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 :-)

I went up to Fleetwood this afternoon to shoot some HDRs (all of which are rubbish) and Milly, Amirah and Harmony came along for the ride. I wasn't planning on photographing any of them, but couldn't resist snapping this shot of Milly as we strolled along the beach.

I have shot some new material since I returned from Barcelona, but haven't been especially happy with any of it, so am posting another shot taken at much the same time as this portrait of Harmony. In some ways I think I prefer this one.

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 recently got hold of a new lens ;– taken from a Holga 120S and glued to a body cap – but haven't really had time to try it out, at least not seriously. I did spend some time snapping shots of Rhowan this morning though, and this is a heavily modified version of one of them (i.e. there's a lot of added blur in addition to the blur/soft-focus caused by the lens itself).

When I've got a bit more time I'll try and shoot some more material with it as I think it has a lot of potential, especially for portraiture.

As always, let me know what you think.

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 third and final shot in this sequence: the second shot of Harmony and my favourite of the three.

This is the second of the three shots I mentioned yesterday, though in this instance this is Rhowan rather that Harmony. Of the three, I think this is my least favourite of the set, but I'd be interested to hear what you think.

And if you're interested, the original is here:

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As I mentioned yesterday, I took Rhowan and Harmony to see the wreck of the Riverdance yesterday morning, and while I only got one shot of the boat that I'm happy with, I got three of Rhowan and Harmony. Unusually, I have two of Harmony that I like and just one of Rhowan. This is the first one of Harmony.

As for the post-production: this one was processed almost exclusively in RAW Developer using LAB curves. RAW Developer has a great Curves, tool that includes the 'a', 'b' and Lightness curves in addition to the standard RGB curves, and if you have a Mac I'd suggest you give it a try. Unfortunately there isn't a PC version of this programme.

Also, if you're unfamiliar with LAB Color mode you might want to take a look at my first LAB Color mode tutorial that explains the basics with respect to the various LAB channels.

As always, let me know what you think.

I don't know what it is about Rhowan, but even when eating an ice cream she can look as though she's a million miles away.

On another matter: if I don't post much over the next day or so, don't be surprised. My server (a ReadyNAS NV+) has fried its power supply and I'm currently waiting for a replacement - and keeping my fingers crossed that the disks aren't fried to. Once I get back things back to some sort of technical stability I'll post more regularly again.

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.

This is the portrait of Harmony I mentioned yesterday: wearing her princess dress and Stephanie wig. And you probably won't be too surprised to hear that I'm pleased with this one :-)

I'm not sure that Finley will thank me for this one when he's older, but I couldn't resist posting it. He'd insisted on getting dressed up, because Harmony was wearing her princess costume and Stephanie wig (Stephanie is a character in Lazy Town, a children's TV programme) and decided he wanted to be photographed because Harmony had already had her photograph taken.

As with my previous shot, this was also taken with my new Canon G9, though this time I also had my 580EX II flash attached, bounced from the ceiling. It would probably have been better if I had switched to shooting in manual, as Finley's hands are a bit too blurred for my liking, but I haven't got the hang of manual mode with the G9, at least not when I've got an external flash attached - for some reason most of them end up over-exposed.

And in case you're wondering about the background: Rhowan and Harmony's bedroom has just been decorated; i.e. the walls have been painted and we've fitted some new laminate flooring. As you can see though, they're still missing their skirting board.

I don't shoot many weddings, but when I do I really enjoy them, not least because it's a pleasure to see so many people enjoying themselves. And I think this shot is a good example. Admittedly, the flower girl does seem to be going in a different direction to the bride, but she's clearly having fun as she 'helps' her with her dress :-)

This is a shot I took of Rhowan some time ago, taken an a wedding we all attended. It was taken quite late in the evening, by which time Rhowan was a bit tired and fed-up - hence her morose expression. As for the photograph though, she really likes it – mostly because she loves her Barbie boots – though Harmony, her little sister, did ask "Why are Rhowan's knees so grubby?".

For a split second I thought I might try and explain the complexities of tone mapping a psuedo-HDR file generated from a single RAW file using Photomatix Pro, but Harmony's only five, so I didn't :-)

If you're interested, there's an uncropped version of the original image here:

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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.

I'm now back in the UK – somewhat fatigued from the travelling – and will be posting another eight shots that I took while in Dubai. In the meanwhile though, here's the very last frame I shot before coming home.

As I mentioned last week, my favourite shot of Rhowan – the snow queen – was used to publicise GPP 2008 in Dubai this year. Her face was everywhere – on pamphlets, other publicity documents, posters, and so on – and I posted an HDR shot of one of the posters on the day I arrived in Dubai.

Anyway, to cut a long story short – as I'm half asleep this evening – this one was taken after the closing event on Sunday evening, and while I'm mildly offended that someone would discard the pamphlet in an ashtray, I do think it makes a good photograph.

I'll tell you more about my trip tomorrow when I'll post another HDR of the DIFC.

My apologies again for not posting much this week, but as I mentioned I'm off on a trip on Sunday and won't be back until 6th May. I've scheduled one more post to automatically go up tomorrow evening, but after that I'll be posting from somewhere a bit sunnier :-)

As for this one: it's a shot of Finley (being cute) and Rhowan (enjoying the attention).

