This is the second shot of Maurice that I mentioned yesterday, and while it's clearly not as lively as yesterday's, I like this one too. That said, I doubt it will be to everyone's taste, so feel free to tell me what you think.

This is the first of two shots of Maurice, a Blackpool based cabaret singer I photographed yesterday afternoon. My brief was to produce some images that could be used to promote his act, some of which needed to include a recognisable local landmark, so what better landmark to include than Blackpool Tower.

In terms of the post-production: this is a combination of a straight shot and a pseudo-HDR image. I used the HDR version to bring out the detail in his trousers and waistcoat - both of which are a dark brown pinstripe - as despite the use of fill-flash these still appeared too dark in the final shot.

As always, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

Given that my previous image received a mixed, though mostly positive response I'd be interested to hear what you make of this one. Like the previous one, it's an HDR, constructed from a seven shot bracketed sequence using Photomatix Pro, but while the last one had almost CGI feel to it, this one is a lot less intense.

That said, if you didn't like the last one because it's an HDR, you're unlikely to like this one any better ;-)

Nonetheless, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts as this is a technique that a) I still find fascinating, and b) will probably do quite a lot more of in the future.

I was chatting with John Washington yesterday regarding the recent series of shots he's been posting exploring the notion of nostalgia (of which this is a particularly good example). Anyway, having had that conversation, I was browsing through a folder of old images today and came across this one which a) also has quite a nostalgic feel, and b) entirely coincidentally, was taken with John's camera. All of which seemed like a good excuse to post it.

On another matter: I finished the latest tutorial in the Digital Workflow series today, so should have some time to get out and about to shoot some new material tomorrow.

First of all, thanks for all the great comments on yesterday's shot. I really liked it, so it was good to hear that you did too. The downside is that it's all downhill from here, at least as far as the Riverdance is concerned, as I don't think I'm going to get a better shot than that one.

As today's: unless I can think of a new angle, or something dramatic happens, then this will probably be my penultimate shot of the Riverdance. As with yesterday's one of the things I was trying to do is capture/illustrate the scale of this boat – and I think it comes across reasonably well in this one.

Oh, and if you're wondering about the line of people in the distance, they are standing at the other side of the exclusion zone; i.e. around 800m away from where I'm standing.

I've also posted the original image, not because there's anything special about the post-production, but because I thought you might like to see the original scene:

.../archives/riverdance_6.php

First of all, thanks for all the great comments on yesterday's shot. It was good to finally find the time to produce something worth posting, but even better to hear it was well liked.

As for this one: it's been a while since I posted a keep out shot. I've been keeping an eye out for them, but there's only so much you can do with a series of old number plates on chains, so I haven't managed to get too many that I'm happy with this year. This one though, I like: mostly because of the upside down sign, and the hook hanging in mid-air, but also because it works well with the rest of the scene ;– i.e. it reads like a commentary on Blackpool in the wintertime ;-)

Yesterday, I said that I wasn't especially happy with the first 'little planet' I put up. I'm much happier with this one :-)

And again, it was constructed using the instructions on daily dose of imagery.

Update: just a quick note to let you know that I won't be posting anything new today (15.10.07). I'll get something up tomorrow.

I'm not especially happy with this one, but it's something I've wanted to try for a while, and given that it took me ages to do I thought I'd post it. It was inspired by this shot on daily dose of imagery and was constructed from nine original images, stitched with Stitcher, then converted to a 'little planet' as per the instructions on daily dose.

Let me know what you think.

I don't know about the rest of you, but personally, I'm sick of winter: it's cold and the light is terrible. I'm longing for some warmth, beautiful light, long evenings, sunsets, gentle breezes and paddling in the sea.

This one isn't hugely different to yesterday's, but I thought it was worth putting up. Again, it's taken from Fleetwood, facing south towards Blackpool with Blackpool Tower on the left. In this shot though you can also make out the North Pier, just appearing from the haze.

In some ways, I think I prefer this one to yesterday's (perhaps because of the more restricted colour palette), but I suspect that the majority of you will probably go for yesterday's, not least because the figures in yesterday's shot add more than the ones in today's. Anyway, let me know what you think.

Yet again, it's been far too long since I posted anything, but things are starting to get a little more settled now so I should be back to the image-a-day thing reasonably soon.

As for this one: it's the first of two quite similar shots that I couldn't decide between. In some ways I like this one best, but in others, I prefer tomorrow's. Both are taken from Fleetwood, facing south towards Blackpool.

