I got an email earlier today from a photographer who had stumbled across my beachcombing gallery. He said that he was pleased to have found it because he now felt like less of a nut photographing stuff that got washed up on his own beach :-)

And my reason for mentioning that is because I was working on this shot when his email arrived. It's clearly not a beachcombing shot, but it is a photograph of something damaged, and possibly abandoned. What I like about objects like these is that each of them has a story – normally one of damage or neglect – a trajectory that leads up to the point at which the shutter is pressed.

I finally managed to liven up a bit today, and while most of the shots I took were a bit of a disappointment, I was pleased with how this turned out. As with most of my recent HDR work this one was also processed with Photomatix Pro, from a seven shot sequence bracketed at 1 EV intervals (as described in this tutorial).

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

This is probably the last shot I'll be posting from my recent trip to Barcelona, and while I know that this style of HDR image isn't to everyone's taste, there was something about the composition of this one that made me think it was worth posting. I did try to produce a straight shot, but if you take a look at the original you'll see that there wasn't a great deal I could do with it:

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This was taken in Las Ramblas (Barcelona), a 1.2km promenade running through the centre of the city. As for the subject matter: I'm not quite sure why he was offering free hugs, and judging by the expression of the guy on the right, neither were most of the people walking past, but he did seem like a genuinely pleasant guy.

As I mentioned near the start of this month, things have been extremely hectic and I've hardly had a minute to myself, let alone any time to take photographs. I've been working on a couple of external projects, that I'll tell you about at some point, and Libby has been busy as a finalist in the Outstanding Woman in Business Award category in the ABF Tiger Awards, 2008 and attending other events.

And next week isn't going to be much different, not least because I need to finish my latest Digital Workflow tutorial by Friday (or thereabouts). After that though, things should be a bit quieter and I'm hoping to spend a lot of time in July and August just taking photographs.

As for this one: it was taken this afternoon down at our local park with my new Canon G9, and combines a few of my recent passions - it's an HDR shot, processed using Photomatix Pro and a three shot bracketed sequence, and it's also processed in LAB Color mode, the topic of my latest tutorial. In this instance I used LAB to change the colour of the foreground from a fairly lurid shade of green to the more neutral blue/grey you can see here.

On a related matter: I don't know how many of you know about the annual European Photobloggers meetup, but this year's event is in Barcelona. I'm hoping to go along as I attended the first meetup in London in 2005 and thoroughly enjoyed it. I missed the last two though – Amsterdam in 2006 and Berlin in 2007 – so thought I better make more of an effort this year :-)

If you're interested, there are some further details here:

http://europephotobloggers.org/2008meetup

Once again, my apologies for not posting much, but things have been hectic - some of which has been great, some not. On the 'not' side, I currently have Rhowan sat next to me, who isn't at all well, so I won't write more now. I'll catch up with you all tomorrow.

As for this one: it's a single shot HDR of some torn posters I spotted in a shop window on my way to town this afternoon.

I don't imagine this one will be to everyone's taste, but there's something about it that I like. It may be the shallow depth of field (this was shot at f/1.4), or maybe that it's just a lot simpler than the stuff I've been posting recently – I'm not sure. Anyway, feel free to let me know your thoughts.

I do have another eight shots that I'll be putting up from my trip to Dubai, but by the time this one gets posted I'll be nearly home – sitting on a train, somewhere between Manchester airport and Blackpool. I'll probably be complaining about how cold it is, despite having spent the last two weeks moaning about how hot it's been in Dubai, but I'll definitely be looking forward to getting back to Libby and the kids.

As for this one: it's another HDR of the DIFC, and the twin towers in the background are the Emirates Tower hotel - the 3rd most luxurious in the world (according to their website).

This is the third in this small series, and like the previous two it's an HDR constructed from seven RAW files, merged using Photomatix Pro.

Unlike the previous two though, this one's a bit more abstract, not least because it's mostly a reflection in an opposite building. I nearly posted this in black and white, to match the other two in the series, but decided I preferred the colour version of this one, not least because the detail in the building stands out a bit more.

Tomorrow's image, by way of contrast, is a portrait, after which I'll post two more HDR shots of the gate, both of which also include the Emirates Towers hotel in the background.

Like yesterday's this is a shot of the underside of the DIFC, and also like yesterday's it's an HDR, constructed from a seven shot sequence using Photomatix Pro.

Unlike yesterday's though, it's considerably more angular as it was shot at 16mm with my 16-35mm rather than the 15mm fisheye. When I first processed both these images I preferred yesterday's, but now I'm not so sure. I like both of them – there's something about the curvature of the reflection that I really like – but think that maybe this one has the edge.

