Three portraits from yesterday's Blackpool Pride Festival in Blackpool, all of which were shot with the Fujifilm X-T1 and 90mm f/2 (my new favourite lens). As always, it was a great event, with lots of great characters.

I really should explain this one, but I thought it might be more interesting if I didn't.

Another early morning shot from our Venice Carnival Photo Tour.

When I first edited this image I produced something that looked very similar to the original, as I have another shot of this guy that tells a much better story so this one would have made a good comparison, but the more I looked at it the less I liked it: it was drab, the light was dull and flat, and the mood was wrong. It's just a guy, in a costume, against a fairly bland background.

The final version is an attempt to tell a more sympathetic story. That said, I'm out of my comfort zone with this one so would be interested to hear whether you think this works.

Another early morning shot from our recent Venice Carnival Photo Tour.

Many thanks to Saadia for suggesting I process this one, as despite appearances to the contrary this one turned out quite well.

Here's another shot from our 2016 Venice Carnival Photo Tour, taken early yesterday morning down at St. Mark's Square.

When I took this shot of Libby I was drawn by the contrasting colours and the way her clothes and boots matched the autumn landscape, but when I processed it it was the shape and form that held my attention - the colours became distracting.

This is definitely one of my favourite portraits in recent months: a shot of our good friend Dionne, shot with an IR converted X-E2 and the new 90mm f/2.

If you're a Fuji shooter you'll already know that all their lenses are good, but the 90mm is truly excellent, even wide open. I'd definitely recommend you try it out if you haven't done so.

This is a follow-up to the shot I posted yesterday, and while I like the abstract quality of that one I much prefer the almost surreal feel to this one.

One of the things I like most about photographing at the fish market in Dubai is also one of the things that makes it most difficult - the vast majority of people there want to be photographed. For example, every time I've been there in recent years I've run into the guy on the right, and every time I've photographed him with much the same serious expression. As best I can tell, he's a humorous guy, who laughs and smiles while talking to you, but he has a serious face for the camera :-)

On this occasion he complicated things by grabbing the guy on the left. They may know each other, but the impression I got at the time was that he was just standing there minding his own business - hence the rather puzzled expression.

So, not exactly a candid shot, nor much of an environmental portrait, but I like it nonetheless.

This was taken about four minutes after the shot I posted yesterday, and despite the fact it was shot in exactly the same way it's quite different. To explain: while I was shooting this images I intended them to be silhouettes (or thereabouts) and I was shooting while Issa was attempting a slightly more sophisticated shot. He had a Profoto B1 set up on the beach, with a zoom reflector, pointing at the fisherman as he repeatedly threw the net for us. His one a one-shot deal, I had the benefit of being able to shoot the entire sequence. We did this about three or four times before Issa was satisfied he'd got the shot. So he got three or four images, I got about 40. Most of mine were very similar to yesterday's - the same light, the fisherman close to being silhouetted - but this one was different as I caught Issa's light during the exposure.

What's odd is that I was using a 1/460th shutter speed but the X-T1 syncs at 1/180th so there should have been some cut off somewhere in the frame. Also, as Issa was using a very different exposure the fisherman should have been blown out at this aperture and ISO. All I can assume is that I caught the fall-off from the flash as the power ramped down. Anyway, whatever the explanation, it was definitely a serendipitous exposure :-)

This shot was taken on the same evening I photographed Issa, shot using a Nissin i40 flash with the Wescott Rapid Box 20" Beauty Dish.

A shot of my good friend Craig Marshall, taken during my Shoot the Street workshop at this year's GPP event.

A slightly silly shot today (of Isaa), but one that captures the flavour of our recent trip round Masirah Island in Oman.

Although I have to be up again in around four hours, for the first section of my Shoot the City workshop, I couldn't resist posting this one: a shot of my good friend Issa taken earlier this evening during a desert barbecue. And I would write more, but I really need to get some sleep :)

Something a bit different today, taken during our recent Venice Carnival Photo Tour, and processed using a variety of textures and borders.

On a related note, we've just started accepting bookings for 2016 and four of the twelve places are already booked. If you think you might be interested in joining us please take a look at the following link.

http://www.chromasia.com/training/events/venice_2_16.php

Here's the first of my images from our 2015 Venice Carnival Photo Tour, taken during our natural light workshop with Martina, one of our truly wonderful models. We've just about finished this year's tour - it's the last day tomorrow - but if you'd be interested in joining us next year you can find out more about the trip here:

http://www.chromasia.com/training/events/venice_2_16.php

After snivelling around the house for the last couple of weeks with man-flu I thought it was about time I posted something, and as I'm heading off to the Venice Carnival again next month I thought this was a good choice.

I thought I'd posted all the decent shots from my trip to Photokina (see my last and only entry from the trip) but came across these today: two portraits of Patrick Hall, one of the co-founders of Fstoppers, looking a bit the worse for wear, late one night in a pub somewhere in Cologne (I would be more specific about the location, but as I was equally wasted I really can't remember where we were) :-)