This was taken back in September during my Creating Dramatic Images workshop in Blackpool. It's a shot of Blackpool's Central Pier, taken from the North Pier, and while it's not an especially dramatic seascape I do like how it turned out, particularly in terms of the detail in the foreground waves.

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3.44pm on 17/9/11 Canon 5D Mark II EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM 70mm f/3.5 1/1600 aperture priority +1/3 evaluative 100 no RAW Camera Raw Photoshop CS5 none 1x1

This is a shot of one of my favourite structures, the old end of the pier at St. Annes, on the north west coast of England. I've photographed it many times before but this is one of my definite favourites.

I've also added this one as this week's Mini-PSD as the processing was quite interesting, particularly in terms of balancing the left side of the image with the right. If you've taken a look at the original you'll see that the left-hand third is quite a bit darker than the rest of the image. When I took the shot I thought that this would prove to be an interesting aspect of the final image. The more I worked on it though the less I liked it – it just looked wrong, as though I'd added the extra darkness/density on purpose.

Anyway, after a while I realised that it wasn't going to work so reprocessed it to balance both sides. If you're subscribed to the tutorials and download this Mini-PSD you'll see that the first curve is labelled Curves 17, a fair indication of just how long I messed around with this one before deciding on a strategy that would work :)

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1.29pm on 20/9/11 Canon 5D Mark II EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM 24mm f/11.0 1/320 aperture priority +2/3 evaluative 100 no RAW Camera Raw Photoshop CS5 Topaz Denoise 16x9

This shot was taken during my Creating Dramatic Images workshop last weekend. We'd spent the morning working through a variety of topics but spent most of the afternoon photographing the seafront and North Pier. I'd been shooting the sea, but was glad I turned round in time to grab this shot.

If you're interested, my good mate Craig has posted an alternative version here:

http://www.id7.co.uk/iblog/?p=1473

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3.40pm on 17/9/11 Canon 5D Mark II EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM 70mm f/2.8 1/2000 aperture priority +1/3 evaluative 100 no RAW Camera Raw Photoshop CS5 none no

It's been a while since I posted a shot of the old pier at St. Annes, and while this isn't especially dramatic I do like it.

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3.05pm on 26/3/11 Canon 5D Mark II EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM 57mm f/11.0 1/60 aperture priority -1/3 evaluative 100 no RAW Camera Raw Photoshop CS5 Topaz Detail minor

This is a follow-up shot to the sky rolled down, taken about five minutes after that one. In this instance, I shot from very low to the ground to capture some of the reflected sky in the water on the beach. Of the two I think I prefer the previous one, but am really pleased with how this one turned out too. Let me know which is your favourite.

Oh, and as we the previous shot I mentioned, this one was also constructed from two originals: one exposed for the sky, and a lighter shot to bring out some of the detail in the foreground.

I'll also be adding this one to our collection of Mini-PSDs, probably at some point tomorrow. It's due to be uploaded on Monday, but as I'll be spending most of the day travelling back to the UK with the kids I think I'll post it a day early.

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10.19am on 10/2/11 Canon 5D Mark II EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM 35mm f/11.0 1/800 & 1/2000 manual n/a evaluative 100 no RAW Camera Raw Photoshop CS5 none minor

If you followed our games of Photoshop Tennis (which we're planning on resurrecting some time soon) you may remember this image: taken from Blackpool's North pier last October.

And talking of Blackpool ...

I'm heading back to the UK twice over the next few months, and have set aside some dates when I'll be able to provide some one-to-one training, either from our Blackpool office or possibly elsewhere in the UK, on either photography, post-production, or both. Some of the dates have already been booked, but the following are still available:

Thursday 10th February
Friday 11th February
Saturday 12th February (may already be booked)
Sunday 13th February (may already be booked)

Thursday 24th March
Friday 25th March

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10.52am on 14/10/10 Canon 5D Mark II EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM 25mm f/8.0 1/160 aperture priority +2/3 evaluative 200 no RAW Camera Raw Photoshop CS5 none minimal

This is a companion shot to this one, a shot of Blackpool Tower, taken on my trip back to the UK in October. In many ways I think I prefer the first shot I posted, but I do like this one too.

On a related note, I'll be using this image for our latest Mini-PSD: the 52nd to be added to the archive since we started including them as part of our tutorials. If you're interested, I'll be uploading it at some point tomorrow morning.

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10.52am on 10/10/10 Canon 5D Mark II EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM 24mm f/16.0 1/1000 aperture priority -2 evaluative 100 no RAW Camera Raw Photoshop CS5 none 16x9

This is the third and final shot of Blackpool's North Pier that I'll be posting: taken from the south side of the pier. I'm not sure which is my favourite of the three that I've posted, but I do like how this one turned out.

In related news ...

I've added the first image from this short series as our latest Mini-PSD.

