Alan Palazon
I’ve been writing professionally since 2021 and joined Digital Camera World as a staff writer in 2026. My previous role was as a junior editor for a careers advice publisher and I’ve freelanced in the sustainability and travel and tourism niches.
In 2025, I became a qualified journalist completing my training remotely while traveling through Latin America. The experience melded my love for words and photography, and expanded my photographic interest into international photojournalism. Capturing the world’s incredible landscapes and cultures through the lens is what most inspires me.
I started out on a Nikon D3500, which was the ideal entry-level digital camera, but have since upgraded to Sony’s Alpha system. My go-to setup is the A7III (and later A7 models) paired with the 24-105 F4 G lens. In all honesty, cameras are so advanced these days that I don’t think it matters what make or model you use.
Latest articles by Alan Palazon

By Alan Palazon Published
News Rumors suggest NiSi is pushing wide-angle photography into the extreme, combining a 26mm field of view with the kind of super-fast f/0.7 aperture historically reserved for legendary specialist optics

By Alan Palazon Published
Opinion Why spend money on a camera accessory that does nothing to help you take better images or make your photography workflow more practical in some way? I just don’t get it…

By Alan Palazon Published
News A dramatic series of outdoor pooch portraits placed first in the “Animal” category, but the highest-scoring overall image was a creative feline frame

By Alan Palazon Last updated
News When Icelandair put out the call for a “really bad photographer,” French woman Blanche Mortemard answered. Now, her terrible images of Iceland are going on display, and we get to critique them

By Alan Palazon Published
News To celebrate 50 years of the ColorChecker, the calibration tool's manufacturer has just launched an online history of the iconic tool

By Alan Palazon Published
Opinion The second edition of the AI Movie Awards will be held later this year. I think creativity using this tech deserves recognition, but these platforms still use copyrighted content without paying creators…

By Alan Palazon Published
News The new Royal Navy short film throws us into the thick of the action with its official photographers, who say AI will never be able to capture the “human” stories they can

By Alan Palazon Published
News A new study ranks Africa's best destinations for seeing wildlife after dark – but its findings also reveal where photographers can escape light pollution and capture star-filled skies

By Alan Palazon Published
News Montagu’s harriers, Britain’s rarest bird of prey, have successfully nested in a secret location – but in Spain, these birds can be photographed under “extreme” caution, say conservation groups

By Alan Palazon Published
News The observatory will have a field of view at least 100 times larger than Hubble’s, acting as a wide-angle lens snapping vast swaths of the night sky, to help unravel mysteries of dark energy and exoplanets

By Alan Palazon Published
opinion At this year’s Capture the Dark photo competition, winning images broke the rules. While there are never “goodies” nor “baddies” when this happens, there are the rule-abiding entrants left asking: What the heck?

By Alan Palazon Published
News The images, which were snapped for a scientific survey, depict a vicious showdown between the large cat and thick serpent

By Alan Palazon Published
News Canon and Sony mirrorless models have consistently outpaced Nikon across major Japanese bestseller lists recently. But before you think Nikon makes worse cameras, you need to understand its business model

By Alan Palazon Published
News Polish photographer Marcin Giba used a drone to capture the “incredible forms” on the frozen lakes near his hometown of Rybnik – a natural phenomenon that he says is disappearing from winters in the area

By Alan Palazon Published
News In July 1976, NASA shared the first-ever image of the surface of Mars with the world – but what camera did they use, and why was the shot black and white when it was supposedly revealing secrets of the “Red Planet”?

By Alan Palazon Published
News An Iranian nature enthusiast has captured footage of a Pallas’s cat, an elusive feline famed for its grumpy facial expression, but one that also makes it incredibly cute

By Alan Palazon Published
News The prestigious consumer tech awards has announced its 2026 winners, with Nikon glass crowned lens of the year, while Sony retains the accolade of best camera

By Alan Palazon Published
News New Zealand-based photographer Tom Rae snagged first place at the Capture the Dark 2026 photo contest – but I’m not sure what’s more impressive, the composition or the story behind it

By Alan Palazon Published
News TTArtisan’s new 85mm lens may be as basic as they come, but being just as cheap might make it an interesting prospect for anyone looking for a fast yet highly affordable prime

By Alan Palazon Published
HISTORY John Plumbe Jr not only captured the oldest existing photo of a sitting US president, but went on to pioneer the branding practices used by studios to this day

By Alan Palazon Published
News Photojournalist Alan Lodge has documented some of the UK’s most important subcultures since the 1970s. His exhibition tells the story of how these movements helped shape the country’s social landscape

By Alan Palazon Published
News The Sony A7 V maintained its spot atop Yodabashi Camera’s top 10 best sellers for the second half of July – but if you’re thinking of buying, there’s an alternative rig I'd recommend

By Alan Palazon Published
News The camera giant has printed portraits created by visually impaired students using raised tactile ink, and displayed the works at the Royal Society for Blind Children’s Dorton College in England

By Alan Palazon Published
News A biological sciences photography competition has revealed its 2026 winner, with the crowned image depicting a curious orange-tailed marsh dart damselfly

By Alan Palazon Published
News Outrageous auroras to gorgeous galaxies: check out the winning images from the 2026 Capture the Dark photography contest
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