To date, 851 of the 860 entries on chromasia were taken by me; this one, the ninth guest entry on chromasia, was taken by my father; a long time ago.

It's 1967, and this is my great-grandfather's house in Brinkman Street in Barnsley, South Yorkshire.

The lady in the bottom right of this shot is my great-grandmother, Grandma Green. From what I can remember, she died when I was around 14; i.e. 1977. I can't say that I remember a great deal about her other than that she always had a big jar of sweets in her cupboard that she would bring down when we went round.

The gentleman sat next to her is my great-grandfather, Grandad Green. He was a private in the Great War (world war one) and in 1918, or thereabouts, was given a full army pension and two years to live after a shell peppered his lungs with shrapnel. He was never especially healthy, but smoked a pipe all his life and lived until he was 84.

Next to my great-grandfather, in the bottom left of this shot, is my great-great-grandma Burton: grandma Green's mother. I don't remember all that much about her – she must have died not more than a year after this shot was taken – but I do remember visiting her house, not too many doors away from my great-grandparents.

In the top left of the shot is my grandmother, Grandma Mabel: great-grandma Green's daughter; great-great-grandma Taylor grand-daughter. She was 90 this year, and still lives in the house that her and my grandfather moved into when they married, well over 60 years ago. She's not quite as sprightly as she used to be, and she now finds her life-long passion of knitting quite difficult, but as best I can tell she hasn't changed much in the 43 years that I've known her.

Next to her is her husband, Granddad George. George was a miner for most of his life and only died a few years ago when he was well into his eighties. I visited him in hospital a few days before he died and told him that he looked a lot better. With a characteristic grin, and a smile in his voice, he said "do you really think so?". He knew better than me and died shortly afterwards.

Next in line is my sister, Andrea. At this point my parents only had the two of us – later there would be two more. She's now a GP (a family doctor) with three kids of her own.

She's being held by my mother (grandma Mabel's eldest) who died in 1991 at 50 years of age. She spent almost a year battling with two different but equally vicious cancers, and was far too young to die. We were all with her in the hospice when she died, and it's an experience that's etched in my memory, that's as vivid now as it was 15 years ago.

And next, there's me, probably about three of four at the time this was taken, probably wearing one of the many thousand of jumpers knitted by my grandmother during her illustrious knitting career.

And finally, my Uncle Jack, my mother's brother: now around 63 years of age.

So, why have I mentioned all this? I'm not sure, other than that I spent a good part of last week thinking that Libby might be next: that she might be about to be a part of my history rather than my future. And I guess the whole experience has been quite sobering.

Oh, and I should mention that it's her birthday today. I won't tell you how old she is, but she's going to be exactly the same age for a good number of years yet ;-)

It's very intimidating following the talent that has been shared on Chromasia this past week. After seeing the first few guest posts. I have to admit that I was apprehensive about sharing my work in this space. But then I realized that we all have different styles and different things to offer. Thanks Dave for giving me the opportunity to share my perspective with your audience. It's been a great week, but I'm sure we will all be happy to have you back tomorrow.

This image was shot at Brickworks in Toronto. It's an old abandoned industrial brick making complex found in the heart of the Don Valley just north east of the downtown core. This is the top of an old industrial staircase which lead to the top of the ovens.

In recent times, I have gained this appreciation and fascination of abandoned buildings in the Toronto area. There is something intimate and captivating about getting a brief glimpse into our city's past. I have to thank the many other photobloggers who have open these doors before me. You have all been an inspiration.

Rannie Turingan
photojunkie

Thank you David, for trusting me and for giving me the opportunity to have 150kB worth of fame here at chromasia.com! I really appreciate it:)

I'm having a hard time trying to figure out just what my shooting style is. One thing I do know is it's a mood thing that oscillates wildly. During the last couple of days, I've developed a serious crush for vignetting, grain, and distorted perspectives. Again. So when carefully contemplating the alternatives for a guest post at chromasia, I realised I had to get such a shot. Had this opportunity come a week earlier, I'd probably posted something completely different.

Anyway, off I went with the good'ol analogue camera, loaded with slide film, and a bunch of heavy tunes in my ears, scouting central Stockholm for photos to be had. I pretty much knew what I was after and where to get it; I like public places that looks deserted, and I finally ended up in this seemingly empty passage nearby Sergelstorg. So many lines, cold light and nice shadows... I almost lost track of time. Geekish, I know.

I'm posting more cross-processed stuff like this over at smudo.org. Drop by, have a coffee.

Listening to: Meshuggah - Corridor of chameleons. Nodding. Nodding. Mirror lock-up? There should be a neck lock-up facility.

fredrik olsson

A big thank-you to David for trusting me with Chromasia for a day. I'm eternally grateful for the opportunity. Good luck, and much happiness to you and your family in your new home!

I woke up very early this morning with one purpose in mind - to find a decent image to post for all to see.

I hope you like her. She adorns a beautiful, black 1931 V12 Cadillac limousine, once owned by Al Capone. There are exactly four left in the world like her. I live in Chicago, what else would you expect? When I tell people I meet during my travels where I'm from, they inevitably bring up gangsters and Al Capone. Hey! But what about my beloved Chicago Cubs?! Oh well - if you can't beat 'em, join 'em is my philosophy.

