Frequently Asked Questions

Should I buy a framed or an unframed print?

If you have a trusted framer, then it is logical to order an unframed print. But for most people, I would recommend a framed print, as these are ready to hang on your wall, and are the most economical option.

I now prefer my images to be made as acrylic glass prints, as these offer the ultimate luscious tones and richness of detail. But traditional archival prints with a mount, wooden frame and glass have a real timeless beauty and look absolutely fantastic, but there is a limit on the size because of the glass. Acrylic glass prints can be made as large as you like. 

See my framing page for more information.

As I am based between the UK and Italy, orders are done from either place so shipping to anywhere in GB or the EU is the same cost, without any import taxes or customs complications. 

Shipping costs are the same to anywhere in the EU or the UK, and delivery to your door ranges between GBP 30-80 even for large prints.

If you live outside of Europe, then an unframed print is possibly a better idea. I can send you it rolled up in a hard carboard tube, and you will save on the high cost, and risk of damage, of shipping a framed print.

However, I have had images printed and framed in labs in the US and in Australia for clients there, so I might be able to find a lab near to you – this means you can save on these shipping and import taxes, as well as saving a lot of time, as the print will be produced locally. Contact me for details

Please note that I do not make any extra money on selling framed prints as opposed to unframed; my profit margin is based on the size of image and is irrespective of whether or not it is framed. You only pay the difference that it costs me to have it framed. This is why I recommend to order prints framed.  

How long will it take to get my print?

It depends where you live, and how quickly shipping companies take to deliver your print!

If you order an unframed print, I can normally send it out to you within 2 or 3 days. If you live in London, you can pick it up – or I can deliver it to you – even more quickly.

Acrylic glass prints take normally 7-10 working days to produce in the lab so delivery time is between 2-3 weeks, although often it is much sooner. Framed giclée prints can take longer still, it depends what size you order and how busy the framer is.

Please note I do not ship framed giclée prints, these are exclusively for local delivery in London. It is possible to have them shipped, but because of the glass it must be done by a specialist art shipping company which will add singificantly to the cost, please enquire for more information.

Is it safe to buy from this website?

This website uses Woo Commerce, and industry leading e-commerce solution. The payment comes via Stripe, which uses industry standard encryption. I cannot see your transaction details, nor do I see any of your other details, aside from the billing and shipping address that you choose to input.

I only store the email addresses of people who chose to sign up to my mailing list.

Let me assure you that hundreds of people have bought prints from me over 30 years, and dozens have also through this website. No-one has ever had a cause for complaint.

My reputation is worth far more than I could ever gain by not sending you a print, however large you order it!

In what limited editions are your works?

This is a huge subject that would fill a volume! Some photographers think that you should not sell more than editions of 10 or 20 prints in total. I’ve always thought this is an artificially strangulating restriction, after all the whole point of photography is that it is a reproduceable medium. The idea of limited edition only came into being when art galleries began to take an interest in photography in the 1980s, as a way to raise the prices! All of the great masters before this time, Ansel Adams, Walker Evans, Edward Weston, Henri Cartier-Bresson, never had “editions” but they printed to fulfill demand, printing some images (such as Adams’ “Moonrise, Hernandez“), according to some reports, over 1,500 times. The world’s best selling photographer of recent times, Australian/American Peter Lik, prints in editions of 1,000; this certainly doesn’t seem to affect his sales, despite the (doubtless very jealous) naysayers.

I have therefore decided a happy medium and have set upon an edition number of 100 for my images. This enables me to keep the prices reasonable. In 30 years of selling prints, let me assure you that no-one has ever asked me about what “edition number” I sell in, however! NB the smallest print of each format – panoramic, standard, square or 2:1 – is in an open edition. This means the print is signed but not numbered.

My background in art history and also having worked with an old master gallery specialising in 17th century prints, means I know more this subject than anyone else. Some of this I wrote about in an article for a photography magazine – click to enlarge. (I’ll post the other pages once I find the magazine!)

If I buy a print, will it go up in price?

I do not sell investments. I sell images which will bring pleasure, colour and light to your homes or office. I sell dreams. Art should never be seen as a financial investment, although in some (albeit vanishingly few) cases it can be. Please always think that you are buying a time slice of a place, a story, a crystallised illusion of a scene.

I strongly believe you cannot put a price on the pleasure that an artwork can give you. To me, asking this question is as meaningless as asking a musician if you’ll make a profit if you buy their album. You are asking of art the wrong question! As an investment in joy and happiness, I would like to say that buying an image of mine will pay you back many, many times over.

Are your works signed, and why are they signed with a logo on the images on this website?

If you order a print from me, it’ll be signed. If it’s an unframed print, I will sign (and number and title and date) it in the margin beneath the printed area. If it’s an acrylic glass print, there will be a faint signature in the lower corner, right or left, which you’ll only see if you’ll look very closely.

All of the images I post on social media have my name and © symbol embedded on them, as many of my images on this website will have too. This is because I have had so many images stolen, and even used commercially by unscrupulous people. I have found them printed as framed fine art prints in 2 different Italian restaurants in central London, I have found them printed on T shirts on sale in several places in the Aeolian Islands, I have found them being sold printed onto objects such as magnets for fridges, and I have found them used on the websites of many, many hotels and tourist operators in Sicily. And never once has anyone asked my permission, let alone paid me! This as I am sure you’ll agree, is unacceptable, but it is a sad reality of today’s world of sharing images on social media.

So I include my signature on everyone to try to discourage this. On your final acrylic glass print, there will be my embedded signature but it’ll be faint and only about 3cm wide, and of course without the © symbol.

You claim your images are in ultra high resolution, what does this mean?

I like to think that I have always been a perfectionist. From my early days of photography, I used an exceptional camera called a Hasselblad, the same camera that was used on all of the Apollo Moon missions (albeit theirs was a little bit modified to be used by astronauts). The image quality of the 6 x 6cm negatives, was jaw-droppingly rich and luscious, and this became the standard I have always aspired to, although now I can far surpass it.

Although I have also used a Hasselblad digital camera, now I use Nikon cameras, which I think give the best image quality, and the lenses available for them, either Nikon or Zeiss, are unsurpassed.

My panoramas are shot by blending together up to 20 separate images, so the resulting file size, resolution and image detail is breathtaking. Even my standard format images are often shot by blending together 2 or 3 images captured with one of the specialist tilt-shift lenses I use, which eliminates all geometrical distortions. Blending together images, especially when using a tilt shift lens, is the same as using a much larger camera sensor. This is my preferred method of working, and always with a tripod. I rarely use zoom lenses, which cannot match the sharpness, especially in the corners, of fixed focal length lenses, which are called “prime lenses” for a reason.

So when I say “ultra high resolution” you can be assured that you will not find a more richly detailed image anywhere!