It's now Sunday, and I'm back in the UK for a week before heading back to Bulgaria. As always, Gulf Photo Plus was a lot of fun, not least because I got to meet up with some old friends from previous years, including: Bobbi Lane, Chris Hurtt, Robin Nichols, Joe McNally, Zack Arias, David Hobby, Mohamed Somji, and Hala Salhi. It was also a real pleasure to meet the new instructors at this year's event: Joey Lawrence, Vincent LaForet, Matt Kloskowski, Melissa Rodwell and Steve Simon.

If you're not familiar with the event, it's organised around a series of workshops. For example, Zack does a one-light workshop (amongst other things), I do a range of shooting and post-production sessions, Vincent did a week long session on using the 5D II to shoot video, and so on. There's also quite a lot of socialising, most notably at the Vista Bar on the roof of our hotel, and a range of other events, sessions, exhibitions, and so on.

One of the highlights of this year's event was a live shoot-out between Zack Arias, David Hobby and Joey Lawrence that took place during the closing ceremony. Each of them had 25 minutes to shoot and post-process a shot of two models, in front of an audience of several hundred photographers and students. David went first, and used about six "voice activated" light-stands (aka people with cameras and flash guns that were slaved to David's camera) to create a great, paparazzi style shot of the models. I don't think he's posted it online yet, but I'll link through when he does. Zack used three lights, and created an equally stunning shot. Joey, on the other hand, went for a slightly less sophisticated approach and shot a polaroid.

Update: David's take on the shoot-out is here:

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2010/03/speedlights-at-twenty-paces.html

Anyway, I'll tell you more about the event and everything else that went on later this week, but for now, here's another shot of the Jumeirah beach taken while I was out with Catalin Marin and Robin Nichols. The content is fairly similar to the previous one I posted, but I decided to process this one in a slightly different way. As always, let me know what you think.

Oh, and if you've been following my Facebook updates you'll know that ended up in the Emirates hospital on Friday evening, suffering from disturbingly painful stomach cramps. I'm still not quite sure what the problem was, but after taking a variety of tablets for a couple of days I now feel a whole lot better. At which point I should definitely thank Khaled for driving me to the hospital and Miriam for driving out there too to look after me.

This is out of sequence, insofar as it was shot before back seat driving and the aftermath, but I thought it was worth posting too. As always, let me know what you think.

As I write this Libby is finishing wrapping the last of the presents, most of the younger kids are asleep (or doing a very good job of pretending), and the older two are upstairs doing something or other, so our Christmas Day is getting off to a reasonably smooth and peaceful start. Fingers crossed they all sleep till morning, but I won't be surprised to find one or more of them running around at 3am because Santa has managed to squeeze his way down our stove pipe ;)

On which note, Merry Christmas :)

I have one more 'winter lake' image to post after this one, but this is the last that features a mirrored reflection. Of the three, I think that the first is my least favourite, but I can't decide whether I prefer this one to the last one. Either way though, I guess it doesn't much matter as I'm quite pleased with how all of them turned out.

Let me know which is your favourite.

And if you're interested, the (not quite as interesting) original is here:

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Here's the second of my desert shots, and while this is not quite as dramatic as my previous image, I do like this one too: not least because it gives a much better sense of scale than the previous one. Oddly, for me at least, this one was processed almost entirely in Camera Raw (other than a bit of cloning and a mild vignette).

If you're interested, the original is here:

.../archives/desert_tracks_2.php

On a related matter: I had a great time at the Gulf Photo Plus Fotoweekend, not least because it was an opportunity to meet up with some old friends – Bobbi Lane, Chris Hurtt, and Robin Nichols (my fellow instructors); Mohamed Somji and Hala Salhi (the event organisers). I also met David Tejada: a first time instructor at GPP, and an all-round nice guy (if you're not familiar with his work, take a look at his website or blog). I'd also like to say a big thank you to all the people who attended my classes: it's always a pleasure to teach enthusiastic and talented students :)

Here's how the conversation went with this one:

Harmony: "it makes me look like a geeky glasses girl!"

Me: "do you want me to post it on the blog then?"

