My apologies for the lack of both updates and new material, but I've been rather preoccupied over the last few weeks. As many of you know, Libby is back in the UK to give birth to our latest daughter, while I'm still out in Bulgaria with the kids. And while it would be an exaggeration to say that I've been worried to the point of not being able to lift a camera, I have been busy running the house and preoccupied with: wondering when our daughter will arrive; how Libby's getting on on her own; and so on.

Anyway, the waiting is about to come to and end as Libby is going into hospital tomorrow (Sunday 8th) for an induction. Our daughter isn't due until the 11th, but there have been a variety of complications, the net result of which is that both Libby and the docs have decided to hurry things on a bit. We had planned on a home birth – which would have been great as we could have kept in touch using Skype – but I guess I'll have to make do with text message updates and the odd phone call here and there.

So, think of me tomorrow, as I'm pacing around Bulgaria, while 2000 miles away Libby will be giving birth to our daughter. Fingers crossed it all goes smoothly.

Oh, and if you're interested in seeing how things are going, I'll be updating my Facebook profile throughout the day.

http://www.facebook.com/chromasia

As for this shot: it's another grabbed street capture, taken in Venice a few weeks ago.

Update: our daughter was born at 16.45pm GMT on the 9th of November. It's only been a few minutes since I heard, and I don't know all the details yet, but both Libby and baby are fine :)

This is probably the last of the shots I'll be putting up from the wedding I shot in Venice a few weeks ago, and while it's not my favourite of the various ones I've posted, I am pleased with how it turned out as it was shot in less than favourable circumstances, i.e. back-lit, low light, and so on.

On a different matter: my apologies for not posting much recently, but as many of you know, I'm currently home-alone with the kids, while Libby is back in the UK waiting for our latest daughter to make an appearance. She's not due until the 11th of November, and they won't be able to fly back to Bulgaria for two weeks after that, so my updates might be rather infrequent between now and then.

I will be heading out to Dubai again though - November 19-22 - as I'm one of the instructors at the GPP Fotoweek event, alongside Bobbi Lane, Robin Nichols, David Tejada, and Chris Hurtt. It should be a great event, and if you're interested in attending, there's a full list of all the workshops here:

http://www.gulfphotoplus.com/fotoweekend-workshops.php

There's not much I can tell you about this one other than a) it was snapped as Tom and I followed the bride and groom around Venice, and b) I thought the guy had an interesting face and world-class eyebrows :-)

When I posted venezia #3 I mentioned that I trusted to luck with the exposure - mostly because I didn't have time to do anything else. With this shot though I decided to deliberately go for a more high-key image, by overexposing by +1 EV, and while I think I prefer the slightly moodier look of venezia #3, I also like this one too. Technically, and aesthetically, I think it's a bit weaker, but symbolically I think it's more interesting, i.e. they're walking towards a bright or unknown future.

I'd be interested to hear how you think the two compare, and which you prefer.

On a related matter, the second shot I posted in this series – venezia #2 – has been nominated for the Photo of the Year category of the 2009 Photoblog Awards. If you would like to vote for that image you can do so here:

http://vote.photoblogawards.com/photoblog.php?name=venezia-2

My own submission for that category was one of my favourite HDR shots from this year – BSC - Workington. If you'd like to vote for that one, the relevant page is here:

http://vote.photoblogawards.com/photoblog.php?name=bsc---workington

As I was waiting for the guests to arrive at Venice town hall for the wedding I shot a couple of weekends ago I noticed some masks in a shop window. I took a variety of shots, from different angles, but wasn't convinced that any of them would work out as there was quite a bit of glare from the window, and I couldn't really get an angle I was happy with.

That said, I did try processing three of them, all of which are included on the following page:

.../archives/venezia_6.php

Unfortunately though, despite the fact that there are some interesting elements in each of the three shots, none of them ended up being worth posting, and I was about to ditch all three when I realised that they might work if I combined them.

