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.

This one was taken six minutes before my previous entry, and while both share the same sky (this one was taken about 90° to the right of the previous one) I've gone for a much softer, colder look with this one.

First of all, thanks for all the great comments on my last entry. As always, they're much appreciated.

As for this one: it's been a while since I went down to St. Annes, and even longer since I photographed the pier, so I headed down there this morning. I had intended to shoot some long exposures while this section of the pier was under water, but must have misread the tide times because by the time I got there the tide was already quite some way out.

Anyway, I spent about an hour taking photographs, and can't say that I'm particularly impressed with any of the other shots that I got. I like this one though.

In terms of the post-production: there were two things I concentrated on here - balancing the sky to the foreground (using two masked Curves), and toning the image using a Curve to alter the blue and green channels. If you're interested, I've posted a copy of the original here:

.../archives/tide_down_5.php

Here's one last shot taken with the Tamron AF 11-18mm - a shot of Blackpool's North Pier, taken from about five inches above the decking.

Oh, and by the time this gets (automatically) posted I'll be in London. I'm going abroad for a week - I won't tell you where yet - so should have some new/different material to post.

I have another 11 shots from my trip to Barcelona, that I was going to continue posting, but Fleetwood Pier burned down last night so we went up there this afternoon to see what was left. The leftmost side of the pier (built of iron and concrete) seems to have mostly survived the blaze, but the main pier building has been totally destroyed.

The pier was opened to the public in 1911, and while it isn't the most photogenic in the area I have managed to get some decent shots over the last couple of years. I'll try and get some more later this week and will post any that are worth seeing.

A couple of days ago I mentioned that I'd been up to Fleetwood to shoot some HDR sequences, and that none of them had worked out, but I finally managed to sort out one of them. The reason I said that I didn't think that any of them would work is that I initially tried to process them using Photomatix Pro, but just couldn't get rid of the halos around the various struts and ironwork.

So, having failed with Photomatix, I thought I'd try a version using FDRTools and, as you can see, it's done a pretty good job. There were some HDR artefacts that needed correcting, and some minor haloing in some parts of the image, but on the whole I think it's done a pretty good job. There are still some minor areas of the image that I think could do with a bit more work, but I ran out of editing time today.

Anyway, this is a shot of the underside of Fleetwood Pier (as was this one). It was constructed from a seven shot sequence, all of which were taken at f/11.0 with a shutter speed range of 1/640s for the darkest shot to 1.6s for the lightest. To give you an idea of the dynamic range of the original scene, here's a straight conversion of the metered exposure:

.../archives/under_fleetwood_pier_2.php

As always, let me know what you think.

Despite the fact that yesterday was the longest day of the year the weather has been quite atrocious, and when we took the kids down to the sea-front this afternoon it was all we could do to stop them blowing away. Harmony (who's now five) just about managed to stay on her feet, but if I hadn't had hold of Finley he would have been blown over on several occasions.

As for this shot: it's a view you've probably seen before on chromasia, and while I'm normally quite happy to suffer for my art, today was not one for hanging about taking photographs :-)

If I had anything else to post I wouldn't put this one up, but as I mentioned at some point last week, this is an extremely busy month and my time for taking photographs has decreased to virtually nothing. Next month will be a lot better – and I have a lot of new ideas I want to pursue – but right now I'm barely finding time to do the absolute essentials, let alone find time to take any photographs.

Anyway, despite the fact that I probably wouldn't normally post this one, I thought you might find it interesting for the same reason that I shot it; i.e. it was a test shot I took with my new Canon G9 to test the macro mode: and I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised, both in terms of the sharpness of the foreground and the smoothness of the out-of-focus background.

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.

My apologies for not posting recently but things have been hectic over the last few weeks; i.e. far too much work to do, and not enough time to blog - and it's going to be much like that for the rest of this month. And in the scale of things that's a lot better than having no work, but right now I'd settle for somewhere between the two extremes :-)

Anyway, I found some time to wander down to the North pier today and decided to shoot some HDRs. Most of them probably won't work out (for one reason or another) but I like this one, not least because it's a completely over-the-top use of this technique.

As always, your thoughts and comments will be gratefully received.

Oh, and I haven't posted the EXIF data but all the shots were taken at 16mm and I used a seven shot sequence with a 1 EV spacing between them.

