Ah, I love shop windows - well spotted!

i like the colors....including the reflection....

kenny is some sort of entertainer i believe....people here in the states will be a little lost on that one...

lol - I wonder how many people have actually bought one of them.
I really like the colours in the reflection, i'm just quite put off with all the spots (dirt?) on the yellow areas. Would be wonderful if they were removable :)

I know what I'm getting you for christmas now, Dave.......

Lovely colours in the display.

I like the colors, the reflection seems to frame the words on the hat.

Keep up the good work bud. Always keeping it fresh. I like that. Hope things are well.

WOW, this atmosphere is amazing!

My kind a girl !!

So do I.

I'm always leaving my soup simmering on the stove for longer than is required.

Ah at last a reference to the mating ritual of the great blue whale ;)

I like the effect of the reflection on this one, great colours too.

Nice colours in this one! :) Very cool.

Oh my! ;D

Nice colors.

Nice colors. Take any of the sunset behind you?

nice catch. :-) ... it made me smile.

Cool effect, but in bad taste (no pun intended).
This is beneath your normal standards.

Ooooo... you are awful! But I like it.

The completely-blurred reflections make this image particularly strong, I find. If the reflections were even somewhat more defined, this would be a very different image.

Whilst the photo is very well composed and the reflections create a stunning effect, I am fairly disappointed at the crude nature of the photo, which ruins the whole effect for me.

Chroma has built up a fantastic reputation and a cult following amoung my family, yet todays post has tainted that.

Please accept this as constructive critisism.

Ben Archer

J and Ben (and anybody else): my apologies if this has offended anyone. Over the last year and a bit I've documented various aspects of Blackpool, my home town, but what I've avoided, for the most part, is photographing the 'seedier' side of the town. Blackpool has a long history of being a bawdy place – especially along the sea-front – and it's a favourite venue for hen nights, stag do's, and various other forms of riotous short break. This hat is a part of that culture.

Awwww... Just when you were making Blackpool seem so classy! ;-)

Annabel: lol. I love Blackpool, but it's not classy. Aspects of it are beautiful, others are tacky, and I think it's a great place – but as European seaside venues go there it's certainly not the classiest on the map ;-)

That's ilarious. The hat gives documentary depth to the shot, otherwise "just" a nice one. Sorry, I don't know if my words are the best ones to state what I feel about: my english is somewhat "blurry"...

Documentary shots that are also beautiful, or vice-versa, are a goal. Should we hide how the world is crude, or have a laugh (and a thought) at contrasts and/or contradictions?

Alessandro

Colorful and sexy. Nice shot!

Great shot, definately the the Stag & Hen doo capital, whenever I go to Blackpool for the day, doesn't matter waht time it is, there is always a group of hens or stags with personalised t-shirts on :)

love the colours in this one, and I like the dirt, it adds to the depth.

Would like to see someone wearing this hat.

Please accept a huge metaphorical swing of one fisnetted leg over another.

Nice colors and great reflection. Shame about the subject (not my cup of tea), but I guess thats the whole point!

I can't help but wonder what the image was like behind you (the sunset in the reflection). I'm sure you shot it ;)

Anyway hope you enjoy your new lense, you seem to be!!!

I don't comment régularly but I'll just said that i am admiring all your work. Often you're open , and keep both a double dimension : human kind and abstract art. Thanks.

Hehe, typical Blackpool, whoever said they thought it was classy obviously hasn't been on a night out there :-)

I fully understand this is part of culture, yet I dont see that as licence to lower the tone of your work. If we all photographed images which show aspects which contibute to our culture we could potentially have many X-rated blogs!

I hope this is not coming accross as majorly negative, but I feel that purity is something to be tresured.

Thanks for your responce,

Ben

Chuckle.... great photo, but it's reminded me just why I haven't visited Blackpool in about a quarter of a century!

That seems a rather restrictive attitude to photography Ben. It seems that a great deal of the impetus for this site comes from Dave's desire to document the world around him. It would be a story half told if he stuck to the beautiful sunsets and awe inspiring sea views. Personally I have limited interest in the photography of people who dedicate their entire careers to capturing landscape after perfect landscape - it feels a little like being trapped in the photographic equivalent of the Truman Show, where every view is a picture postcard.

I'm all for a little more honesty in the choice of subject matter. I suspect that in 100 years time it will be the shots like this that provoke the most interest, as they reveal the most about who we are and how we live today. It would be a terrible shame to lose them to self imposed censorship on the shifting grounds of 'taste'. Don't forget, this is something that is advertised to the world in a shop window, not a sudden expose of the brothels of Bangkok!

regards

I don't particularly like this photo, too much blurry and colorus I guess, but I don't see anything wrong in posting this kind of photo.

Thanks everyone.

what utter tastelessness on such a varied colour palette

aerodynamic sums up my thoughts very susinctly...

Tasteless.

Prove us wrong djn, we love ya!

A key ring that says "Good girls go to heaven, bad girsl go everywhere." or a T-Shirt saying Via-Agra (meant to be read as Viagra) and a picture of Tajmahal and the punchline "The greatest erection in the history of mankind". I live in India which is a fairly conservative society when compared to the western world but still we don't feel offended by things I have mentioned above.

I don't understand the point behind making such a fuss over this image. David is not creating something obscene, he has merely documented something he saw. I don't see anything wrong in it and I guess we need to be a little more open to ideas that don't necessarily are aligned to our opinions and beliefs.

Navin,

I didnt say there was anything particularly WRONG with capturing this image. I just think its rather testeless.

"testeless", now who's being crude?

I find this photo very amusing, the blue and gold reflection on the window, feather boa colours bleeding into one another and the 1980s pout of the models...then the horrendously tacky slogan on the hat. How can you not smile at that?

Just discovered this photoblog- and it's gone straight to the top of my favourites pile.