Now I’m pretty pessimistic with things like this, but as I love the sample books GF Smith do, and always wanted to be featured in one. I picked six of my favorite images and uploaded them.

I’m so glad I did though. While I was asked for 3 of the images in high res, about three months after submission, I then didn’t hear anything about the project from GF Smith or their designers. Even the guys on the GF Smith stand at the Photography Show didn’t know anything about the project. So I resigned to thinking that I hadn’t made the final cut.

That was until an email landed in my inbox the other day, from someone asking me about this image of mine they had seen in the Fine Collection. I replied back asking which image it was, but also called GF Smith to see if I could get a copy.

The book arrived yesterday and I couldn’t be happier to see that I am actually featured in it (I’ve had a lot of work miss-credited to me recently!). A definite career highlight so far and little dream come true.

This is the image they chose, it’s one I shot on large format film back in 2011. The room was a renovated workshop, belonging to the estates dept. at the Royal Hospital here in Liverpool. It’s been one of my favorites for a long time, with everything being white or light grey and the room so empty. I’d imagine now its filled with racks of shelves and covered in paint as it was supposed to be a paint store.

It’s so good to see this image along side the 65 other brilliant works. It’s even more amazing for me that I was selected from over ten thousand other submissions.
The designers have sequenced the images by color which I think works great, and is a nod to the tradition of doing that with sample books for things like ink and paint, as well as some of the older GF Smith books.

I’ve picked out below some of my favorite spreads, as well as my image along side a great shot of the Holocaust memorial in Berlin by Matt Adams. Plus there is a brilliant cat pic on the cover by Elias Fecher, everyone loves a good cat pic.

So so happy.

Couple of new shots from Snowdonia after a recent bit of snow. Was a bit disappointed to be honest as I didn’t get out there till the end of the week, all the lower level snow had melted. But still was a nice day out in the fresh cold air.

I’ve used a Hitech 0.6ND Soft grad on the Tryfan shot. I bought a Lee starter kit and the Hitech to see what it was like and to be honest it seems pretty good. No major color cast that I could see, definitely going to buy a few more and see how they are.

Few pics from recent trip to Ogwen.

Also got round to adding some stuff to my website – www.craigmagee.co.uk

Recent shot of the bus terminal at Liverpool One, designed by Wilkinson Eyre.
Been wanting to photograph it for a while, just never got round to it.
I took this from just outside John Lewis and had about 6 Merseytravel security guards eyeing me up!
Got away without a pointless lecture. Annoying thing for me is those red and white plastic barriers that seem to litter the city.

View across to Aran Benllyn

An awesome looking workshop from a recent shoot of a refurbed part of the Royal Liverpool Hospital.
This is to be a paint store. Wonder what it will look like in a few months?

Here is a recent commission for the recently refurbished Cross FoXes near Dolgellau.
This view is looking across the Mawddach estuary at the beast that is Cadair Idris. Its not one peak as such but a huge hunk of rock with a few dotted around it and a couple of very nice glacial lakes. Not the highest mountain range in Wales but certainly one of the biggest in terms of area.

You can click on the image above and see it bigger on my Flickr stream, but here’s the thing, it just doesn’t do it justice! Really you NEED to see this printed. The Cross FoXes is home to two 1.3m long fine art prints and a floor to ceiling wall paper print. Go for a drive, check it out and have some ace food.
to find out more about the place click!

Recent(ish) photo of Llyn Cau on the south side of Cadair Idris in southern Snowdonia. This was shot for a restaurant/hotel that is opening really close to the mountain, this didn’t get chosen but others did, which will feature on here as soon as the project is completed and prints are in there.

The lake is said to bottomless and home to a monster called a Afanc, an Welsh water dragon. Legend has it King Arthur captured the Afanc and tying it behind his horse, he dragged it to Llyn Cau, where he released it.