Before I visited the desert near Dubai for the first time I had a rather romanticised idea about what I might find: rolling dunes, crystal clear skies, and maybe a camel or two. More than anything though, I expected a clean and pristine environment. That wasn't the case: there were motorcycle and dune buggy tracks all over the place - it looked like a carpark after a busy day, albeit a very sandy one. But every disappointment is its own opportunity and since that trip I've made a point of photographing the tracks in the sand whenever I see them. This particular set was shot in November 2013 during my Landscape Photography workshop for Gulf Photo Plus.

I was trawling through some of my processed images today and came across this one, shot in Dubai in 2014. I have no idea why I didn't post it at the time, so thought I'd share it now.

As always, let me know what you think.

I've posted quite a few shots from this location, shot at much the same time of day, but I thought this one was worth sharing too.

It's also one of the locations we'll be shooting from during my Shoot the City workshop at next years GPP event (further details here).

And finally, if you haven't seen it on Facebook or you don't subscribe to our newsletter, you may have missed our Black Friday deal on The Art of Black and White Photography, i.e. you can sign up for $19 rather than the usual price of $99. If you're interested, take a look at the link below:

.../art-of-black-and-white-photography/?couponCode=BlackFriday2015

Taken last November, on the ferry from Masirah island to mainland Oman.

Here's another triptych: a shot of an old Atlas bicycle that I came across in Dubai last November.

I recently got hold of the latest version of Nik's Analog Efex Pro 2 and was looking through the various effects. One that I came across, that inspired this image, is the Multi-Lens camera. This allows you to split an image (horizontally or vertically) creating a range of different effects. I couldn't quite get the filter to line everything up, so ended up creating the effect myself, but do like how it's turned out. I also have another four images that I'll post over the next few days that take a similar approach.

As always, let me know what you think.

A fairly recent shot, taken on a cold and windy day on Fleetwood beach.

I thought I'd edited all the shots from my trip to Oman last November but came across this one: another shot of my good friend Issa.

I'm not quite sure I can tell you quite what this one is about beyond the fact that it's a composite of two images: a silhouette of my good friend Issa, shot in the desert near Dubai, overlaid with a broken window near to our office in Blackpool. It doesn't have a great deal of meaning, but it was fun to create :)

Despite having several dozen images I could post, most of which I like, I've rather neglected the blog of late as there's been rather a lot going on (and there still is). That said, I'm going to make a concerted effort over the next week or so to post the backlog, starting with this one. It was taken in the Nason Moretti glass factory and is a shot of one of the glass blowers taking a quick break before his next vase arrived.

Another shot from our Venice Carnival Photo Tour back in February of this year.

Another of the very interesting characters we met during our recent Venice Carnival Photo Tour. If you're interested, here's the schedule and details for 2015:

http://www.chromasia.com/training/events/venice_2_15.php

Taken during our recent Venice Carnival Photo Tour in a small shop on the Island of Burano.

I still have quite a few more XT-1 shots to post, along with a load from Dubai and Oman, but in the meanwhile I thought I'd post a few more from our Venice Carnival Photo Tour.

As always, let me know what you think.

This was taken on my two day Landscape Photography workshop to the east coast of the UAE, during the recent Gulf Photo Plus training event, and features Gerald Donovan's collection of components that could loosely be called a camera :)

There are days when I think that this kind of job would suit me: shot on the ferry between Masirah island and the mainland of Oman.

I'd be hard pressed to tell you why, but this is one of my favourite shots from our recent Venice Carnival Photo tour, taken during our trip to Burano - the 'colourful island'.

This was taken during our Venice Carnival Photo tour during our natural light workshop and is a shot of the undeniably easy to photograph Lorraine Langon who attended the workshop with her husband.

A great reminder that it's better to shoot kids before they get bored, not after: shot during my recent trip to Oman with Issa.

Something a bit different today: shot on the ferry between Masirah Island and mainland Oman.