I had hoped to put up a picture of Finley today as he fell asleep on the settee, snuggled up to all four of our cats. If the cats had all been asleep too, I might have got the shot, but they were far too interested in the camera to stay still long enough for me to get a decent shot ... which is a bit annoying. Next time Fin' has a nap I might drug the cats and drape them around him ;-)

Anyway, failing a 'young boy and his cats' shot, I raided the archives and found this one; a reflection of Blackpool Tower in a rather distorted shop window. A year ago, I would have loved this image – I had a big thing for reflections – but, for some reason or another, I'm not quite as keen on them anymore. What do you think?

Well, yesterday's was pretty much a straight shot; today's isn't ;-)

This is another HDR (high dynamic range) image, and I do appreciate that these aren't to everyone's taste but, as you know, I do quite like vaguely surreal images.

It's a while since the weather's been good enough to take decent reflections on the beach, but not only was it sunny yesterday, it was also quite warm ... which was nice :-)

You'll be pleased to hear that I have a straight shot to put up tomorrow, but in the meanwhile here's one more HDR image. This one is a bit more typical of the genre and demonstrates quite clearly how these images have a much more evenly distributed tonal range than normal photographs yet the local contrast (the red sign for example) is still quite pronounced. Take a look at the histogram for this image and you'll see what I mean.

Also, a few of you have asked me about the workflow for these shots: basically, I convert the RAW files in ACR, import them into Photomatix, generate the HDR file, play around with the tone mapping setting until the image looks reasonably close to what I'm after, save the tone mapped file, and finally, open this image in Photoshop for final editing (Curves, colour adjustment, noise reduction, and so on).

On another matter: John is having big problems with the domain registration for johnwashington.co.uk at the moment but you can still access his site at the following address:

washingtonmedia.co.uk

Hopefully he'll be up and running at his usual address shortly.

This is a High Dynamic Range (HDR) image, created with Photomatix. HDR's are composite images that utilise several different exposures of the same scene (in this case, six exposures at f/5.6, between 1/15th and 1/500th) to create an HDR image to which you then apply a tone curve. I'm not sure I understand quite how it all works, but basically the software works to create areas of local contrast within a scene rather than applying a uniform contrast across the image.

If you're interesed in reading up about this follow some of the links from the HDR flickr pool. I intend to shoot a lot more of these so will put up more information as and when I get my head around how it works. For the time being though, I do like the result.

As for this attempt: technically, it could be better, especially since the original images are slightly out of alignment with one another (tripod on sand, windy, and so on), but I just love the surreal effect. I wish it didn't take quite so long to postprocess though – this one took around three hours from start to finish ;-)

Oh, and I first came across this sort of image on LONDONRUBBISH.

Anyway, as always, let me know what you think.

Apologies for the lateness of today's entry but we got some new mobile phones today and have been having all sorts of fun with bluetooth and attempting to set them up to run on OS X – it's not been pretty.

Anyway, here's today's entry, albeit a bit late, and it's one that I'm particularly pleased with.

I'm not too sure what you'll all make of this one as I suspect that my liking for it is more to do with the story I've chosen to attach to it, referenced by the title, rather than anything to do with the image itself; but as always, let me know what you think.

And thanks for all the comments on yesterday's shot. Look out for a repeat shot this summer of a pair of suntanned legs in stilettos :-)

If ever I need confirmation of the fact that my wife is as tough as nails and I'm just a yellow-bellied wuss, this is the shot I'll return to ;-) Taken today, at the top of Blackpool Tower, it demonstrates that some people can walk across a five foot square of plate glass 380 feet above the ground without batting an eyelid, and others – myself included – can just about manage it, but need a bit of a sit down and a cup of tea afterwards ;-) Anyway, it was a shame the weather was totally crap, as this is the first time we've been up the tower since we moved to Blackpool in the summer of 2004, but I'm definitely going to go back up when the light is a bit better.

On another matter: I was interviewed by Garth Leach from The Daily Shooter the other day, and the interview has just gone online. Thanks Garth.

My wife likes this one, but I'm not entirely convinced. It works, in the sense that it captures the holidaymakers on the pier and the scene beyond, and there's nothing major that I can put my finger on, but, for me at least, I wonder if there's something missing ... I'm just not sure what.

Anyway, I'm going out again this evening with John and Ioannis (Paul can't make it), so it's back to evening shots on the beach tomorrow.

I went out tonight, a) because it's starting to get dark a little later and it's quite pleasant to be out in the evening again, and b) because I wanted to take something that better exploits the potential of this tilt-shift lens. Yesterday's shot demonstrated that it's capable of a very shallow DoF, but this one better illustrates the way you can play around with the plane of focus. And while it might not be the most visually striking shot I've taken recently, I really like the interplay between the focussed and blurred areas of the image. I'm also quite impressed with the optical quality of the lens – not bad for an £18.00 lens off eBay :-)

I took this one at the start of last month, and it's just as well as I've hardly had time to pick up my camera this week.