This is an HDR of Blackpool's North Pier, constructed from a bracketed sequence of seven shots (1 EV spacing), tone mapped with Photomatix Pro. If you're interested, the fourth shot in the sequence (i.e. the metered exposure) is here:

.../archives/the_evening_gathers.php

I shot the sequence yesterday evening, just before meeting up with a film crew from the BBC programme Inside Out. They were shooting footage for a programme on piers in the North West of England and had googled Fleetwood Pier. After finding some of my shots of that pier they asked if they could interview me. Anyway, we spent about 40 minutes strolling up and down the beach, chatting about the local piers and trying to look as though we weren't half frozen to death. It was fun, despite the near Arctic conditions.

If you're interested, the programme airs at 7.30pm on the 2nd May, but it's a regional programme so you'll only be able to watch it live if you live in the North-West of England. I think it will be available on the Inside Out website shortly afterwards though.

On a totally different matter: I've been involved with helping out with the development of an OS X screensaver/desktop feed, that feeds images from chromasia and Daily Dose of Imagery to a folder on the client's computer. If you're interested in taking a look the script and instructions are here:

www.cneophytou.com

And finally: this entry should be automatically posted at 7pm tomorrow, round about the time I'll be clearing customs after a two-leg flight to somewhere considerably warmer than Blackpool. All being well I'll post something on Monday and let you know where I am.

First of all, thanks for all the thoughtful comments on my previous image – they're much appreciated – but there are a couple of points I'd like to pick up on one of them.

Garry and YETi both commented to the effect that they don't feel they should comment unless it will have some constructive impact. And clearly, from my perspective, constructive criticism is great – it helps me to move on – but I wouldn't want people to feel that that's all they should offer. Chromasia has been around for a long time, and as I write this there are 39722 comments containing over 1.3 million words – some of these are constructive, some are not, but all of them carry the various conversations forward.

There were also a number of interesting comments regarding the future of blogs, images on the web, and so on, but I need to think about these before I reply.

Anyway, on with the show :-)

The last few images I've posted were taken on a trip last week and, what with one thing and another I haven't been out since. So, I'm posting this one, a) because I don't have anything else worth putting up, and b) because I think it raises an interesting point. Personally, I really like this one – for reasons I'll come to in a minute – but I have to say that I don't think it works all that well at this resolution.

The things I like are the feathery detail of the structures on the pier, the couple walking arm-in-arm atop the new sea wall, the lone woman taking her dog for a walk, and a whole host of other small details – most of which are barely visible at this resolution. But what's the point in posting it if you can't see the things that make the shot?

My main reason (other than having nothing else to post) is that I wonder how acclimatized we have become to expecting an image to be eye-catching at the resolution we typically see on the web? Clearly, most photographs will look better when printed rather than previewed at a fraction of their original resolution, but does the fact that we spend most of our time looking at photographs on the web mean we have changed the way we see a photograph? I'm not sure I know the answer, but I do know that I very rarely post anything that doesn't work at this size.

Anyway, if you're interested, I posted another version of this image here:

.../archives/a_question_of_scale/index.html

As you can see, there's a lot more detail in the original image, and while you might not agree that "it makes the image", it does make for more interesting viewing.

I was going to write more this evening but both Tabby (11 months) and Finley (three in August) are sleeping really badly this evening – both are nodding off for around ten minutes then waking up again. Anyway, the upshot is that I've been trying to write this entry for almost two hours, and it's very slow progress.

So, the short version is that this is another shot of Central Pier, facing north; i.e. I'm further down the beach than yesterday.

If you flick through the other shots I've taken of Blackpool's Central Pier you will see that this is a vantage point I've used quite often, and its one that I'll probably use again.

My apologies for not posting anything over the last couple of days but I've been finishing off the first part of a two part tutorial on HDR images. Anyway, I'm pleased to say that it's now finished, and if you're interested you can read more about it on either our main tutorials page or here:

../tutorials/online/hdr1_info.php

As for this one: don't be fooled by your first impression – it's not quite what it seems.

If I had any shots in reserve I might not have bothered posting this one as I'm not entirely happy about the composition, especially the way in which one of the kiosks on the pier is obscured by the telegraph pole in the foreground, but I really couldn't find a position that worked better. That said, I'm sure there probably was one.

Anyway, I probably wouldn't have bothered with the shot but I'm trying to document the ongoing restructuring of our seafront – albeit rather intermittently – and as I don't imagine that these poles will be there for all that long I didn't want to miss the opportunity.

