Very "Amuse" (ing). Love the saturated look. I was in Blackpool a few weeks back and I'm almost positive I walked right past this place. I was on the beach trying to recreate your great reflection shot of Blackpool tower but it was too windy.. Another day in the future maybe....

true, for some reason it doesn't work all that well. One reason could be the distracting position of the structure under the 'S' and 'E'. The light bulb wire is also just a bit distracting. The gradation in the sky behind though is to kill for :).

Ray: it's the building in the middle of the Golden Mile, so you probably did walk past it at some point. As for reflection shots: it's been far too windy for a couple of weeks now. We were down on the seafront at the weekend and there was a 25mph wind ... in August :-/

Mandar: at the moment, i.e. just before the Blackpool Illumination's, it's almost impossible to take a photograph of anything and not get a string of lights in the shot! ;-)

I agree about the distracting effect of the structures under the S and E but I actually like this a lot, even with that little problem :-)
for the colors and for the carnival/fair atmosphere that I love, looks like everybody's been around them these last days lol
~~

The colours are great ... not too sure on the composition. I would probably say cropping some of the sky out cause to me it seems to draw my eye to the blue not to the structure.

there is something a little off--probably just a combination of what others have mentioned above, but the color just grabs me. this one just cheers me up...

Yes, I think there might be too much sky here so it takes you a while to see the letters. Seems to follow the golden rule of thirds though :)

I think this would always be a difficult subject to compose well. The arches are perfectly cropped and in themselves form a completely symmetrical image. However, the green vertical and the entrance fascia in the lower right, together with those electical cables, mean that, overall, the symmetry is lost. It's the kind of shot where I always wish for a collapsible step-ladder that would fit in my camera bag, because I think it would look better if taken from about 10 feet higher up...

Colour wise, that afternoon sun has served you well, and I'd guess at polarising filter and/or a curves layer in PS. The Lancashire sky never really gets that blue, does it?

I assume the entire sign reads. amusement. When I first saw the image I recropped it in my mind to read muse.

Grrrr...

I rather like it. There's a nice contrast between the dark blue sky and the yellow/orange sign.

Amusement parks and fairgrounds seem to be all the rage in photoblogs these days. I suppose it's that time of year. ;-)

Wow, look at the vibrant colors :) beautiful.

I think the saturation is a little too obvious... it's pretty, but the dark blue makes you look at it instead of the amuse

Simple and effective. The bright colors make it work.

Love the bright colours. Fantastic.

Hmmm. Thanks for all the kind words, but I really don't think this one works all that well, mostly because of the composition. Perhaps I'll get Kevin to hold the ladder when I reshoot ;-)

Rannie: almost. It says 'amusements'.

As everyone else has said, I love the color. I can only wish to be as good as you. But, I think I know what the compositional issue is. (this is coming from my 2-D sythesis theory class). Compositions with breaks offer a triangle whose base is wide and parallel to the bottom of the frame tends to be too stable, and stagnant even. It's the triangle with a wide base at the top that causes a sense of tension or conflict. Conflict and tension are often what make a composition interesting and successful. Those yellow bars extending from the bottom of the frame may be causing the first example of the triangle theory.
You're still better than anything I could do. ;-)

Stephanie: I'm not familiar with the theory, but it sounds right.

"I love the color. I can only wish to be as good as you"

Stephanie... not to discredit Dave, but the color is due to the saturation bar in Photoshop and not due to the original photography

Stephanie ... not to discredit Jeremy, but it's more to do with the increase in contrast (via a strong 'S' Curve) than it is to do with the 'saturation bar' in PS, though I did use Fred Miranda's Digital Velvia Pro.

sigh, Dave... you always seem to take offense at the slightest comments... the sarcasm wasnt really necessary. I apologize at my misdiagnosis of your photoshop methods.

Jeremy: sorry, that was meant humorously - I guess it didn't come across that way.

oh, ok =) No hard feelings

love the colors

Well, contrary to what others said, I really like the string of lights. Symmetry is overrated. I feel that even with the magnificent colours, it'd be too plain without the structures in the bottom right corner. I don't think it'd be terribly detrimental to cut out some of the sky, but not too much because I feel like it's good there. It balances out the height of the arches and makes the presence of the bottom right things okay. I think it's great.

I love the light string, though the structure underneath might be moved..

Before thinking of "amuse," I thought of "a muse."

Just thought you[who will never read this]'d like to know.