Harmony: "yes, I do!"

Me: "do you think people will like it?"

Harmony: "yes."

So there you have it :-)

The original is here:

.../archives/dive_in.php

I was going to post my second shot of the Ganchovets station buildings tonight, but we had a brief storm this afternoon and I got some shots of Rhowan and Harmony that I think I'll post first. Before you read on though, you might want to take a look at Libby's blog post on the same topic, as it sets the scene for this series. Regrettably, I didn't get any shots of them dancing under the water pouring from the drainpipe and gutter (see the video at the end of Libby's post), but am fairly pleased with the ones I'm going to post.

Oh, and if you're interested, the original is here:

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This is one of two shots I took of the construction work on the Nasa Multiplex building in Dubai (I'll post the second one on Thursday), both of which feature the Burj Dubai dominating the skyline in the background. Of the two I think I prefer this one, but the next one does give a much better sense of scale.

As always, let me know what you think.

In other news ...

15% off our online tutorials
Between now and the end of July 2009 we are offering a 15% discount on the first year's payment of an annual subscription or our lifetime membership package. All you need to do to take advantage of either offer - and gain access to all our existing tutorials, members' forum, and our current members' offers - is enter the coupon code below in the box at the bottom of the sign up screen. Further details here:

http://www.chromasia.com/tutorials/online/

Our next training weekend
I'll be back in the UK in June as we're running a training course in Blackpool on the weekend of 13/14th June. The cost for the course is £225.00 and we still have a few places left. If you'd like to receive some more information please email Libby for the details (libby AT chromasia DOT com).

As most of you will now be aware, Libby, myself and the kids are now in Bulgaria. We have a house about 20km south-south-west of Veliko Tarnovo (the old cultural capital of the country) and will be spending at least the next six weeks here ... if not longer. I'll be writing more about life in Bulgaria in forthcoming posts, but for the time being you might want to read through Libby's latest blog post for a bit more information on what we've been up to.

As for this shot, it was taken yesterday evening about a mile up the road from us, close to the village spring, and is a shot of Tabby (our youngest) exploring her surroundings. As always, let me know what you think.

Our next training weekend
On a totally different matter: I'll definitely be back in the UK in June as we're running a training course in Blackpool on the weekend of 13/14th June. The cost for the course is £225.00 and we still have a few places left. If you'd like to receive some more information please email Libby for the details (libby AT chromasia DOT com).

25% off print offer
Also, most of you will probably have noticed that we are now selling prints of our images through FOTOMOTO. As a special introductory offer we are offering a 25% discount on the next 50 prints that are ordered. If you're interested, all you need to do is enter the following coupon code on the order form (after clicking the ‘purchase a print’ link beneath most images):

    8F5CD0

Critique required
And finally, If any of you have a moment to spare, please could you visit the link below and take a look at the images posted by the daughter of a friend of mine. The images are part of her final major project for her BTEC photography course and it was suggested to them that they seek opinions from other sources than college or home. Any comments would be gratefully received:

http://veritymay.wordpress.com/

We had a great storm last night, here in Bulgaria - the lightning flashed and the thunder rolled - but I was so engrossed in watching it that I didn't manage to take any photographs. Unfortunately the storm was followed by a 16 hour power cut - apparently the transformer in our village was damaged - after which I discovered that our router was fried. So tomorrow I'll be buying a new router and either a surge protector or UPS as I believe that storms are quite common at this time of year.

As for this shot: it was taken at the new mosque in Abu Dhabi during my recent trip to Dubai.

This one was taken from the same vantage point as this one; i.e. 82 floors up the part-finished Nasa Multiplex, and is a shot of buildings that flank either side of the Sheikh Zayed road, the main drag from the airport to the centre of the city. Unlike my shot of the Burj Dubai this one is an HDR: a seven shot sequence constructed with FDRTools.

