As I mentioned when I posted body art #1, Jason and I had gone down to St. Annes to photograph the pier at sunset. As you have already seen though, we ended up shooting a variety of portraits first, but as the evening wore on we got our sunsets too.

I'll be posting four of these over the coming weeks: shot between 6.34pm and 8.09pm on the 11th of this month. All of them feature the old pier at St. Annes, and all are shot from much the same angle, but the sky changed so quickly and dramatically that all four are worth posting.

In terms of the post-production, and as you can see from the original, I didn't do a great deal to this one other than to bump up the contrast (using a Curve) and the saturation (using a masked curve and the Hue/Saturation tool).

Jason's first shot of this scene is here:

http://www.escapism-online.com/blog-entry.php?pid=264

Before Jason and I photographed the two women I posted last week, we also spent some time photographing these guys. And on this occasion I definitely prefer Jason's version to mine:

http://www.escapism-online.com/blog-entry.php?pid=263

Last June, when I visited the wrecked boats in the Wyre Estuary with Theis Dahl, I posted a shot of this fire extinguisher. At the time, it was positioned on top of the cabin of this boat. At some point since then it's clearly been moved, but only as far as the prow of the same boat.

As you will see if you hover your mouse over the 'show the original image' link, the transformation to this one was quite extreme.

Jason has also posted a version of this shot here:

http://www.escapism-online.com/blog-entry.php?pid=261

This is the last of this small sequence of shots, and while it's not as striking as the other three, there are a lot of things about it that I like. I think my favourite component though is the hand-rolled cigarette, though I'm not sure I could tell you why.

And in case you're wondering: I was in two minds about cloning out the pier, insofar as it wasn't especially intrusive, but nor did it add anything to the shot. In the end I decided I preferred the simplicity of this version.

And finally: I'd like to take this opportunity to thank both these wonderful women for allowing us to spend time in their company. It was a real pleasure :-)

What can I tell you about this one? Not much I guess, other than to say that it turned out to be one of those shots that captured the whole feel of the afternoon's shoot, not just the specific moment of its capture. It was a fun shoot :-)

Out of interest, let me know if you prefer this one to the second in this series. Libby definitely prefers this one, but I like both. Let me know what you think.

I hadn't intended to post anything until tomorrow, but as it's Tabitha's third birthday today I thought I'd put this one up. It was taken this morning, after which we headed down to the Park Hotel in Dryanovo for a birthday lunch.

After we'd finished photographing the two women in my previous image, and thanked them, we wandered around the pier for another ten minutes or so, shooting various bits of the structure. As we passed them for the second or third time, the woman on the right said, "Don't you want to photograph my tattoo then?", to which I replied, "well, if you don't mind stripping off, we certainly wouldn't mind photographing you".

This image is the result, and is probably one of my all-time favourite shots of this type. The next one is also one of my recent favourites, but it's more of a light-hearted image than a serious portrait :) I'll post it on Thursday.

And if you're interested, here's Jason's version of this shot:

http://www.escapism-online.com/blog-entry.php?pid=254

One of the photographic topics that Jason wanted to cover during his recent one-to-one training was street photography. While I was confident that I could arrange the other shoots he requested – photographing 'found objects', a sunset, and so on – this was the one that I thought might not come off, because it's dependent on things that can't be arranged in advance: finding interesting people to photograph; who are also willing to be photographed; who don't end up looking horribly self-conscious in every shot.

Fortunately, we were lucky enough to meet these two women.

I should add that we hadn't gone out looking for people – we were down at St. Annes to photograph the pier and the sunset – but while we were photographing from the deck of the pier we spotted these two women sitting at its base. One of the things I'm often asked about street photography is how to approach people that you don't know. The simple answer is that you just need to ask, after all, the worst that can happen is that they'll say no. What's really important is that you approach them in a confident way. You don't need to actually be confident, but if you come across as shy, or anxious, or uncertain, then your chances of them agreeing to be photographed will be slim.

In this case Jason made the first approach, after which the conversation went something like this ...

Me: So, you mind if we come down and photograph you then?
Woman on the right: Oh, I don't know, I'm quite shy.
Me: Yeah, right, you look like the shy retiring type.
Woman on the right: [laughs] Do we need to do anything?
Me: Nope, you just need to carry on sitting there looking interesting.

We took a whole range of photographs, of which this is a fairly typical example, and while we shot we chatted about this and that where they were from; the fact that I was over from Bulgaria and that Jason had travelled from Dubai; and a whole range of other stuff. To be honest, I can't really remember much of what we talked about, but that's not important. The key thing is that we talked, and that the experience was a relaxed and pleasant one for all of us.

Anyway, to get back to this shot: it's one of four that I'll be posting, and is probably my third favourite of the set. The next two, which I'll post on Tuesday and Thursday, are my definite favourites, and I'll post the last one on Saturday.

Jason's also posted a shot of one these women here:

http://www.escapism-online.com/blog-entry.php?pid=251

As I mentioned in my last entry, one of the things that Jason wanted to cover during his 1-2-1 training was 'seeing creatively'. As such I decided to take him up to the old wrecked boats in the Wyre Estuary (e.g, this one and this one).

We did take quite a few shots of the boats, and I'm sure that Jason will blog some at some point, but we also spent quite a bit of time photographing various bits and pieces that we found there: an old fire extinguisher, bits of old rope, and so on.