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9.33am on 14/10/10 Canon 5D Mark II EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM 24mm f/8.0 1/250 aperture priority +2/3 evaluative 100 no RAW Camera Raw Photoshop CS5 none minor transformation

Here's another shot of Blackpool's North Pier, taken a few minutes before my last entry, and in some ways I think I prefer this one. As always though, let me know what you think.

In other news ...

My latest Critique Slot Screencast is now live. These are a part of our online tutorials and are based on an image submitted by one of our members. The basic idea of each screencast is to work through the original image (critiquing the various changes that were made) and then reprocess the image from the original RAW file.

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9.04am on 14/10/10 Canon 5D Mark II EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM 70mm f/8.0 1/80 aperture priority +2/3 evaluative 100 no RAW Camera Raw Photoshop CS5 none 16x9

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

The last few times I've been in Dubai as an instructor at one of the Gulf Photo Plus training events I've managed to grab quite a few shots, either during my shooting workshops, or while out and about with my fellow instructors. This time though (the FotoWeekend event) we've been really busy so I haven't got much to show you other than the two shots that I've already posted ... hence today's image, a shot of a pair of broken sunglasses on Blackpool beach.

That said, I'm heading down to Oman later today for a few day's shooting with Bobbi Lane. We don't have any fixed plans, but I suspect we'll spend time on the beach, down at the Souks, and might take a trip further out to grab a few landscapes. We're travelling for most of today, but I might have something to post by tomorrow evening.

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 :)

I don't think I'll ever tire of photographing this former section of St. Annes pier – it's a wonderful structure. Jason also posted another shot yesterday:

http://www.escapism-online.com/blog-entry.php?pid=280

In other news: I've recoded my templates to make the 'show the original' feature a bit tidier. I've also added the same functionality to the individual pages in my galleries. As best I can tell, it works as it should, but do let me know if you have any problems with. Oh, and my apologies if you're using IE7 or IE6, but IE is such a dog of a browser to code for that I've disabled the feature rather than spend hours trying to write conditional code and CSS to make it work. If you really need to run IE (hint: get Firefox, or Chrome, or any other browser for that matter) then download version 8.

Oh, and I'm also compiling a list of photoblogs that have a 'show the original image' feature that switches one image for another (i.e. I don't mean ones that have the original and processed images both visible at the same time). So far I've come across these ones:

http://movie.leova.com/ (the earliest example I know about)
http://www.escapism-online.com/ (Jason's site)
http://mynicki.net/
http://www.momentaryawe.com/
http://kevoto.com/
http://alangraham.co.uk/

If you know of any others, or are planning on implementing this feature yourself, let me know and I'll update the list.

Update: here are some more blogs that have been drawn to my attention since I posted this entry:

http://www.batailley.net/
http://www.endlessinstant.com/photoblog/
http://www.andreapress.net/
http://dailypicture.v-raven.de/
http://www.butterweck.de/pholog/
http://photoblog.wojciechjarosz.com/

This is the third image in my St. Annes sunset series (the first two are here and here) and may well be my favourite of the four.

This one was converted to black and white using the channel mixer (as described in my Black and White: part one tutorial), then toned using the selective color tool (see my Toning Colour Images tutorial).

On a related note, and as you'll see if you read the 'latest news' bit below, you can currently sign up for one of three of our Photoshop tutorials for free. Our Toning Colour Images tutorial is one of these so, if you're interested in finding out a bit more about the toning techniques I use for both my colour and black and white images (e.g. curves, selective color, channel mixer), sign up for that one.

This is the second of four sunset shots, all of which were taken on the 9th April down at St. Annes (the first one is here), and despite the similarities between this and the previous one, it was shot over an hour later, just as the sun was dipping towards the horizon. I'll post the other two over the next week or so.

If you're interested Jason's second shot of the same sunset is here …

http://www.escapism-online.com/blog-entry.php?pid=267

… and he's also blogged a shot of me on the pier and some thoughts on how the training went here:

http://www.escapism-online.com/blog-entry.php?pid=269

As I mentioned when I posted body art #1, Jason and I had gone down to St. Annes to photograph the pier at sunset. As you have already seen though, we ended up shooting a variety of portraits first, but as the evening wore on we got our sunsets too.

I'll be posting four of these over the coming weeks: shot between 6.34pm and 8.09pm on the 11th of this month. All of them feature the old pier at St. Annes, and all are shot from much the same angle, but the sky changed so quickly and dramatically that all four are worth posting.

In terms of the post-production, and as you can see from the original, I didn't do a great deal to this one other than to bump up the contrast (using a Curve) and the saturation (using a masked curve and the Hue/Saturation tool).

Jason's first shot of this scene is here:

http://www.escapism-online.com/blog-entry.php?pid=264

A couple of entries ago I said that my previous would be the last I'd be posting from my various trips out with Craig a few weekends ago, as I'd looked through the hundreds of shots we had taken and couldn't see anything else that would work. Anyway, Craig posted this shot a few days ago, and as I'd shot much the same sequence of images I thought I'd see how mine turned out.