In terms of the post-production: first, I combined the three images by stacking them and using Soft Light blend mode and masks to create an image composed of all three originals. I then duplicated and flipped the image, then used another mask to blend this newly created layer with the three images below it. I then warped and altered the colour balance of the left side of the image and increased the overall saturation using the Channel Mixer. I also added some local contrast using the Topaz Adjust plugin.

I don't have a tutorial that covers this sort of montaging technique, at least not specifically, but many of the techniques I used to blend the original images are covered in my Working with textures: part one tutorial.

The end result is an image, in my opinion at least, that's faithful to the spirit of the original scene, but not the reality. As always, let me know what you think.

Oh, and this one works much better with the black theme.

As those of you who have been visiting chromasia for some time will know it's rare that I post any street photography (other than individual portraits). There are two reasons for this. First: I can’t 'see' street shots in the same way that I see other subjects. For example, I can evaluate a landscape, or a washed up bit of rubbish on the beach, or a portrait, and have a good idea as to whether the shot will work. With street photography though, it all feels much more random, probably because there's often a lot more going on. As such I often find myself taking this type of shot, but rarely end up liking the results.

The second, related reason, is that once I've taken this type of shot I find it very hard to judge which ones work, and which ones don't. For example, there are aspects of this one that I like - particularly the interaction between the parents and the child - but I don't have any real sense of the merit of the image as a whole (or its lack of merit).

Anyway, given that my reaction to this one was reasonably favourable I thought I'd post it and see what you think.

While I think I prefer the previous two shots I posted of the bride and groom from the wedding I shot in Venice recently, I like this one too. It was taken just before we started our walk around Venice,and was grabbed as the bride and groom were saying a temporary goodbye to their guests, and while I would have preferred a less cluttered shot (table legs in the foreground, people in the background), it was either grab the shot or miss the moment. I'm glad I chose the former.

I do have three, possibly four more wedding shots that I'll post, but I thought I'd put this one up first. It's not quite a beachcoming shot, but it's of the same genre: a discarded item, easily overlooked.

If you're interested, the original is here:

.../archives/closer_to_home.php

The post-processing for this one was relatively straightforward. I cropped the image, added a minor amount of local contrast using Topaz Detail, then used a number of Curves to adjust both the tonal range and contrast (as described in my Tonal Range and the Curves tool tutorial), and the colour balance (as described in my Toning Colour Images tutorial). The net result, in my opinion at least, is that the final image is considerably more striking than the rather dull, flat original.

On a totally different matter: the kids and I are currently fending for ourselves out here in Bulgaria as Libby is back in the UK for the next six weeks (or thereabouts). As some of you already know, she's expecting our latest child on November 11th, so has headed back to the UK to give birth there. We did look into the possibility of the baby being born in BG but, for a whole variety of reasons, decided that the UK was probably a safer option for both Libby and the baby.

In the meanwhile, because three of our younger kids are now in nursery or school, the rest of us have stayed here. I suspect it's going to be a rather long six weeks, but at least we'll be able to keep in touch via Skype, Facebook, Twitter and so on. I'll keep you all updated and will post a shot of the baby as soon as the two of them get back :-)

Of all the shots I took of the bride and groom during our walk through Venice, I think that this is one of my favourites – aesthetically, because it captures a moment that I think was definitely worth recording, and technically, because it was shot in circumstances that I would normally avoid, i.e. the dynamic range of the original scene was quite high. As such I was going to lose either some shadow detail, or highlight detail, or both. In this case, as you can see from the original image (linked below), I lost the shadow detail:

.../archives/venezia_3.php

At this point I'd love to be able to say that this was intentional, i.e. that I deliberately exposed the shot in this way, but I was rushing to catch up with the bride and groom at this point so snapped a few frames as they walked down the alley. Fortunately, it worked out.

In terms of the post-production: this one was relatively straightforward, i.e. I cropped the image, cloned out a few distracting elements, converted the image to black and white using the channel mixer (as described in this tutorial), added a fairly strong Curve that clipped the highlights (resulting in the loss of detail in the stonework in front of the bride and groom), and then toned the image using a second Curve (as described here).

