New Canon travel photography gallery

Down in Dorset, just off the picturesque main high street of Sherborne, lies the Global Image Gallery. It’s the UK’s largest photographic gallery that’s entirely devoted to travel photography. The three exhibitions currently on show are: Kathmandu and Lhasa, The Antarctic Peninsula and Iconic Mountains. And all the pictures were taken by businessman and keen travel photographer Michael Bromfield – using only Canon compact cameras!

After selling his successful travel company last year, Michael Bromfield decided to open his own photographic gallery. The Global Image Gallery is in a listed building and has a thousand square feet of hanging space to display photos of the mountains, landscapes and people. They plan to feature two or three new exhibitions every four months.

“I’ve been fortunate to travel to many remote and famous mountain areas over the last 30 years and, when I sold Casterbridge Tours, I was keen to devote more time to my writing and photography,” says Michael. “I hope the free of entry exhibitions will give as much pleasure to visitors as taking the photographs did for me.”

The gallery is more about welcoming people to view the pictures rather than selling, and if any prints are sold, 10% of all sales goes directly to Third World Projects. They also support Community Action Nepal.

Michael has maintained a love of travel throughout his life and now lives overseas, spending time each year in Switzerland, Canada, the USA and Thailand. He also has a deep affinity with the High Mountains and has made 13 visits to the Himalaya, including five treks to the three sides of Everest. When PhotoPlus editor Peter Travers visited the gallery, Michael was on a seven-week tour of China and Russia.

Although Michael enjoyed using SLRs for over 30 years, these days he prefers Canon compact cameras as they take great images, and will fit in your pocket and will take AA batteries – very important when on remote trips and mains power isn’t available to recharge camera batteries. Michael says: “The best compact camera I’ve found that operates with AA batteries is the Canon Powershot 650 IS.” He actually takes four of these Canon Powershots in his trips as he likes to have replacements in case he drops one!

So would he get better shots if he used a Canon EOS D-SLR? Michael’s a great believer that it’s not the camera, but the person using it, and he still approaches his photography thoughtfully, taking time with his camera settings and his photo compositions.

For more information go to Global Images Gallery.