As with my previous couple of shots this is an HDR, constructed with Photomatix Pro, but I've tried to keep the tone mapping quite moderate with this one. It's not entirely what I was after, but in this case I couldn't quite work out how I wanted the final image to look. Initially, I was going for a colour version - much as Craig did - but I just couldn't get the balance between the pier and the sky looking anywhere near natural.

Anyway, to cut a long story short I ended up going for a black and white version that I toned with a Curve.

As always, let me know what you think.

Oh, and in case you haven't seen this structure before, it's both bits of the pier at St. Annes.

Finally, my next HDR class with PPSOP (the Perfect Picture School of Photograph) will be starting on Friday (i.e. the 6th), so if you want to learn a bit more about constructing HDR images you might want to take a look. Alternatively, 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).

First of all, thanks for all the comments on my last post. I know that HDR images aren't everyone's cup of tea so it was good to see that it was well received.

On the subject of HDR images, Craig posted an HDR portrait of me a couple of days ago. In terms of technique, I think it was pretty well done, but the content leaves a bit to be desired. Mind you, I really hate seeing photographs of myself – there's just something really odd about the whole experience :-)

On a different matter, and related to this image, I just posted our latest tutorial – Working with textures: part one. I'm particularly pleased with this one, not least because I used some of Mike Regnier's work to illustrate the tutorial in addition to a couple of my own. If you're not familiar with Mike's work then you really should pay his site a visit – he's a genius when it comes to working with textures.

Anyway, having said all that ...

This one combines one original image and two textures: a shot of the North Pier, another of a ripped canvas blind, and another of a water stain on a wall. It's not quite up to Mike's standard, but I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

As always, let me know what you think, even if it's only to tell me that you don't like it :)

It's been a while since I posted a keep out shot, as I don't often come across a new angle that I think's worth photographing. And this one's not exactly the best one of the series but I'm determined to post a bit more regularly, even if that does mean posting stuff that's not quite as vibrant as usual.

On another note: I got an email this morning from the team at JPG Magazine:

"We've spent the last few months trying to make the business behind JPG sustain itself, and we've reached the end of the line. We all deeply believe in everything JPG represents, but we just weren't able to raise the money needed to keep JPG alive in these extraordinary economic times. We sought out buyers, spoke with numerous potential investors, and pitched several last-ditch creative efforts, all without success. As a result, jpgmag.com will shut down on Monday, January 5, 2009."

I wasn't a regular contributor (as you can see from my profile), but did have one photograph published in issue 10, and did enjoy browsing through the site - there were some really top class contributors.

Anyway, they're going to be shutting down their website on the 5th so I'd recommend you head over there and have a good look round before they do.

This is a shot of Blackpool's Central pier, located about half a mile south of the North Pier, the subject of my previous entry. As with my previous two shots, it was taken shortly before sunset on Saturday evening, and for this one I decided to emphasise the various textures within the image – the movement of water in the foreground, the sharp lines of the pier, and the rolling clouds in the background.

If you're interested, the original is here:

.../archives/untitled_0077.php

Update: this is just a quick note to let you all know that I won't be updating the blog for a few days as the hard drive in my laptop has failed. Coincidentally, I recently ordered a backup machine, but that won't arrive for another ten days or so, so in the meanwhile I need to wait until I can get my current machine fixed and restored from my backup. Fortunately, I do have an almost current Time Machine backup, but don't have any way of accessing the files until I get my laptop back. Fingers crossed it should all be sorted by Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest.

Update #2: I had an appointment scheduled for 12.20 today (Sunday 30th) at the Genius Bar of the Trafford's Centre Apple store. Unfortunately though, we were a bit late. Just as we were coming up to our junction on the M60 we blew a rear tire and by the time I could pull over it was smoldering on the rim. Anyway, as we had all six kids with us, we decided to ring the AA and get them to sort it out while we huddled on the other side of the barrier - and I'm glad we did, because our spare was damaged too.

We haven't had our new van long (it's a Transit Tourneo) and hadn't noticed that there was a flat spot on the spare, so ended up having to go and get two new tires before we could go to the Trafford Centre. Anyway, we got that sorted out so went off to try and get my laptop fixed.

I got a new appointment for 3pm, explained the problem, and asked how long it would take to fix it. I was expecting them to say some time tomorrow, i.e. Monday, but the 'Genius' said "we don't have the drive in stock so it will probably be Wednesday".

"OK, so what drives do you have in stock? I could do with getting it sorted ASAP so would be happy to pay for a drive upgrade".

"You can't. Although you've got the three year warranty it has to be a like-for-like replacement".

"I can't give you more money and have another drive installed?"

"No. And we don't have any in stock anyway."

"So it will definitely be ready on Wednesday?"

"It should be. I'll order the drive tomorrow and providing it turns up on Tuesday we should be able to have it done by Wednesday".

Hmmm.

I have to say that I love Apple computers but their after-sales support, in the UK at least, isn't quiet as efficient as it could be. So long story short, I won't be posting anything until late Wednesday at the very earliest.