As I mentioned in my previous entry, I'm going away at the weekend and have loads to do before I go. Fortunately, I'm probably going to get it all done, but I haven't had time to take any new photographs. I have found a couple that I think are worth sharing though, starting with this one: a shot of Harmony with her buggy and bubbles at our local park. I'll post the second one on Saturday.

This is a psuedo-HDR image, processed from a single RAW file using Photomatix Pro, and the default ACR conversion and the tone mapped versions can be seen here:

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My reason for using Photomatix Pro, rather than working with a straight RAW conversion, is that I wanted to produce an image with a more even distribution of tones. This is much easier to achieve with a tone mapped image as it tends to create an image with a normally distributed histogram: i.e. the tones are bunched in the middle, tailing off towards both the highlights and shadows.

As for whether it works or not, that's another matter :-)

We took the kids down to our local library today, and while most of the shots I took weren't anything special, I do like this one – a shot of Rhowan taking it easy, browsing through one of the books she picked.

On a totally different matter: one of my grafitti shots has been set to music. You can watch the video here:

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And there's more information about the artist here:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ki8fTs1qZtQ

Personally, I like the song, but Libby's less keen, so I'd be interested to hear what you think.

It's been a while since I posted a shot of Milly, but she's back with a vengeance this evening, mere seconds after roller-blading head-first into a puddle ;-)

As for the post-processing: this is an HDR image constructed from a single RAW file – one of the subjects I'll be covering in next month's tutorial. What I like about this technique is that it allows you to add local contrast to an image without the need for a whole slew of masked adjustments, all of which can take a considerable amount of time to get right. I did use some masked Curves for this version, but nowhere near as many as I would have needed had I not started with an HDR.

As always, let me know what you think.

Oh, and if you're not entirely bored with HDRs, I'll be posting another much less subtle one tomorrow.

I was looking through an old folder of images today and came across this one. It was taken about a month before don't look up #2, back in 2005, and I have absolutely no idea why I didn't post it at the time. And for those of you who don't recognise her, this is Rhowan, looking somewhat more angelic than she did in yesterday's shot.

As always, let me know what you think.

On a totally unrelated matter: we've had quite a few emails about the Easter Egg hunt on the tutorials page so have decided to let it run until first thing tomorrow morning. Have fun :-)

This isn't exactly the best portrait of Rhowan I've ever posted, but it's the best I could manage today: in and amongst hunting for Easter eggs, watching The Wizard of Oz (for what must have been the ten billionth time), and generally entertaining the children – all of whom have been bouncing around like rabbits on speed.

Talking of Easter eggs: if you're bored this evening you might want to try out our Easter egg hunt on our tutorials page. If you've already subscribed to the tutorials there's nothing much at the end of the search – other than the satisfaction of having found the hidden egg – but if you haven't signed up yet then there's a 20% off coupon code hidden away there too.

My apologies for not posting much recently, but I'm still trying to shake off a cold. I've been feeling a bit better over the last couple of days, and have now managed to finish the masking tutorial, but prior to that I just wanted to curl up somewhere warm and quiet, close my eyes, and sleep until Summer.

Anyway, I'm still not exactly full of beans but I am hoping to get out tomorrow and shoot some new material (weather permitting).

In the meanwhile, here's one of Finley, taken early last month.

I'm not expecting a slew of comments on this picture as I suspect that the reasons that I like it are a bit idiosyncratic. The main reason is personal, i.e. it captures an aspect of Harmony's and Finley's relationship that I find endearing – Finley being a bit rough, but not aggressive, and Harmony letting him get away with it. On occasion, he does push things too far – and ends up getting in trouble and upsetting Harmony – but generally they're pretty good with one another.

The second reason I like it is technical, i.e. I like the way this lens produces a really smooth out of focus background when used at a wide aperture.

Oh, and having just read through the comments on yesterday's picture, I also have a third reason. Looking back through the last ten months it seems that I've only posted one shot of Tabitha, and that was taken on the day she was born. So I guess it isn't all that surprising that some of you thought that Finley was our youngest.

So, this shot is a current one of Finley, and at some point later this week I'll post a more up-to-date one of Tabby.

My apologies for not posting anything over the last couple of days, but as I mentioned in a comment on my previous image, both Libby and Tabby (our youngest) have been unwell. In light of this I've been looking after the rest of the kids, in between supplying Libby with cups of tea and carrying Tabby around the house on an almost constant basis. Anyway, they're both a lot better today, so I should be able to get out and shoot some new material either tomorrow or the day after.

As for this one: after spending two days with almost no time to myself at all, I can certainly sympathise with the mother of this young lad as she smokes a quick cigarette while he strides on ahead.

We took the kids down to the seafront this afternoon, and despite spending most of my time either hanging onto Finley, or chasing him when he did manage to give me the slip, I managed to get three shots that I'm happy with, of which this is the first. Libby's only comment was "he looks a bit girly in that one", and I suppose she has a point, but I like it.

I spent most of yesterday post-processing the images I shot for a friend's wedding and really liked this one: the youngest son of the bride, flanked by his two older brothers.

First, thanks for all your comments on the images that were posted this week – they're much appreciated.

As for this one: this is Harmony, playing on her DS outside our chalet at CenterParcs, where we spent most of this week. It was a good trip, and the kids all enjoyed it, but I didn't spend a great deal of time taking photographs: a) because I didn't really have time, and b) because the light was terrible.