My photo is on the front cover of Edinburgh Life magazine again

I was delighted to have one of my photos used as the cover image in Edinburgh Life magazine earlier this year. It came as a surprise because most of the photos I post online don’t have a lifestyle magazine vibe. It’s mostly “street” (whatever that actually means!) which isn’t what I’d call consumer mag friendly.

I do take lots of other types of photos too, of course. If a particular landscape or classic tourist scene catches my eye, I’ll take a picture. Now and again I’ll post these to my Instagram account, and it’s fortunate that I do because the blossom photo caught the eye of the Edinburgh Life team through Instagram (via hashtags, I’d guess) and they reached out for permission.

Yay - I was a published photographer!

There was a similarly “lifestyle” photo I posted back in 2023 that caught their eye recently, and I was just as surprised and delighted to be asked if it could be on the cover of the summer issue!

I remember taking this photo. The scene really grabbed me, and I happened to have a 50mm lens on my camera which gave just enough compression to capture the clock of the Balmoral Hotel through the Scott Monument. I really liked the composition, and the fact there were people in summer dress and hats added to the photo (I didn’t really notice them until after the fact!).

I’m really chuffed to have been featured again – it’s very rewarding to get a photo on the cover of a physical magazine, and it’s definitely a big motivation to keep getting out and taking photos to try and improve my craft.

It’s also been an excellent reminder to take more “classic” photos and post them online even though they might not fit the general vibe I’ve been trying to curate on my account. It’s easy to get so preoccupied looking for people, moments and daily street photography minutiae that you overlook the big picture. You should be taking photos for the love of it, not just for the likes.