Despite the fact that we're based in the UK our biggest audience has always been in the US. For example, in the last 12 months we have had 878,731 US visitors - distributed across all 52 50 states: 136k from California, 67k from New York, 54k from Texas, 39k from Florida, and so on. By way of comparison, in the same period we have had 235k visitors from the UK, 108k visitors from Canada, 49k from France, and so on. In fact, according to Google Analytics we have had visitors from a total of 205 countries, including the Vatican and Antarctica, but the bottom line is that almost a third of you are based in the US.

So, on that basis: happy Independence Day :-)

My task for today, other than a whole heap of stuff I needed to get finished, was to take a decent shot of Libby, my wife. In the past I've taken shots of her that we've both liked, but this one needed to be a head-shot, in colour, with her looking both professional and natural.

So, we headed down to the North Pier and took a whole range of shots. When we set off the light was quite flat - which I much prefer for natural-light portraits - but by the time we got started the sun had come out and the light was quite harsh. So this one was taken in the shade, behind one of these structures, and I'm pleased with how it turned out. More importantly though, Libby likes it too.

On an unrelated matter: my apologies for not posting much over the last few days but I've been finishing off my latest tutorial – LAB Color mode: part two. If you're interested you can read a bit more about it here:

.../tutorials/online/lcm2_info.php

I'm not too sure that the humour of this shot will translate but, for those of you aren't familiar with the WKD adverts, the basic premiss of each one is that everyone, despite appearances to the contrary, has a wicked side.

Oh, and my apologies for not posting last night but I ended up wandering around Blackpool with a rather fractious Tabby who's currently teething, and by the time I got home I was too tired to put this one up.

Here's another shot of this guy. At the time I processed these I much preferred the first one I put up, but now I think that this one may have a slight edge. Let me know how you think they compare.

When I was growing up (in the late 60s and early 70s) smoking was still an accepted part of everyday life: people smoked in films and on TV, they smoked in restaurants and on planes, and there was none of the social and medical stigma attached to the habit that there is today. As such I can look at this photograph without really thinking about the cigarette and still think that this guy looks pretty cool. That said though, I wonder how many of you noticed the cigarette first, then the guy, and made a different judgement?

This is another shot from the Blackpool Pride 2008 festival that I photographed the weekend before last. And I would tell you more about it, but I've had one of those days where everything that could go wrong did go wrong: I spent two hours trying to fix a problem with my server (which spontaneously resolved itself for no apparent reason); I spent another hour trying to find an image for my next tutorial, only to discover that I'd saved a flattened copy of it, not the original; and the rest of the day was a litany of similar frustrations and minor disasters.

So, I'm now off to drink several glasses of wine in reasonably quick succession while hoping that tomorrow will be a more fruitful and relaxing affair than today.

In the meanwhile, here's a deranged vicar :-)

The thing I like best about event photography is that you have very little time to think, and very little control, especially when you're trying to work out the composition and lighting. Take this one as an example ...

One of the shots I needed to get was one that contained both the front of the North Pier and the performers, but we didn't have time to set up a specific shot so I needed to grab what I could while they performed. This one, as Libby and one of my older daughters pointed out, would have been better if the Pierrotters had been in front of the main sign – and I do have some shot from that angle – but this one is probably a stronger shot.

Anyway, it's the best shot I could get that contained all the elements, so let me know what you think.

This is a shot of two of the Pierrotters, the last remaining seaside Pierrot Troupe in Britain. I was photographing them today as they took part in the latest Admission All Classes event in Blackpool. If you're free tomorrow, they'll be performing again at 11.30am, 1.15pm and 3.00pm on Blackpool's North Pier. I watched them perform three times today, but am still looking forward to seeing them again tomorrow.

As I mentioned at the weekend, my next tutorial is a follow-up to my first LAB Color mode tutorial. As such I've been using LAB Color mode to process a number of my recent shots. What I didn't realise though, until after I'd finished this image, was that I'd used a very similar approach to the processing I applied to the original snow queen image.

If you're interested, I've posted a colour-neutral version of this one here:

.../archives/blackpool_pride_2008_5.php

I have another shot of this guy with his partner, that I may post later this week, but I think this is probably the stronger of the two.

As always, let me know what you think.