As I mentioned when I posted my previous entry I shot a wedding in Venice at the weekend with Tom Wicky. Tom shot the bride getting ready in the morning then we both shot the ceremony (at Venice Town Hall). Once the ceremony had finished Tom and I took a 45 minute walk through Venice with the bride and groom: Tom shot the 'formal' portraits while I concentrated on recording the less formal aspects of our stroll. I haven't had a chance to work through all of them yet, but did like this one.

I was away this weekend, shooting a wedding in Venice with Tom Wicky. It's a city I haven't visited before, and while I didn't have a great deal of time to explore it during this trip, it's definitely somewhere I'd like to visit again. I'll post a few shots from the wedding over the next few days, but in the meanwhile here's a diptych I shot in Venice airport.

In case you're wondering what you're looking at: these are semi-transparent overlays on the outside windows. I did think about posting just one of them, but didn't think either of them worked especially well on their own. Both were shot with my Ricoh GRD III.

My apologies for the lack of updates but I spent most of last week week writing my latest tutorial – Portraits: part two – on the topic of how to postproduce high-key and low-key portraits. If you're interested, there's some further information here:

http://www.chromasia.com/tutorials/online/p2_info.php

In terms of this image: it's a shot of a electricity/transformer box and was taken on a walk up through the old part of Veliko Tarnovo. If my Bulgarian language skills had improved enough I'd be able to tell you what it says, but all I've been able to work out is that the first bit of the yellow danger signs says 'don't touch' and the poster is advertising something that took place on the 22nd of August (I think).

If you're interested, the original, taken with my Ricoh GRD III is here:

.../archives/dont_touch.php

When I was over in Barcelona last September, at the European Photobloggers meetup, I shot a sequence of 19 images from a high point in Park Guell. Each of the 19 images (shot at 57mm at f/8) were used to construct this image, and the final panorama covers a view of around 320°.

From a technical point of view it was relatively straightforward: the 19 images were shot using a Really Right Stuff BH-55 PCL-1 panning clamp (overlapped by around 30-40%), and then the panorama constructed with PTGui. At full resolution then the final image is 43,195px by 3516px: almost 125 megapixels.

The reason I haven't posted it before is because the small version looks rubbish, even at 1030px wide. With that in mind though I've posted a much bigger version here:

.../archives/the_barcelona_skyline.php

This is 7716px by 533px, and weighs in at 1.8MB, so may take a bit of time to load :)

If you were following chromasia last September you will be able to identify some of the landmarks I shot during my trip. From left to right these are: the power station; the exterior of the Sagrada Familia (an interior HDR is here); the communications tower near the Olympic stadium; and the Torre de Collserola communications tower and the Temple de Sagrat Cor.

So, if you've ever wondered what down-town Barcelona looks like from the top of a hill, now you know :)

First of all, many thanks for all the great comments on my last three shots - the 'after the rain' series featuring Rhowan and Harmony - they're very much appreciated :)

As for this one ...

One of the things I like about shooting HDR images is that you can shoot in even the harshest sunlight, when a single shot would be a complete waste of time. For example, if you take a look at the metered exposure for this scene you will see that it contains a range of clipped highlight and shadow detail; i.e. the dynamic range of the original scene was too high for a single shot.

.../archives/ganchovets_station_2.php

In this instance, as are most of my HDR images, this one was constructed with Photomatix Pro, from a seven shot sequence (as described in this tutorial), and as with my previous shot of one of the Ganchovets station buildings, I was aiming to produce a reasonably moderate image. In this case, it is fairly obvious that this is an HDR image, but I do think that it retains some sense of photorealism.

As always, let me know what you think.

Update: for a slightly different interpretation, taken one month earlier, take a look at this shot: posted by Craig a short while ago.

As promised, here's the first shot of our local environment over here in Bulgaria. It's one of the station buildings, just down the road from our house, and despite the rather dilapidated appearance it is inhabited.