On a totally different matter, and with apologies to those of you who already read the following when I posted it on twitter, I wanted to let you know about a couple of new services I've introduced on chromasia. If you take a look at most of the (larger) images on chromasia you will see a 'Buy Print' and 'Send as E-card' beneath them, both of which are provided by Fotomoto. I'm currently beta-testing both services and have been very impressed so far, especially with the 'Buy Print' option. In the past our method of providing prints was a bit cumbersome; i.e. people needed to email me, then send a manual payment through PayPal, after which I'd upload the image to the printing company we use, get it back, mail it out, and so on. Fotomoto, on the other hand, provide an automated service; i.e. you can order prints in a variety of sizes and all I need to do is upload the high-res' file when a particular image is ordered.

If you're interested, just click either of the links to see how they work or take a look at this New York Times article which summarises the aims of the company and what they hope to provide to the photographic communit. Personally, I'm really excited by this as it will allow us to provide high-quality prints, to a world-wide audience, in a much simpler way than previously.

And finally, if you are interested in ordering any of my images as a print, Fotomoto are offering free worldwide delivery for the next week or so, so now would be a great time to try out the service :)

Here's another Lensbaby shot, a rather surreal interpretation of one of the buildings on Fleetwood seafront. I'm not entirely happy with this one (though would struggle to articulate why) but it has given me some ideas for other shots that I think would work better – so in that sense it's at least partially successful :)

On a totally different matter ...

A while ago I was approached by Josh Furey from Nocture Records who wanted to use one of my images as a cover for his forthcoming album – Archaeology. He also sent me a link to a couple of tracks from the album, which I really liked, so I sent him an email letting him know our usual cost for an album cover. He got back to me saying it was out of budget. I replied saying I'd be happy to negotiate. And then I didn't hear from him until last week.

He got back to me to tell me that he'd finished the album using his own artwork and that as I'd liked the preview tracks I might like to download the finished album. I haven't stopped listening to it since, and have included a link to one of the 'darker' tracks below.

Anyway, my reason for mentioning all this is a) because I think at least some of you will probably enjoy the album, and b) because 'against the flow' is now the cover image. In itself, this isn't especially significant, but it did remind me that creative collaboration, in a project you believe in, is often considerably more rewarding than earning a few quid; i.e. while the latter puts food on the table, it doesn't always feed the soul.

And finally, if you're interested, Josh has posted a blog entry about why the image was significant to his project here.

On which note, I'm going to have a cup of coffee, put my feet up for five minutes, and listen to 'Pieces of Her': a much gentler song than the one I included here.

When I posted my penultimate entry for 2008 I mentioned that my big project for the first few months of this year was going to be a book on HDR photography, which will be published by Focal Press at some point after the summer. At the time the amount of work I would need to do seemed like a challenge, but as I didn't plan on starting writing until the New Year I wasn't too worried ...

Anyway, after spending the last three weeks writing I'm pleased to be able to say that I've got the first section done, and uploaded to the publisher - 15.5K words and over 200 images and screen grabs. I've also published my Working with textures: part one tutorial during this time (another 8K words), and have written the first two lessons of another online course I'm developing for Gulf Photo Plus (another 6K words). All in all, a lot of words. Oh, and I've got to get another GPP lesson written this weekend (another 3K words).

After that though Libby and I are taking the kids to Centre Parcs for a well earned mid-week break where I'm hoping to find some time to take some photographs rather than just writing about them.

All of which brings me to this one ...

It's the last but one of the shots I took when Craig was up a few weeks ago, and fittingly enough it's another HDR. As usual it was constructed from a seven shot sequence, with a 1 EV spacing, using Photomatix Pro. Craig posted a similar view of this old power station here.

In this instance it's a fraction more typical-HDR-like than I wanted, but try as I might I couldn't produce a version that I preferred to this one. My next shot, which I'll post on Monday, is also an HDR, but it's one that I'm a lot more pleased with.

Incidentally, if you would like to learn more about HDR photography my next PPSOP class will be starting on February 6th, or you can take a look at either or both of my HDR tutorials (details about part one are here, while details about part two are here).

And I guess that's about it for today, other than to say do check back on Monday as the shot I'll be posting is definitely one of my recent favourites.

I'm not entirely happy with this one, though I'd struggle to articulate what it is I'm not sure about, but did think it had sufficient merit to post.