The thing I like most about the annual Blackpool Pride event is that there are hundreds of interesting people who attend, and they all enjoy being photographed. These two were no exception.

On a side-note: I've been thinking about getting hold of an 85mm f/1.2 for portraiture. Well, to be more accurate, I've been trying to convince myself that a) I need one, and b) I can afford it. But if I'm honest I would have to say that my 70-200 is more useful, at least for event photography. The main benefit of using the zoom is that it allows you to be just a bit further away from people, and as a result I think that you're perceived as less intimidating. For the Blackpool Pride event this wasn't much of a problem - generally they're not a shy and retiring bunch - but on those occasions where people are less used to being photographed it does seem to make a difference.

I don't know why, but happy smiling clowns always seem a bit sinister to me. You'd think it would be the other way round - sad clowns seeming odd and out of place - but it's the happy ones that I find incongruous.

In terms of the post-processing, both this one and yesterday's were processed in LAB Color Mode. As those of you who follow my tutorials will know, my next issue is a follow-up to my Introduction to LAB Color mode tutorial. One of the topics I'm going to be covering is how to alter a specific colour or colour range without using a mask. For this image the technique was applied quite loosely, but if you take a look at the original image (linked below) you will see that I've shifted the yellow tones towards a washed out shade of lilac, and that the reds are now much more magenta than in the original.

A colour-neutral version of the image is here:

.../archives/blackpool_pride_2008_2.php

Each year Blackpool hosts a gay pride festival, and this year was to exception. As a result I have a number of portraits that I'll be putting over the next five or six days. Of the ones I'll be putting up, this is probably one of the weakest (and is definitely Libby's least favourite) but there's still something about it I like.

This is my penultimate shot from Dubai, and probably my favourite portrait in quite some time. If you're interested, the original is here:

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As you can see, I haven't done much in terms of the content (a bit of minor cloning in the background), but did spend quite some time getting the black and white conversion right. In this instance, I used the Channel Mixer, biased towards the blue channel, to accentuate the details in his face and hair.

I'd be interested to hear how you think this one compares to yesterday's.

This is the first of my remaining two portraits from my trip to Dubai, and while I definitely prefer the one I'm going to put up tomorrow, I really like this one too.

While most of the shots I took in Dubai were architecturally oriented, I did manage to get some people shots that I was pleased with, and of the three that I'm going to put up I think this is probably my second favourite. It was taken down at Al Seef, just before the sun dipped below the buildings in the background.

On a totally unrelated matter: I'm pleased to say that I've just finished my latest HDR tutorial. If you're interested you can read more about it on our main tutorials page.

This is the first of three portraits I'll be putting up that I took in the souk last Sunday. This is probably my least favourite of the three, but it's the only one of the set that contains any context - the other two are headshots.

This was taken at Al Seef in Dubai, and I think I would have liked the shot anyway, but the fact that they're all standing on one leg meant that this was a shot I couldn't resist.

A few of you managed to work out that I'm in Dubai from the clues I posted yesterday, so I'll tell you a bit more about my trip. Next week I'm presenting some seminars at the Gulf Photo Plus 2008 training event. This is an annual meeting of members of Gulf Photo Plus, that I also attended last year, and I'll be doing a variety of Photoshop workshops – black and white conversion, toning images, adding impact to an image, and so on.

This week though, I'm working with Elie Domit (featured in this shot), the owner of The Empty Quarter photographic gallery that will be opening in a few months time. It's located in the DIFC (Dubai International Finance Centre) and I'm shooting some material over the next few days with a view to displaying it in the gallery when it's complete. Today, I'm photographing the Gate, a financial building just around the corner from the gallery, and tomorrow I have two shoots planned. The first is in Bastakiya, one of the older areas of Dubai, and the second involves a night shoot of some of the construction work. I'll post shots from both over the next few days.

Things will probably be quite quiet on chromasia this week as I'm going away on the 20th, won't be back to the 6th, and have loads of things to organise before I go. In other words I'm not sure how often I'll be posting. I will try and get something up. On a more positive note: the good news is that I'm going somewhere interesting and will be spending almost all of the first week taking photographs, so I should have some good stuff to put up next week.

As for this one: I don't have much to say about it other than that I wondered what it was she was holding in her hands. I suspect it was just something she had picked up from the beach, but the way in which she's holding it caught my attention.