I also found this snare drum, part-buried in the mud just to the left of this boat. I decided that there wasn't much point trying to photograph it in the mud so we moved it. The one that worked best for me was the one you see here, i.e. the drum on the deck of one of the boats, just to the left of the scene you can see in this shot. Normally, I prefer to photograph 'found objects' as I find them, but in this case it was a lot of fun trying to find a good location.

The post-production was relatively straightforward, but I should mention that I used Topaz Detail to bring out the detail in the skin of the drum.

And if you're interested, Jason's latest image from our various shoots is linked below: a different take on the shot I posted a few days ago.

http://www.escapism-online.com/blog-entry.php?pid=247

I'm now back in Bulgaria after spending four great days providing some one-to-one training for Jason Kotecha in Blackpool. During the training we spend quite a lot of time concentrating on post-production, but there were also a range of photogaphic techniques and topics that Jason wanted to cover: seeing creatively, street photography and portraiture, and shooting sunsets.

Street photography and shooting sunsets are self-explanatory (and I'll be posting a variety of images from these sessions over the next few weeks), but 'seeing creatively' probably requires a bit more explanation. In one sense it's a relatively straightforward idea – you just need to find the angle and composition that will provide the most interesting interpretation of a scene. In practice though, this isn't always easy, so we spent quite a bit of time discussing a variety of ways to simplify the process. One method, that we used for our shots of this groyne, is to decide what role a particular element within a scene will play within the final image.

For example, this shot is one of four that I'll be posting. In each shot though, the groyne plays a different part. In this one it was used as a frame, in another we used it to create a more dynamic composition based on its structure, in another we concentrated on the small scale detail, while in a fourth we used it as a background to a different foreground element. I won't post all four in a row, but will add the other three over the next few weeks.

Jason's hasn't posted any of his shots of this structure yet but has blogged a rather nice shot of the waves against the seawall on Blackpool seafront, which I think is a great example of 'seeing creatively':

http://www.escapism-online.com/blog-entry.php?pid=245

Update: Jason's version of this shot is here:

http://www.escapism-online.com/blog-entry.php?pid=250

If you follow me on either Facebook or Twitter you will know that I'm back in the UK at the moment, providing some one-to-one training for Jason Kotecha. I first met Jason out in Dubai – he was as a student on my landscape photography workshop for Gulf Photo Plus – and we've spent the last few days shooting and working on post-production. Jason hasn't blogged any of his shots from this trip yet, but you can see some of the work he produced from the urban landscape workshop in Dubai here:

http://www.escapism-online.com/blog-entry.php?pid=238
http://www.escapism-online.com/blog-entry.php?pid=236
http://www.escapism-online.com/blog-entry.php?pid=233
http://www.escapism-online.com/blog-entry.php?pid=234
http://www.escapism-online.com/blog-entry.php?pid=232

As for this image: it was taken up at Fleetwood a few days ago and was shot to demonstrate the benefits of exposing to the right, one of the key topics I cover in my Digital Workflow tutorials. As you can see from the original, which you can see by hovering your mouse over the 'show the original image' link beneath it, the transformation is quite dramatic.

This is the shot I mentioned when I posted my previous entry, shot using a HonlPhoto 1/8 Speed Grid. I'm not entirely convinced it's a great success, but it did teach me an important lesson: using a hard light source is a lot more difficult than using a soft light. The biggest problems are that a) it's directional (obviously), and b) it's very harsh. I think that I'll need a lot more practice before this is a technique I become comfortable with.

Anyway, as I mentioned above, I'm really not sure about this one, so any constructive feedback would be gratefully received.

On a related matter: as many of you know, I often post the original image in addition to my post-processed version. In the past I've linked through to the original from within this comments box, but this was never an especially elegant solution. So, from now on, when I post an original image you'll be able to view it directly from the main image page by hovering your mouse over the 'show the original image' link (beneath the image). I've added this link to the last few images I've posted, and may alter some of my older entries too.

I had some free time yesterday some took Rhowan and Harmony to an abandoned building a few kilometres from our village to play around with off-camera lighting. I had intended to shoot some hard-light shots, using a HonlPhoto 1/8 Speed Grid, but after playing around with it for a while I realised that I wasn't making much progress. I did get one shot that I like, that I'll post next, but it required a lot more post-production than I was hoping for.

Anyway, rather than abandon the shoot I switched to using my 41" shoot-through umbrella – which produces light that I find much easier to work with – and ended up with a few shots that I like. If you're interested, the original is here:

.../archives/lighting_diary_3.php

One thing you might notice is that the light in the background is much colder than the light from the flash. This was because I used a CTO filter to gel the flash and switched my white balance to tungsten. When I came to post-produce the shot though I decided that it didn't work for this shot, at least not especially well, so ended up converting it to black and white.

I also discovered that shooting impromptu portraits of your kids is a whole lot easier than asking them to stand there while you take numerous shots at different settings. Fortunately, Rhowan does like been photographed, but she was getting rather bored by the time we had finished :)

This is the last of the shots that I'll be posting from my recent trip to the UK, and beyond that I don't have too much to say about this one – it was just something that caught my eye as I wandered around Fleetwood.

If you're interested, the original is here:

.../archives/untitled_0096.php

On a totally different matter: we had a big storm last night, which took out our internet connection, and I can't seem to get hold of our ISP. As such I'm posting this from a friends house, but then probably won't be online for the rest of the day. Hopefully they'll get it sorted out, but I have a horrible suspicion that it's our router that's fried, so will need to go and get another one if that is the case. Anyway, I guess we'll be back online at some point.