As always, let me know what you think.

This one was taken six minutes before my previous entry, and while both share the same sky (this one was taken about 90° to the right of the previous one) I've gone for a much softer, colder look with this one.

I went up to Fleetwood this afternoon with the intention of shooting some slow shutter speed images at high tide. Unfortunately, it was raining, windy, grey and dull, and none of them worked out. So, especially since I haven't had anything to post for a few days, I'm really pleased that I decided to shoot a couple of HDR sequences while I was there.

This one was shot at the top of the sea wall and was constructed from seven exposures (with a 1 EV spacing between them). I used Photomatix Pro to produce two versions: one optimised for the foreground and another, less radical version, tone mapped to produce a less HDR-like sky. These were then merged in Photoshop and toned using a Curve.

If you're interested, I've posted the metered exposure here:

.../archives/storm_conditions.php

On a totally unrelated matter, and my apologies for bringing this up again: if any of you have been pondering signing up for our Photoshop tutorials, now would be a good time, as we're giving away 75 copies of our 2009 Calendar to the next 75 people who sign up for an annual subscription or lifetime membership. Well, there were 75 when we started – we now have around 30 left.

If you're interested, you can find out more about the tutorials and the calendar here:

http://www.chromasia.com/tutorials/online/

If you're already a subscriber, then you can also win a copy of the calendar by entering our new competition, full details of which have been posted in the members' forum. There have already been some great shots posted so even if you aren't interested in entering the competition you should definitely take a look.

Given the opportunity, and the required physiology, I think I would probably hibernate at this time of year rather than endure the wet, cold, windy, miserable drabness of the UK autumn and winter. From a photographic point of view, there are numerous opportunities - stormy skies, frothing seas, rain against windows ... - but, on some days at least, I'd much rather just sleep until spring.

When I've been to what I've thought are fairly obscure places in the past someone has been able to identify the shots I've put up, even if I think they're impossibly obscure, but it seems that this location isn't quite so well known. It's Veliko Tarnovo - the former capital of Bulgaria.

The shot I put up yesterday was a shot of part of the old town, while today's was taken just to the right on the Tsarovets fortress. I'm going to be here until Saturday morning, but if the last few days are anything to go by I'm not going to have a great deal of time for photography. That said, I'll try and post a couple more shots over the next few days.

My apologies for the total absence of updates over the last few days but we've been busy moving into a new office. Up until now Libby and I have run chromasia from a home office, but we got the opportunity to move into a new set of offices set up to support the creative industries so decided to give it a try.

All being well I should be back to posting more frequently in the near future. I'm currently writing a review of the Tamron AF 11-18mm F/4.5-5.6 Di II LD Aspherical [IF] for Digital SLR User magazine so will be out and about over the next few days putting it through its paces. On that basis, I'd be interested to hear if any of you have used it as it's not a lens I've tried before.

As for this shot: it was taken last summer, when we took the kids to Centre Parcs, and is a shot of Libby, Finley and Tabitha. It's a single image HDR, processed with FDRTools then converted to black and white and toned (using a Curve) in Photoshop.

When I was in Barcelona last month I shot an HDR sequence of these columns. This time, by way of contrast, I shot them at sunset. And I would write more about the meetup this weekend, but I'm wiped out this evening after getting back to Blackpool a couple of hours ago. I'll post some more details tomorrow.

Paul has posted an alternative view here.

Oh, and this one looks much better with the black theme.

It's been a long week, but I've finally finished migrating chromasia to the new server and am fairly sure that everything's now much as it was. From your point of view, nothing should have changed, but from my perspective I feel about ten years older than I did at the start of the week. If you know what you're doing, there's nothing inherently problematic about migrating a website to a new server, but it's not something I have a great deal of experience with and have been running on adrenalin and caffeine for a bit longer than is either healthy or sensible :-)

Anyway, it's done now, and I think it's OK, but do let me know if you come across anything odd, broken or otherwise unexpected. I'd also be interested to hear how fast the new version loads. Our previous server was in London, but the new one is in a datacenter in the US. As such chromasia might seem slower if you're in the UK or Europe and a bit quicker if you're on the other side of the pond. Wherever you are though I'd be grateful of some feedback - just so I can be sure that everything's working as expected.