On a related note: taking this shot reminded me that it's been too long since I pointed my camera at something other than the kids; i.e. I really struggled to think of a way to photograph this building from this angle without replicating this shot: taken by Craig on his recent trip over here. As you can see though (if you've clicked the link), despite spending some time pursuing alternative angles, I ended up taking exactly the same shot. Despite the blatant compositional plagiarism though, I am pleased with how this one turned out.

And if you're interested, it's an HDR image constructed with Photomatix Pro from a seven shot sequence. In this instance, the settings were fairly moderate; i.e. I wanted to create a vaguely photorealistic final image rather than something more over-the-top.

As always, let me know what you think.

Update: following mikelangelo's comment (below) regarding the haloing around the building I decided to do a bit more work on this one. The original (slightly haloed) version is here:

.../archives/ganchovets_station_1.php

This is my last shot from my recent trip to the 2009 Gulf Photo Plus training event, and like the previous seven shots in this small series it was shot down in the Souk. Unlike the others in this series though, this one is a pseudo-HDR image, not because I especially wanted to produce an HDR-like image, but because the original a) lacked detail, and b) was slightly over-exposed. If you're interested you can take a look at the original here:

.../archives/souk_portrait_8.php

And you can find out more about creating pseudo-HDR images from a single RAW file here:

.../tutorials/online/hdr3_info.php

In this instance, running the image through Photomatix Pro enabled me to really bring out the detail in the original and, because I used reasonably conservative settings, the end result still looks fairly natural.

As always, let me know what you think.

This is my penultimate shot from my trip to Dubai, after which I'm definitely going to turn my attention to documenting Bulgaria. Strangely, I've now been here for almost a month but have found that I've been oddly reluctant to commit myself to photographing anything other than the kids. I'm not sure why I haven't been more proactive, but suspect that it has something to do with being overwhelmed by choice; i.e. there are millions of things I could be photographing – old buildings, the locals, aspects of our village and Bulgarian culture, and so on – I just haven't done so, at least not yet.

Anyway, in between starting my new book (which I'll say more about in a subsequent entry) and continuing to settle into our Bulgarian routine, I will make an effort to get out and about with my camera.

On a totally different matter: I'll be back in the UK in June as we're running a training course in Blackpool on the weekend of 13/14th June. The cost for the course is £225.00 and we still have a few places left. If you'd like to receive some more information please email Libby for the details (libby AT chromasia DOT com).

As promised, here's the second shot of the construction work on the Nasa Multiplex building in Dubai. As I mentioned, I think I prefer the previous one I posted – it was a bit more graphic than this one – but this shot does convey a better sense of scale, not least in terms of demonstrating that it's a long way down from the 82nd floor :)

As always, let me know what you think.

As I also mentioned, between now and the end of July 2009 we are offering a 15% discount on our tutorials. Further details here:

http://www.chromasia.com/tutorials/online/

This is one of two shots I took of the construction work on the Nasa Multiplex building in Dubai (I'll post the second one on Thursday), both of which feature the Burj Dubai dominating the skyline in the background. Of the two I think I prefer this one, but the next one does give a much better sense of scale.

As always, let me know what you think.

In other news ...

15% off our online tutorials
Between now and the end of July 2009 we are offering a 15% discount on the first year's payment of an annual subscription or our lifetime membership package. All you need to do to take advantage of either offer - and gain access to all our existing tutorials, members' forum, and our current members' offers - is enter the coupon code below in the box at the bottom of the sign up screen. Further details here:

http://www.chromasia.com/tutorials/online/

Our next training weekend
I'll be back in the UK in June as we're running a training course in Blackpool on the weekend of 13/14th June. The cost for the course is £225.00 and we still have a few places left. If you'd like to receive some more information please email Libby for the details (libby AT chromasia DOT com).

This is a shot of one of the students who took part in my landscape course at the recent GPP Training event.