As always, I'd be interested to hear what you make at it, and which you prefer.

Tomorrow's image, by way of comparison, is a street scene taken in Al Seef, after which I'll post a somewhat less stark shot of the DIFC.

As many of you who follow chromasia know, I don't often post architectural shots, not least because there aren't any especially striking buildings in Blackpool other than the tower and the piers, neither of which are typical buildings.

While I've been over in Dubai though I've had permission to photograph the DIFC, so have made the most of the opportunity and have quite a few shots to put up. Most are HDRs (as I shot from underneath the structure) and all of them were processed with Photomatix Pro.

I'll put another one up tomorrow, but then will post some different material after that.

Oh, and as this is an HDR I haven't put the EXIF data up, but the sequence was shot with a 15mm rectilinear fisheye at f/8.0. The one I'll be posting tomorrow was shot from a similar position, but was taken with my 16-35mm, so looks quite different.

Finally: Jennifer pointed out that I forgot to mention what had caused the blur on the shot I put up the other day – sorry about that. It was taken through a waterfall.

As I mentioned, this one was shot from a lot closer to the ground than yesterday's :-)

It was taken in Al Seef, one of the less opulent areas of Dubai, and is a seven shot HDR processed with Photomatix Pro. What I really like about this technique is that it allows you to produce images that you just couldn't take with a single shot. In this instance there's a full range of tones across the tyre of the cart (what would be the shadow area of the metered exposure), but lots of detail in the wall too (midtones and highlights).

As always, let me know what you think.

On a related matter: David Hobby (of strobist fame) is also at the GPP event this year, and we went up to the hotel restaurant to shoot the sunset yesterday evening. If you're interested, there's a shot of me hard at work here ;-)

And if you're not familiar with his site, go check it out, as it's probably the best 'how to do lighting without spending a fortune' website on the internet.

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:

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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:

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

When I first started adding images to a blog, back in the summer of 2003, I had no idea about photoblogs, but I soon started to come across them. One of the first I found, and still visit, is Daily Dose of Imagery, Sam Javanrouh's visual diary of Toronto (and occasional trips elsewhere). As best I can tell he's posted an image a day since he started posting on 4th July in 2003 – which is better than I've managed – and I now feel as though I know Toronto, at least partially, despite never having visited.

Anyway, my reason for mentioning Sam is that I often think I should do more to chronicle my own town – Blackpool is a wonderfully diverse environment – and I often choose to photograph the sea, odds things washed up on the beach, and any number of other topics other than the town itself.

So, with a nod to Sam, here's today's offering – the glitzy frontage of the Happy Dayz Arcade in Blackpool, against the backdrop of the seemingly derelict building it inhabits.

This is the second of the HDR shots I mentioned yesterday and, as I also mentioned, I much prefer this one to yesterday's. It's a shot of the same abandoned shop as yesterday – the 'surgical steel navel bars' sign in the window appears in both – but I've gone for a very different feel with this one: an almost painterly look rather than the dark and dismal look of yesterday's.

One of the things I like most about HDR imagery is that it gives you the opportunity to explore a whole range of ways of representing what is essentially the same scene. For example, I could have easily produced a straight shot of this shop, but by using this technique instead I was able to produce an image with much the same degree of contrast overall, but localised to different areas of the image.

Anyway, enough waffle – tell me what you think.

Oh, and I recommend you try this one with the black theme.

As I mentioned last week, my next tutorial is on HDR (High Dynamic Range) images. As such I've spent quite a lot of my photographic time over the last week or so thinking about the various ways in which this technique can be used (or misused).

Anyway, I'm reasonably pleased with this one, but much prefer the one I'll be putting up tomorrow – both as a photograph in its own right and as an example of this technique.

As usual, I haven't included the EXIF data, as this was constructed from three bracketed exposures, but I can tell you that they were all shot at 24mm and f/5.6.

As always, let me know what you think.

As I mentioned yesterday, in preparation for our forthcoming HDR tutorial I'll probably be posting a lot of HDR shots over the next couple of weeks.

Previously, when I've posted an HDR, I haven't posted the original, not least because i) there's normally more than one original, and ii) the final result also depends on the tone mapped image as much as it does the original shots. In this instance though, I thought I'd post all of them, so if you take a look at the linked page below you will see:

• the three original exposures (bracketed by 1.7EV).
• the tone mapped image (created with Photomatix Pro).
• the final image (included for comparison).