Unusually, this is a more drastic crop than I usually apply, but had I waited till I was a bit closer I would have missed the shot. If you're interested, the original is here:

.../archives/these_things.php

As I mentioned yesterday, I've been using Photomatix Pro to generate pseudo-HDR images from a single RAW file, and of all my recent attempts I think that this is probably my favourite, and I may well include it in next month's tutorial.

If you take a look at the original you will see that it might just have been possible to create much the same effect using a variety of masked Curves, but the HDR process makes it a lot easier.

The original image (processed using the default settings in ACR) is here:

.../archives/making_a_statement.php

Oh, and let me know what you think about the boot in the top-right corner of the image. I did think about cloning it out, but thought it added another dimension to the story.

As I mentioned yesterday, I've been spending a lot of time working through various HDR techniques at the moment, in preparation for next month's tutorial; and while the normal purpose of creating an HDR is to merge a range of bracketed exposures that cover a wide tonal range, there are other ways in which HDR software (e.g. Photomatix Pro) can be used. One technique I particularly like involves converting a single RAW file to generate a pseudo 32-bit HDR, which can then be subsequently tone mapped.

In light of this I spent some time going through my archives today looking for images to work with, and found two that I think work quite well. If you'd like to see the original (converted using the default settings in ACR), it's here:

.../archives/all_mine.php

As I hope you'll agree, this version has a bit more impact.

This continues the 'moody sky' theme from a few days ago (this one and this one), but in this instance I used two Curves to adjust the image – one for the sky, and one for the foreground/horizon.

I finally managed to get out today and headed up the coast to see if I could get any shots of the stranded ferry Riverdance. Since I last photographed it it’s rolled entirely onto its side so I thought it would be worth another trip.

Anyway, I did get one shot that I'll probably put up, either tomorrow or the day after, but in the meanwhile I have a couple of others I'll post first.

This is the first of two, maybe three shots from tonight's Heat the Streets event in Blackpool. Libby and I took the kids down to see the various displays, which were all the more impressive as a) they were outdoors, and b) the temperature was around 1°C – i.e. not the sort of weather to be performing with hardly any clothes on. Though, that said, the woman in tonight's shot is practically fully clothed in comparison to one of the others I'm going to put up ;-)

This is the second of the two shots I mentioned yesterday, the one I prefer. Let me know which you like best, though as Libby is hardly ever wrong I suspect it may well be yesterday's ;-)

In terms of post-processing: this was adjusted using two Curves in LAB Color mode, one for contrast and one for colour (using the same settings as for yesterday's shot).

This is the first of two images taken on the same trip as this one, though I've gone for a slightly different colour this time round :-) Of the two I think I prefer the next one, but Libby likes this one best. And for those of your who are interested, both were processed/toned in LAB Color mode, as described in my LAB tutorial.

On an unrelated matter: I'm away for a few days next week, and don't have enough material to post an image a day: so this one's going up today, it's companion will be automatically posted on Monday, and another one will go up on Wednesday. I'm back on Friday so should have something new to post by then.

This is a shot taken during the European Photoblogger's meetup in London in 2005 using the somewhat clichéd technique of zooming during a long exposure. I can't now identify any of these shadowy figures other than Brandon Stone, with his back to the camera in the foreground.

I've posted it now because I've probably processed it at least a dozen times over the last year or so, and while I've never managed to get it quite right (whatever that might mean) I do think it has something. So, to save myself from having to revisit it yet again, in the hope of doing a better job, I decided I might as well put it up :-)

Like a lot of my recent images, this was processed in LAB Color mode rather than RGB which, in this instance, I used to alter the colour balance. If you take a look at a version without this change you will see that the final image is quite different to the original:

.../archives/just_walking.php

This was taken back in May 2006, at the same festival as these ones, and I did try processing it then. From what I can remember though I had big problems with the wig. If you take a look at the original you will see that the wig is extremely saturated (to the point where the red channel is blown out):

...archives/creating_an_impression.php

At the time I hadn't come across LAB Color mode and every attempt I made to edit the image in RGB ended up looking terrible, so I gave up. This time though, I converted it to LAB and used the ‘a’ Curve to decrease the saturation of the red tones within the image (discussed in more detail in my LAB tutorial). The end result may not be to everyone's taste, but I'm really pleased with this one.