This is the last image I'll be posting before I head off to our Venice Carnival Photo Tour on Monday: a pentaptych of this set of promotional cigarette cards. The text reads "2012 delights for the new year" and each card offers you a chance to win an iPod, Zippo lighter, and so on.

What interested me about these is that they're very typical of Bulgarian advertising: i.e. using scantily-clad women to sell ... well, pretty much everything now I think about it. Later in the year, after Venice, GPP, and our Faces and Places Tour to Oman, I'm going to make a systematic attempt to document more of these advertisements.

In the meanwhile though, do let me know what you think of this one.

Here's the last of my diptychs from Istanbul, and while it's not my favourite of the eight I've posted, I do like it.

On that note, could you let me know if you a) found this series interesting, and b) which, if any, was your favourite of the set. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

This is the penultimate image in this short series of diptychs from Istanbul: two consecutive frames found on a wall quite close to our hotel.

While yesterday's image was the most abstract in this short series of diptychs from Istanbul, this is probably the least, and I almost didn't include it as a result. In the end though, even though I'm not quite sure it fits with the rest of them, I decided to include it: there's just something about this one that I really like.

Here's the fourth Istanbul diptych I'll be posting, and probably the most abstract of the set. The image on the left is an aluminium table top, while the one on the right is a shot of a piece of painted board resting on the pavement.

Here's the third diptych from Istanbul. Both shots are reflections in a shop window, and you may recognise the one on the right from this shot.

As always, let me know what you think.

In other news ...

I'm running a Creating Dramatic Images photography and post-production workshop in Blackpool (May 19th-20th). Even if you can't attend, take a look at the gallery from the last workshop (just scroll about half way down the page). There's some great images.

This is the second of the eight diptychs I mentioned, shot in Istanbul in November. Both these images are almost consecutive (there was just one frame between them).

As with the previous one, let me know what you think.

I've posted quite a few Hipstamatic shots from my trip to Istanbul last November, but have a whole load more that I also like but didn't post as I didn't think they were sufficiently compelling to stand on their own. I did ponder posting a gallery of the whole lot (probably on google+) but looked through them again over the weekend and realised that there was sufficient similarities, either in terms of style or content or both, to pair them up.

As a result I now have eight diptychs, most of which are broadly similar to this one: small scale, partially abstract, and similar in both tone and contrast (they were all shot with the Chunky lens and Ina's 1935 film).

I should also add that while all of them have had some additional processing in Photoshop (to balance them to each other, in terms of both contrast and tone), none of them have been cropped or had any changes to their content.

Anyway, if nothing else, it's a change – I haven't produced all that many diptychs in the past, and have posted even fewer of them – so let me know what you think.

This was taken during my recent trip to Seattle for my Dramatic Post-Production workshop for Creative Live. I didn't have a great deal of time for photography, but having spotted this sign during the day I couldn't resist going back to shoot it at night.

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11.28pm on 8/10/11 Canon 5D Mark II EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM 40mm f/4.0 1/50 manual n/a evaluative 100 no RAW Camera Raw Photoshop CS5 none extended to 2x1

One of the post-production questions I'm often asked is "how do you know when to stop?", and there isn't an easy answer, at least not when you're relatively inexperienced. For example, when I first started blogging – back in the days when I was posting an image a day – I used to stop working on an image when I ran out of time. At that point I might not have created the best possible image or version, but I stopped and posted it anyway.

These days I can normally work my way through an image and end up with a version that I'm a) happy with, and b) fairly confident is better than the alternatives. On this occasion though I've worked through a whole range of alternatives, all of which I've liked, but none of which have really stood out as being noticeably superior to the others.

So, as an alternative to spending a good part of today reprocessing this one yet again, here's the 'cold' version. There was a black and white version (which I discarded because my previous shot of the same scene was in black and white), a warmer version (which didn't really fit with the overall mood I was trying to create), and a Lab Color version (which I couldn't get quite right), any of which you might have preferred, but it's Sunday and I'll probably end up in trouble with the 'powers that be' if I spend any more time working on this one rather than "doing something useful" ;-)

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5.31pm on 15/4/11 Canon 5D Mark II EF 35mm f/1.4L USM f/1.4 1/250 aperture priority +2/3 evaluative 100 no RAW Camera Raw Photoshop CS5 none 2x1

First: thanks for all your likes, comments and tweets on my previous entry: the shot of the Dubai skyline taken from the Four Points Sheraton hotel on Sheik Zayed road. It's always great to post something that gets a really positive response :-)

As for this one: while I don't think that this one will generate quite so much interest I am pleased with it as it's been almost two years since I posted a shot of any of the wrecked or abandoned boats at Fleetwood. I also have a second, slightly less abstract/graphic shot that I'll post on Friday.

As always, let me know what you think.

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1.17pm on 27/3/11 Canon 5D Mark II EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM 44mm f/11.0 1/500 aperture priority +2/3 evaluative 100 no RAW Camera Raw Photoshop CS5 none 2x1

Whenever I run a photography workshop, or post-production workshop with a shooting component, there are a whole range of things I run through before we head out into the field: using the histogram to monitor exposure, depth-of-field, choice of lens/focal length, composition – all the usual topics you'd expect. There is one more thing I always say though: at the point at which you think you've nailed the shot, start over and shoot it again. The reason I say this is that it's all too easy to think you've got the shot, or at least got something that you're happy with, and move onto the next interesting thing to shoot. Often though, there's either an equally good shot or, more likely, a better one of the same scene: you just have to pause long enough to find it.