We had a great storm last night, here in Bulgaria - the lightning flashed and the thunder rolled - but I was so engrossed in watching it that I didn't manage to take any photographs. Unfortunately the storm was followed by a 16 hour power cut - apparently the transformer in our village was damaged - after which I discovered that our router was fried. So tomorrow I'll be buying a new router and either a surge protector or UPS as I believe that storms are quite common at this time of year.

As for this shot: it was taken at the new mosque in Abu Dhabi during my recent trip to Dubai.

I had hoped that this post would be a shot from Bulgaria, not another from Dubai, but since posting my last entry I've been somewhat under the weather (i.e. being ill, laying in bed, and generally feeling sorry for myself). The good news is that I'm now feeling a lot better so should be out and about shooting again fairly soon.

I've been in Bulgaria since Thursday, but haven't had an opportunity to go out shooting yet so am posting another shot from my recent trip to Dubai. This one is another shot of my good friend Bobbi Lane, taking in the Dubai Mall.

Tomorrow though, Craig and I are going to drive over the Shipka Pass, which should be fun. It's an hour both ways and I'm absolutely determined that I'm going to get a good shot :)

In case you're wondering this is a shot of a part of the DIFC – part reflection, part distortion through a window – and beyond that I don't have too much else to say about this one other than that I like the detail and the way in which the various elements of the original scene interact/overlap. As always though, let me know what you think.

On a different matter: I'm pleased to say that Craig and I are now in Bulgaria. I drove down to Welwyn Garden City on Monday, picked up Craig at around 1pm, then drove down to Dover. We then got the ferry to Calais and drove until 1am - through France, Belgium, Holland and a small part of Germany. On Tuesday we drove almost 1000 miles: through the rest of Germany, all of Austria and most of Hungary, which took us 15 hours. We spent the night in a small campsite at Mako, a few kilometres short of the Romanian border. On Wednesday we drove through Romania, which can best be described as hellish: not least because it took almost 17 hours to traverse the potholes and roadworks. We were also slightly hampered by the fact that the van broke down at one point. It has an electronic throttle: which failed; i.e. you could press the pedal, but nothing happened. It recovered after we stopped, but it did add a certain tension to the rest of the journey :)

We've been busy since we got here, so haven't had any time to shoot yet, but I'm hoping we'll get out over the weekend.

If you're reading this round about the time at which it was posted Craig and I will now be somewhere between Calais (France) and Bucharest (Romania). If we've made good time we'll be an hour or so into Romania, if not then we'll be heading towards Szeged – a town on the Hungarian side on the Hungary/Romania border, and will head down through Romania tomorrow. Apparently, Romania is not a country that's good to drive through in the dark as the roads can be quite bad at times; i.e. they have the sort of potholes that you really don't want to hit at speed ;)

As I mentioned on Monday, Libby will probably be tweeting our progress, so feel free to follow her on twitter. Her twitter name is @libby_chromasia.

As for this shot: it's another portrait shot down in the souk in Dubai, taken on the same trip as this one and this one.

Let me know what you think, and I'll get back to you later this week when I sort out my internet access in Bulgaria.

One of the biggest problems I faced when shooting in Dubai was the almost constant haze – caused by the sand from the desert, construction work, and so on – and for most of the shots I've posted I've done my best to eliminate it. In this instance though, it wasn't a problem; i.e. the soft diffuse background works well. And you may remember that I also posted another football shot a while ago. That one was taken 12 minutes before this one.

On a totally different matter: this one was auto-posted as I'm currently on route to pick up Craig, after which we're heading down to Dover to catch the ferry to Calais: the first leg of our drive to Bulgaria. I'm going to schedule another shot to go up on Wednesday, and one more on Friday, but I should be back online by then.

In the meanwhile, if you want to know how Craig and I are getting on, I'm sure that Libby will be tweeting some updates as we drive down through Europe. Her twitter name is @libby_chromasia.