One of the shots I'd like to take at some point is the definitive seagull shot, the seagull shot to end all seagull shots ;-) Don't ask me why though, but out of all the things I've photographed this is one of the ones that I'd most like to get 'right'. As an example, back in the days when I used to shoot film, I once got through about ten rolls shooting seagulls – only one of which I got right. If you're interested it's the first shot I put up on chromasia.

This is my wife's favourite shot of the last four mostly I think because of the textures, particularly the small 'waves' of foam in the foreground, whereas my first choice would have been yesterday's shot. If you have the time could you tell me which is your favourite and, if possible, why?

Oh, and I've been told that voting for the Best of Blogs Awards 2004 is continuing until the 17th of this month (see this page) so do feel free to continue voting for chromasia :-)

As you can probably work out I got quite wet taking this shot – I was standing at the sea's edge and didn't see the wave coming, and other than that I don't have a lot to say about this one other than that I like it.

One thing I didn't mention yesterday, not that it's important, is that these four entries are being posted using the new 'Future posting' facility of MT version 3. If I can stay ahead of myself this might be useful in that I can standardise the time that I put stuff up. At the moment it tends to be some time between 7pm and midnight (GMT) depending upon a) how busy I am, and b) whether I still need to take something (which gets a bit stressful). If I can keep one or two shots in hand I'll set them to be posted around 9pm GMT.

This is another of the shots that I took yesterday, and initially I didn't think this one was going to work, mostly because the sky was a rather pale shade of blue; i.e. not particularly amenable to this sort of semi-dramatic treatment. But, on the whole, I think it turned out reasonably ok. Had I been a bit quicker I might have recomposed slightly, and had I known the seagull was going to enter the shot I might have used a slightly higher shutter speed, and if I could afford a decent polariser for all three of my lenses I might have used one, but other than that I don't think I'd change too much about this one.

Oh, and on another matter, I read over at blog.photoblogs today that I've been nominated for Best Photoblog at the 2004 Weblog Awards – which is cool :-) And while I'm not in the least bit bothered about the votes, it is nice to have been nominated and to have ended up in the final 15. So if it was anyone who visits here who nominated me ... thanks :-)

Update: My wife read this entry a few minutes ago, and she didn't have to say anything – she has a way of looking at me when she doubts something I've written or said – but the gist of it was, "yeah, right, sure you're not bothered about the votes". So ok, it would be nice if people wanted to vote for chromasia. On which note I think I'll add mention of the voting on the news section of my comments ;-)

Here's an interesting point: when I compare a full-res image from my G5 with one from my 20D the one from the G5 is way softer. When I resize and sharpen them though it's much easier to get the G5 one looking sharp. Obviously something I need to work on.

As an aside: does anyone have any experience of miscalibrated flash circuitry on a Canon camera? I've discovered (not unlike quite a few other people with the 20D) that my camera underexposes flash shots by around 2/3 to 1 stop. I can compensate for this (with the Flash Exposure Compensation) but clearly something isn't quite right and I'm trying to decide whether to ask for an exchange or the flash recalibrating. The first option seems like the quickest (recalibration may take some time) but in all other respects I'm happy with the camera. Any thoughts?

I got my 17-40 f4L today, but I promised myself that I'd answer all the emails I've had that have piled up over the last week or so before I went out shooting. It's now quarter past nine in the evening, and I still haven't finished but hopefully I'll find some time tomorrow to test it out.

In the meanwhile this shot was taken about six minutes after yesterday's entry, and while I'm not convinced that I'm as pleased with it as my previous one, I do think it turned out ok.

Well, we managed to move house – but we're still surrounded by boxes (and are fast forgetting what's in any of them), still don't have an ADSL connection (though should be hooked up by tomorrow) – but are thoroughly delighted to be in our new home. I'm also really pleased with the way things have been going with chromasia in my absence - the guest bloggers did a wonderful job and I was touched by the obvious effort and care they put into their entries. If you want to look through their entries you can see all of them in the guest entry category.

As for this shot: it isn't cropped, it isn't a montage, but it is rotated, … and it's probably one of many shots of Blackpool Tower that I'll be putting up over the coming months.

Oh, I did put up one entry last week and I'm really pleased that it was awarded a noteworthy in the Photo Friday Ocean challenge. Many thanks to everyone who voted.

It's good to be back :-)))