The great part of this story is I ventured out not once, but TWICE to search for just the right subject. My first trip out the light was flat, it started to sprinkle, and I was ready to break down and cry. However, the Chromasia muses were with me. Near the final turn of my second trek, just when I was ready to hang up my camera for good, I found the owner of this beautiful automobile. He was very willing to share his story and let me take all the photographs I wanted. A rare find, for sure - simply a wonderful way to finish the day.

bob

I have to begin by thanking David for giving me the opportunity to participate in his excellent website.

This is shot in one my favorite shooting locations around Toronto; Whitby's abandoned psychiatric hospital. This place has been deserted for more than eight years and consists of many buildings. We've been there only twice and have seen only a few of more than 50 buildings, since it's very hard to get in some of them (and against the law I assume!) The whole place is pretty spooky and I can't imagine going into most of these buildings alone so we go there in groups.

This photo was shot on location and without touching any of the elements in the shot. One of the reasons that I decided to post this image as my guest entry here is to make a connection with another lonely chair photo from the same series on my own website which was shot in the same facility on a different day.

It was a tricky exposure and I shot using bracketing to bring out details in both dark and bright parts of the image. The reason that I chose to shoot JPEG and not RAW was the fact that I was shooting with Digital Rebel's kit lens which is not of great quality and has noticeable lens distortion and I was planning on using DxO Optics Pro to correct the lens imperfections, and unfortunately it doesn't support RAW format yet.

wvs | sam javanrouh
daily dose of imagery

I agonized for hours trying to decide which image post here. Something similar to Dave? Something more in my style? Green beans? Kids playing around?

I initially prepared an image from the following series.

I settled for a bird. Yes, a simple Seagull. When you read how it was shot, you'll see why I picked it.

If it was to have a title, it would be: Luck favors those that are prepared.

I was taking a walk around Museum Campus in Chicago (between the Shedd Aquarium and Adler Planetarium) when I noticed Jonathan L. flying towards me.

He looked like the kind of bird that wanted to fly low -- really low. As he approached, I just raised my camera from my hip, aimed in the general direction of Jonathan and fired. I guess I was lucky. Or like I want to think, I was ready.

Shot at 45mm equivalent, you can tell that he was very, very close.

JR @ [ p i x e l @ d a y ]

After seeing Neil Baylis's beautiful floral tribute to Chromasia here on Monday, I spent the last couple days poring over my photos, fretting about which would best fit into the style of Chromasia's wonderful, saturated hyper-reality. And then my wife Sara reminded me that if Dave wanted only Chromasia-style shots, he would have asked us to post his own photos for him during the move. So I picked a shot I took a couple days ago that's definitely more joe's nyc than Chromasia.

Though I haven't spent as much time in Brooklyn's DUMBO neighborhood (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) as I have in certain Manhattan neighborhoods, DUMBO is closer to my Brooklyn home and closer to my heart. It certainly passes my test as a fertile spot for photography -- the neighborhood really reflects the people who live there. It's a real hot spot for illegal street art, for example, and experimental theater. Unlike so much of Manhattan these days, you won't yet see evidence of homogenizers Barnes & Noble, the Gap, or Starbucks -- just home-grown Brooklyn treasures like Jacques Torres Chocolate, Grimaldi's Pizza, and the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory.

And of course, tatoo-legged contractors, renovating buildings in preparation for the invasion of more high-end home design stores...

-=-joe holmes

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		• guest entries + no print

I've tried to stay away from taking too many shots of the Empire State Building. It's not that I don't like the building, it's just that I work there and well... ok, I'm of sick looking at it.

Plus, I have already taken way too many pictures of it. I mean how many more ways is there to take a picture of a building you see every day? I look up from the street and it's the same angles, same lines, same damn sign in the way of my shot.

So this one is a little special. Taken while having drinks with friends at a roof top bar a block away from the Empire State. The clouds slowly drift away as the setting sun cast it's final light of the day onto the building. No signs blocking me, no tourists running into me, just the wide open sky and the Empire State. Seeing that and getting a picture of it absolutely made my night.

It is amazing that a change of location, however big or small, allows you to see an everyday part of your life in a different way. Giving you the chance to once again be fascinated by it, to look at it in awe as if it was your first encounter.

It's amazing the difference going a block down and ten flights up makes.

_keith

First, I'd like to thank David for the invitation to fill in while he and his family settle into their new home. I hope the move goes well, and that he can quickly resume sharing his wonderful images with us.

Since they are moving to the seaside, I first thought of posting something... wet. Then I thought of posting a parody.. er, homage.. to one of his images. In fact, I toyed with the idea of a self portrait in Nightingale style, but couldn't find a piece of wood the right shape.

In the end though, I found a better solution. In terms of content, my work is usually quite different from David's, but we both seem to favor colour as a compositional element. So I looked for a recent image that would not seem out of place with the rest of David's work, yet would nevertheless reflect my own aesthetic.

I chose this image of flowers for sale at a market near my house. And having chosen the image for its formal qualities, I realized that it also works well at another level: As the first guest poster, I get to present these flowers as a visual housewarming gift, on behalf of all Chromasia fans.

Neil Baylis