While my shot of the Burj Dubai reminded me of Gotham city, this one reminds me of Tracy Island from the Thunderbirds. Mind you, I suspect that quite a few of you are a bit too young to remember the Thunderbirds, but it was one of my favourite programmes when I was a young lad.

Anyway, reminiscing aside: this is a shot of the Emirates Towers in Dubai, shot from the roof of the DIFC. In fact, if you take a look at the shot I posted the other day – Sheikh Zayed Road – you can see roughly where I was shooting from; i.e. the DIFC is the square/arched building immediately in front of the Emirates Towers.

As with that shot, this one was also constructed with FDRTools from a sequence of seven bracketed exposures. And if you're interested, there's a slightly larger version here:

.../iblog/archives/tracy_island.php

As always, let me know what you think.

On a related matter: my latest Creative workflow tutorial went live yesterday. It's based on my shot of the Burj Dubai and the fountain. If you're interested, there's some more info here:

.../tutorials/online/cw_info.php

And finally ...

I'm heading out to Bulgaria next week. I'm driving over, with my good mate Craig – www.id7.co.uk – and leave first thing on Monday morning. I'm picking Craig up just north of London, after which we're driving down to catch the 5.50pm Dover to Calais ferry. When we get to France we're going to drive for a few more hours and will probably get some way into Belgium, maybe Germany. The following day we're aiming to head down through Germany, Austria and Hungary, and on the last day we're planning on driving through Romania then drop down into Bulgaria from the north. From there it's another hour and a half to our village. All in all it's around 1900 miles, so I imagine that we'll be fairly tired by the time we get there, but the first job on Thursday morning will be sorting out internet access and getting back online.

This is another portrait shot down at the souk in Dubai, shot on the same trip as this one. In some ways, I think I prefer this one – it's certainly more striking – but I do have a soft spot for the old gentleman in my previous shot, not least because I've now photographed him two years in a row.

Anyway, I don't think there's too much else I can tell you about this one other than that it was converted to black and white using the channel mixer (as described in this tutorial) then contrast adjusted and toned with a Curve. I also added a bit more light to his eyes (as described here) using a masked Curve, but that was about all that was done to this one.

As always, let me know what you think.

I don't have too much to say about this one other than that it's one from about 100 shots I took while being a passenger in a variety of vehicles in Dubai. Of the 100, this is the only one worth posting, but I'm pleased with how it turned out.

As always, let me know what you think.

On a different matter: I'm pleased to say that we've announced the winners of our Creative Point of View competition for our tutorial subscribers. If you're interested, there's some more info and the winning shots here:

http://www.chromasia.com/news/

This one was taken from the same vantage point as this one; i.e. 82 floors up the part-finished Nasa Multiplex, and is a shot of buildings that flank either side of the Sheikh Zayed road, the main drag from the airport to the centre of the city. Unlike my shot of the Burj Dubai this one is an HDR: a seven shot sequence constructed with FDRTools.

On a totally different matter, and with apologies to those of you who already read the following when I posted it on twitter, I wanted to let you know about a couple of new services I've introduced on chromasia. If you take a look at most of the (larger) images on chromasia you will see a 'Buy Print' and 'Send as E-card' beneath them, both of which are provided by Fotomoto. I'm currently beta-testing both services and have been very impressed so far, especially with the 'Buy Print' option. In the past our method of providing prints was a bit cumbersome; i.e. people needed to email me, then send a manual payment through PayPal, after which I'd upload the image to the printing company we use, get it back, mail it out, and so on. Fotomoto, on the other hand, provide an automated service; i.e. you can order prints in a variety of sizes and all I need to do is upload the high-res' file when a particular image is ordered.

If you're interested, just click either of the links to see how they work or take a look at this New York Times article which summarises the aims of the company and what they hope to provide to the photographic communit. Personally, I'm really excited by this as it will allow us to provide high-quality prints, to a world-wide audience, in a much simpler way than previously.

And finally, if you are interested in ordering any of my images as a print, Fotomoto are offering free worldwide delivery for the next week or so, so now would be a great time to try out the service :)