Take this shot as an example. It's another view of this scene: the shot of the Dubai skyline shot from the pool bar at the Park Regis hotel. When I took the previous shot I thought I'd probably got what I wanted – a different take on some of the iconic landmarks of Dubai – but by spending another 20 minutes or so thinking about how to recompose the scene I also got this one. Admittedly, it was taken from the same place using the same lens, so it's hardly a radical alternative, but a) it's a shot I would have missed unless I forced myself to think through the alternatives, and b) I much prefer this one as it gives a better sense of scale.

That said, you may well prefer the first one: let me know what you think.

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2.40pm on 14/3/11 Canon 5D Mark II EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM 24mm f/11.0 1/125 aperture priority +1/3 evaluative 100 no RAW Camera Raw Photoshop CS5 Topaz Detail 2x1

This image was taken during my recent trip to the Jabal Shams canyon in Oman and kind of summarises my hopes for 2011: I want a simple year – where I can earn enough money, find time to take plenty of photographs and create good images, and spend lots of quality time with my wife and family. Simple aims, but not always easy to achieve, so fingers crossed for 2011.

Happy New Year everyone.

Oh, and if you missed my last entry, take a look: I posted my favourite 12 shots from 2010.

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2.08pm on 15/11/10 Canon 5D Mark II EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM 148mm f/8.0 1/640 aperture priority +1 evaluative 100 no RAW Camera Raw Photoshop CS5 none minor

Dear Santa,

This year I would like a Range Rover, for driving around the wintery Bulgarian landscape, a 1Ds Mark IV, just as soon as Canon get around to releasing it, and a 85mm f/1.2L. Oh and maybe the new 70-200 f/2.8L IS, the new Apple Cinema Display and an iPad.

Thanks, Dave

PS - if that's too much to ask I'll settle for a pair of socks, a day that the kids enjoy, good company and good food, and a glass or two of decent wine.

And I wish the same to all of you too: I hope you have a great time :-)

Blackpool's North Pier is probably one of my favourite man-made structures, but since moving to Bulgaria I haven't had quite as many opportunities to photograph it. When I was last back in the UK though (in October) I did get three or four shots that I like, of which this is the first that I'll post. If you're interested, the rest of my shots of the North Pier are here:

.../galleries/north_pier.php

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9.11am on 14/10/10 Canon 5D Mark II EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM 27mm f/8.0 1/80 aperture priority +2/3 evaluative 100 no RAW Camera Raw Photoshop CS5 none 2x1

This is one of the last shots I took during my recent trip to Oman, the sunset at the Jabel Shams resort. It was a beautiful place and definitely somewhere that I'll try to visit again.

On a totally different matter ...

We don't celebrate Thanksgiving in Bulgaria (or the UK), but for those of you that do, have a great day :)

Craig and I drove up to the Shipka Memorial yesterday, with the intention of shooting some panoramic scenes from the top. It was a bit cloudy when we got there, but as the weather report had promised clear blue skies we set off walking up the 900 steps to the base of the monument. When we finally managed to reach the top it was cloudier than ever, but we decided to head up to the top of the monument on the basis that the clouds might clear at some point. However, after dragging ourselves up the next 166 steps we were greeted with this view:

.../iblog/archives/shipka_view.php

Normally – and by normally I mean when you're not standing in the middle of an especially dense cloud – the view is spectacular. Yesterday though we spent over half an hour staring at a wall of fog that cleared just long enough for me to grab four or five frames. From a photographic point of view I'm not sure that it's sufficient justification for hauling myself up 1066 steps, but I was pleased that I got at least one shot from the top, and we did have a great day :)

The skies were flat and overcast, it was windy, and towards the end of our walk along Fleetwood beach it rained, but Craig and I had a great time. It's been too long since I walked along the shore.

As many of you know, I was back in the UK last month, providing some one-to-one photography and post-production training for Jason Kotecha. We both had a great time, and both got some great shots, but this is the last one I'll be posting; taken moments before we packed up our gear and headed home after a long day's shooting down at St. Annes.

As it was such a great day, I've included all the day's shots below the main image. I hope you enjoy looking through them again as much as I enjoyed shooting and post-producing them.

Coincidentally, Jason posted his last shot today too:

http://www.escapism-online.com/blog-entry.php?pid=288

On a related matter, Jason, Catalin Marin and I have just started a new venture: Photoshop tennis. If you're interested in finding out a bit more about it, and seeing our first game, you can do so here:

http://www.facebook.com/Photoshop.Tennis

The basic idea is that each Friday, at or around 4pm GMT, we'll post three different edits of the same RAW file. Initially, we're going to post all three anonymously, but will let you know who produced each version after a day or so. Our first set of images have already generated some interesting responses :)

This is the third (of four) shots of one of the groyne's at Fleetwood (the first two are here and here), and while it's probably the most understated of the four, I do still like it. And if you read the description/comments on the first one I posted: this is the 'detail shot' that Jason were trying to capture.