First, I'd like to thank David for the invitation to fill in while he and his family settle into their new home. I hope the move goes well, and that he can quickly resume sharing his wonderful images with us.

Since they are moving to the seaside, I first thought of posting something... wet. Then I thought of posting a parody.. er, homage.. to one of his images. In fact, I toyed with the idea of a self portrait in Nightingale style, but couldn't find a piece of wood the right shape.

In the end though, I found a better solution. In terms of content, my work is usually quite different from David's, but we both seem to favor colour as a compositional element. So I looked for a recent image that would not seem out of place with the rest of David's work, yet would nevertheless reflect my own aesthetic.

I chose this image of flowers for sale at a market near my house. And having chosen the image for its formal qualities, I realized that it also works well at another level: As the first guest poster, I get to present these flowers as a visual housewarming gift, on behalf of all Chromasia fans.

Neil Baylis