This is an HDR, comprised of six bracketed exposures, of the underside of Central Pier in Blackpool. The original images were taken quite a while ago, but it's only recently that I've been able to produce a decent HDR. The problem, in this instance, was that they were shot at 17mm with my 17-40 f/4L and the CA (chromatic aberration) at the edges of the images made creating a convincing HDR difficult. Anyway, I finally realised that all I needed to do was create some CA-corrected 16bit TIFFs and use them to construct the HDR image rather than the original RAW files. So, I processed the originals in ACR and loaded the subsequent TIFFs into Photomatix Pro, from which I created this image.

If you like this one you might also want to take a look at the following:

Under the North Pier #1
Under the North Pier #2
Under the North Pier #3
Under Fleetwood Pier

I think that the first is probably still my favourite.

On a totally unrelated matter: my apologies if you have been trying to access the tutorial pages today, but we ran into a technical problem at around 10.00 am this morning. For some reason, that we haven't quite managed to get to the bottom of yet, the entire folder vanished from the server. Anyway, we managed to get everything replaced by late afternoon (though had to recreate a few of the static pages and re-upload the masking tutorial), so everything should now be back to normal. That said, if you are a subscriber and run into any problems, please let me know.

This is an HDR of the underside of Fleetwood pier, created using three bracketed exposures. Well, to be accurate, it's mostly an HDR, but I used the sky from the underexposed original image as I felt that the sky in the HDR image was too contrasty and noisy.

This is probably my favourite of the shots I've posted in recent weeks.

I had planned to shoot some more shots of the stranded ferry Riverdance today, but I was out of town for most of the afternoon and by the time I got back the weather was terrible, so I've posted another shot of Fleetwood pier, taken at the same time as this one.

The weather report is good for tomorrow, and low tide is at around 4pm, so I'll try and get some shots from the north of the ferry in the afternoon sun: providing the coast guard aren't being too zealous about excluding people from the beach.

My apologies for not posting anything last night but I was busy finishing off our latest tutorial, Digital workflow: part one.

As for this shot: it was taken on the same trip as the previous three that I've put up, and while it isn't quite as striking, or as unusual, I'm pleased with how it turned out. And in case you're wondering, the toning was done in LAB Color mode.

This is the second of the long exposures I mentioned yesterday, and of the three (maybe four) that I'm going to put up I think this is probably my favourite.

Here's another one from the archives – taken just over three years ago – and I have no idea why I didn't post this one at the time.

This is a shot of Blackpool's Central Pier, taken from roughly half way towards the North Pier. It's a scene I've photographed many times before, but I don't imagine that I'll tire of it any time soon.

Oh, and this is an HDR, constructed from three bracketed exposures.

Some of you already know this – as you mentioned it in the comments on yesterday's entry – but for those of you who don't …

I'm really pleased to announce that chromasia was voted the Best European Photoblog and was a finalist in the Photoblog of the Year and Most Popular Photoblog categories in the 2007 Photoblog Awards. Thanks to all of you who voted for me in 2007, congratulations to all the other winners, and if you would like to vote for me again in 2008 (which I would very much appreciate), you can do so here:

    http://vote.photoblogawards.com/photoblog.php?title=chromasia

As for this shot: Rhowan and Harmony found some balloons at the side or the road as we walked to the beach. They spent the rest of the trip waving them around, chasing them, and racing them across the tidal pools on the beach.

And it's been a while since I posted an original, so if you're interested you can take a look at the rather flat original here:

.../iblog/archives/nobody_can_be_uncheered.php

Watching children grow up is a strange business. One minute they’re a babe-in-arms and the next, despite their continued dependence, they’re striding off confidently into the world, seemingly without hesitation.

This one was taken about about 15 yards to the right and a minute before yesterday's. Again, it's an HDR constructed with Photomatix Pro using three bracketed exposures.

Let me know what you think of it.

Oh, and if you're interested we have 150 signed and numbered calendars for sale. Full details are available on our store page:

    http://www.chromasia.com/store.php

Update: I probably won't be posting any new material until Saturday or Sunday as I've run out of time to shoot anything new or raid the archives. I'm photographing a friends wedding on Friday though, so may get something up on Saturday, but if not I'll try and get something posted over the weekend.