargain and they don't even charge you for the carrier bags.

Yes, Harrods is the place where dreams can come true and when I win the lottery I shall be heading straight there for a celebratory shopping spree, Looby hadn't been there before and loved it, let loose with spare cash I think she could have come away laden with goodies.

Our main event of the day was of course going to Three for a session on the new iPhones, and iOS11, being an Apple fan girl by my own admission I was thrilled to have some time to test out the new iPhone8 plus, I will say that the camera on it is amazing

This is with the 7Plus my current phone which I love

This is using studio lighting mode on the iPhone8 Plus, now if you're me and you're a photographer you'll notice the difference straight away, the shadows alone with the even lighting are amazing, especially when it was shot indoors under artificial lighting, it should be that my outdoor late afternoon light is better but there's just no contest!  If I was going to upgrade right now I would without question however, what I'm holding out for is the iPhone X, that's going to have completely different and revolutionary new ways to take photos and it's going to be more intuitive, have better lenses and modes, I just hope I can pre-order one on the 27th October and have it in time for Christmas, there are rumours afoot that we may not actually see them in reality until early next year.  I also managed to pick up some new tips about Live Photos, did you know you can change the type of photo, it's a bit like having Boomerang but within the camera.

I thought I knew most of the new features of iOS11 but there were some hidden gems, and if you have never played with augmented reality yet, I'd suggest you check out one of the apps, I think AR is at the very beginning of it's creation and it's only going to get better and better, it's certainly got me excited.

After the event we knew we had enough time to go to Buckingham Palace so we had the loveliest wander through St James Park before finally visiting The Queen, it's a total highlight for me and Looby couldn't remember her visit when she was small except for the fact that she'd seen The Queen waving out of the window at her and she looked like granny, who knows if it actually happened but I've always believed it was possible!

She was definitely at home as the Royal Standard was flying this time around, could she have been looking for us too I wonder?  Looby did get a photo standing next to her this time, even if she was slightly more square than I remembered, definitely her though, I mean, look, she's even got a corgi!

Funny that she seems to live in Hamleys though!  I should mention at this point that I thought that Hamleys was actually hell on earth, it was noisy, crowded, they charged us £5 for a reusable carrier bag when Looby bought a London themed jigsaw, I was wholly unimpressed though she loved it and that's all that mattered.

For me, I got a walk in the royal park, I got to watch the pelicans and I got to spend some time soaking in the atmosphere at the palace, Looby said she wished we could have spent more time at the palace but sadly time was not on our side.  London is so vast that you really can't see much in day but I hope we'll get back down there soon through work or leisure, wouldn't it be amazing if I got more work there?  It's more probable than the train tickets perpetually costing half a months rent.

Thanks to Three for facilitating our trip and inviting us to their fabulous Apple event, they did not sponsor this post and all of my opinions are that of my own, I remain a fan of all things Apple and most things London.