.../archives/unseated.php

As you will see, in addition to a big increase in contrast, there were two major changes made to this one: it was flipped horizontally (simply because I thought it looked better that way round); and the colour of the seat was changed (to better match the palette of the rest of the image).

I probably won't be posting the originals and tone mapped images for all the HDRs I'll be putting up, but I thought it might be useful to include them this time, especially if you're not all that familiar with HDRs.

On a totally unrelated matter: chromasia was featured on Click, the BBCs "flagship technology progamme", on Saturday morning. I didn't see the TV programme, but I did watch the online version, available via this link:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/7294455.stm

This is a shot of the northern approach to Preston railway station, shot from a train and, as I'm sure you can tell, it owes as much to Photoshop as it does the original photograph. If you're interested, the image was altered by the addition of a V-shaped Curve; i.e. the highlights are reproduced normally, the mid-tones are converted to shadows and the shadows have become highlights. It's an odd effect, not entirely dissimilar to solarisation, and I'm pleased with how it turned out.

As always, and especially since this is a bit of a departure from the stuff I normally post, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

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.

I went out for a while this afternoon, but the weather was terrible and I hardly got any shots that I like. In fact, I only got this one – the rest are just grey cold shots of a grey cold landscape.

This one though, I like and, in case you're wondering, it is a straight photograph (with a bit of tweaking here and there).

First of all, my apologies if you had trouble accessing chromasia at any point during the last 24 hours, particularly between 7pm and 9pm GMT yesterday evening, but the HDR shot of the Riverdance I put up the other day found its way onto the front page of digg (the permalink is here). As a result we had 17k unique visitors yesterday and have had over 28k today. The server's coping OK now, but it did seem to slow down for a while yesterday evening.

As for this shot: this is Libby's favourite from the five shots I mentioned yesterday. And I guess that's about all I have to say about this one, other than that it seems wrong, somehow, that a photograph of such a significant building should now be hanging in the window of a second-hand shop in a seaside town in the North West of England.

Taking a good photograph is a strange business. Sometimes I can spend hours out on my own, concentrating on getting the best shots possible – and I'll come home with a series of disappointing images that never see the light of day. Yesterday, by comparison, I only went out for a short time, had to take most shots one-handed as I had Finley hanging from the other, and came back with five that I like (including yesterday's portrait of Fin). Of the remaining four, I like this one because it's a bit different, tomorrow's is Libby's favourite, the one after that is possibly the weakest of the four, and I'll post my favourite last (i.e. on Thursday).

As for this one, as you can see, the original is quite flat:

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Normally I try to avoid clipping the highlight or shadow details in an image, but in this instance I think the end result is a lot more interesting. As always, let me know what you think.

I'm not too sure that this visual joke will work for everyone, but it made me smile :-)

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

.../archives/beware_of_the_dog.php

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 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.

At some point in the not too distant past Fleetwood pier was probably a thriving tourist destination. These days it's looking a little the worse for wear, as this shot and tomorrow's will testify.

As I look back through the stuff I've posted over the last few months I'm generally happy with it, but it is all getting a bit safe: landscapes, portraits of the kids, things I've found on the beach, and so on. And I guess that isn't a problem, but I do think it's probably past the time when I should try something a bit different.

This one, for example, is probably something I wouldn't have normally bothered with but I thought I'd see what I could make of it. My initial idea was to produce a straightforward HDR from three hand-held originals, but the originals weren't aligned, and the automatic alignment (within Photomatix) failed. I was about to give up on it but thought I'd see what I could do with it.

If you take a look at the original (linked below), you'll see that the colours are quite different in this version. This was achieved in Lab Color mode (the subject of my next tutorial) by altering the ‘a’ and ‘b’ curves. Anyway, as this is a bit different from the stuff I've been posting recently I would be interested to hear what you think of it.

And if you're interested, one of the original three images (top) and the tone-mapped HDR (below) can be seen here:

.../iblog/archives/get_the_message.php

And finally, this is one that's much better with the black theme.

This is the second of the two shots I mentioned yesterday, taken in an out-of-the-way area of town. As a lot of the stuff I've been posting recently is processed a bit more subtly than this I'd be interested to hear what you think of this one.

Update: I forgot to mention that this is an HDR image, constructed from a single RAW file using Photomatix Pro.

As you can see, I didn't have time to shoot anything with my new 15mm fisheye. I had a meeting this afternoon and was going to go out afterwards. By the time the meeting finished though, I didn't really have time. So, a good meeting, but no photographs. All being well I should have some time tomorrow.

In the meanwhile, here's another shot that I took while out with Jem last week.