This one started out as a snap, shot from the hip as I walked past these two kids on the beach. As you can see from the original, my composition wasn't great:

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After rotating the image, producing two versions from the same file (one optimised for the sky, one for the foreground), and with the addition of a few Curves and a slight shift in colour balance, it looks much better.

As for the shot itself: when I was a kid I suspect that I'd have run into the sea and joined them but, as an adult, I can't think of anything less enjoyable than sitting half-clothed in the Irish Sea on an overcast day :-)

The eagle-eyed among you may have noticed that all the shots I've posted from my trip to Barcelona were taken with my 24-70 and 5D. This is because I was travelling light and didn't want to take a huge amount of kit with me. One other lens that I did take though was my Holga on a lens cap as it weighs next to nothing and doesn't really take up much room. I didn't use it much, but thought it might work well with this scene. Personally, I'm happy with how it turned out, but would be interested to hear what you think.

And I should probably add that other than a minor bit of colour and contrast tweaking this is pretty much a straight shot.

This is the second HDR image from Barcelona that I mentioned yesterday. This one was also processed with Photomatix Pro using the Details Enhancer method, but in this case it was created from a single initial exposure rather than a bracketed sequence of shots.

As I mentioned yesterday, I prefer this one, but would be interested to hear what you think.

Here's another 5D/Holga lens shot of Finley. Again, it's not one of my most stunning shots, but it does give you a good idea about the sort of shots that can be achieved with this lens.

We took the kids down to the seafront this afternoon, and despite the howling gale they had a good time running about on the beach and seafront. I was going to take my G9, as it's much easier to manage, especially when I'm chasing after Fin, but decided to take the 5D/Holga lens combo out for another spin. I didn't get anything particularly awe-inspiring, but do have two shots of Finley that I'll post, both of which will give you a good idea as to how this lens performs.

As you can see, the lens produces quite a soft image - not surprisingly considering it's made out of plastic - but what I do like is the bokeh, especially the varying degrees of distortion.

I took Rhowan and Harmony up to see what's left of the Riverdance ferry this morning. Since it got stranded at the end of January there have been several attempts to re-float it, all of which failed, so they're now dismantling it instead. I imagine that it's going to take quite some time.

As for this shot: it was taken from a similar position to this one, and it's an HDR image, constructed from a bracketed sequence of seven shots using Photomatix Pro.

I didn't get any other decent shots of the boat, but did get several of Rhowan and Harmony - well, two of Harmony and one of Rhowan - that I'll post over the next few days.

As always, let me know what you think.

Oh, and I haven't posted the EXIF data but the sequence was shot at f/8.0 at 200mm.

This is the first of two shots taken on the way back from my walk to the Wyre Light. As you can see, the light was a lot better by this point.

And as this is a bit of a departure from my usual style I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

For ages now Libby has been telling me that I should post more shots of the kids, but when we all go out together (me, Libby, and all six kids) the last thing I want to drag along with me is one of my DSLRs – not least because I spend half my time chasing after Finley. He does know the meaning of "come here", but it often has very little effect on his behaviour :-)

Anyway, while I was in Dubai I had a chance to play around with a Canon G9 and was very impressed. As those of you who have been around since I launched chromasia back in 2003 will know, a lot of the early shots I posted were taken with a G5. The G9 has more than doubled the pixel count since then, is a lot more robust (it has a metal body), and is quite a bit smaller. All in all it seems like a pretty good camera.

I haven't had too much time to really put it to the test, but I did take it down to the beach the other day and got a couple of shots I was happy with. This one, of Harmony, and one of Libby that I'll put up tomorrow. When I've had a chance to use it a bit more I'll let you know what I think of it in a bit more detail.

This one was taken from the same building as yesterday's, but from the 24th floor rather than the 34th, and the angle of view is about 90° to the right. Personally, I prefer yesterday's, but I thought I'd post this one too. I also have one, shot from a bit higher up the building, but I'm going to post that one on Monday.