Cool shot! I also think it's really cool how the paper is transparent. Is that from it being blown by cars?

-Tristan (picture life)

Tristan: thanks, and yes, the two pieces of newspaper in this shot are actually one and the same. About 15 seconds into the shot it was blown along the railings, hence both pieces are almost exactly 50% transparent.

Today I decided also (having voted for you) that I would explore the Awards site and the sponsors more thoroughly. I was deeply concerned by the obvious political bias, the views they were expressing and the links they were promoting. I left a comment on the site to that effect and resolved not to return.
I applauded those that had withdrawn their sites and now I applaud you too.

...and, I have found both today's and yesterday's posts really interesting. The gritty realism is refreshingly different and definitely something I hope you will pursue further.

Sorry for the double post, but I felt like my comment was better at home on this post.

Greetings from the parking lot of the Shilo Inn in Oakhurst, California (The first WiFi network I found driving through town). I saw the comments (at the awards site) and added one of my own. All logos and "vote for me" stuff was taken down on my site. I do like my new silver shoes though. (in celebration of getting my ass whooped by djn1).

David,

As a daily visitor to this site, I was glad to use my time to vote and I also support your decision to withdraw from the poll. I am sure there are several out there just like myself. Fight the good fight!

p.s. i love this picture, as well as every single shot i have seen on this site.

this shot is f-word-ing awesome!:) the streaks of pale light balanced by the dark foreground. and the vanishing newspaper really adds to it. dave, this got to be one of your best ever.

I can tell that you're enjoying night photography. It shows in your work.

Dave

I congratulate you on your decision to withdraw from the poll, particularly as you were the clear leader.

Very nice picture by the way. What post processing have you done?

Cheers

Your pictures were reason enough to visit this site, and now your objectivity is only enhanced through your decision to withdraw from a biased site's competition. Best of luck in all your future endeavors.

Bravo. It makes me happy to see you guys taking a stand.

Really cool photo. I love the gritty look too. It's a complex shot, but seems quite simple and straightforward at first. The details are fascinating.

This is a great shot Dave, the newspaper flipping is the icing on the cake.

I'm glad so many people have agreed with our decision to distance ourselves from the 2004 bush, I mean, blog awards. I disagree most vehemently with the politics behind the site, and, moreso in this context, I object to the competition being used to promote an ideology. When I first heard I was nominated I visited the site and thought the ads were a joke, but sadly they're not.

Thanks for all the support from voters and fellow nominees.

First, excellent shot! Way cool.

Second, bravo for withdrawing from the poll! I, too, just got around to reading the ads on the voting page, and then clicked over to read their main blog. I am diametrically opposed to their politics and wouldn't want to be associated with them either.

I think you are quite off-base by presuming that a blog with less than liberal opinions cannot officiate a fair, encompassing blog. I'm a photographer that learned of your blog by being pointed to Whizbang from a blog that was in the running in a much different category. I'm very thankful to Whizbang for introducing me to chromasia because I think your images are truly outstanding and very inspiring. Other photo blogs in the contest also impressed me, but not to the degree that chromasia has, which inspired me to return daily to vote for you. I'll spend more time enjoying your photos and those of others listed at Whizbang thanks to Whizbang.

Supporters of one very liberal site openly tried to steal the contest so it is obvious that blogs of the left and right are equally participating.

I see absolutely no evidence that the contest is rigged, tied to any particular agenda, or that there is any sort of scam. What I do see is someone trying to celebrate the rise of blogs of all kinds. As someone that is increasing enjoying discovery blogs, I applaud the goal.

If there were some sort of political agenda behind the contest, why have a photo category and then list such outstanding, non-political blogs?

So far I've seen a liberal blog trying to cheat and other blogs that were losing looking for an excuse to excuse themselves before a winner is declared. It's like declaring that a conservative blog cannot have a unique idea and well-intentioned effort.

Is the truth any less real if it is published in the Times or Guardian or Post? Does a photo lose its impact because of where it is seen?

The same is true for a well-done contest: the message is more important than the media.

From my perspective, you should be thankful and appreciative for the exposure. I certainly am and will continue to vote for chromasia because you certainly deserve the honor and the exposure. (Pun intended.)

"I think you are quite off-base by presuming that a blog with less than liberal opinions cannot officiate a fair, encompassing blog."

I don't think anyone's making that assertion here, not that I can see.

For me at least the point is that an awards site such as this should not be as overtly political as this one is. It wouldn't matter if it was left or right wing, christian or muslim, to me taking part in such a competition gives my tacit support to the backers of the competition and I don't think that should be assumed of participants when the backing is from any partisan source.

The fact that I disagree with the site's politics is one aspect but I think more important in this situation is the idea that a site like this should be so strongly linked to one point of view, whatever that political stance. It doesn't matter whether there is a political agenda behind the awards or not, it's not a matter of whether the voting is fair or not (the polling seems very well managed). If 'whizbang' wants to run an awards site with an overtly partisan political message then let them, but don't expect everyone to want to take part and be seen to be endorsing it.

Personally I think any event like this should be neutral in it's presentation or it risks alienating participants as this one has done.

ahhh j adore (i love it )

I'm sorry to say that the actions of this blog and the others in pulling out of the 2004 weblog awards has done more to hilight the ads and ideology that you have tried to distance yourself from, than the ads themselves. I can honestly say that I had no idea of any ads or their political bias. Untill nominees brought it to my attention.

Fab pic :)

I applaud your reasons for for withdrawing from the poll. miles said it for me. There is no need to accept political advertising on a website and then pretend it is somehow non partisan. You can get advertising for widgets, doobries, or assortied thingumies any day of the week.
This picture, to return to the real point of this winning blog, is the best night shot I've seen while I've been lurking or commenting here. "Accidents" like the newspaper here are what make photography real and alive to me.

Very neat shot- it give me the feeling I've stepped into a literal 'ghost town'.

Hi Dave, can I ask how much colour correction you had to do to this pic after it was taken in RAW?

I'm so sick of the colour temperature of streetlights here in the UK, I can't seem to balance it out of my shots either on most occasions - it's just too strong in orange. Same thing with the car headlights, not quite as bad, but they are obviously realy white in this shot which I find difficult.

David, I write liberal posts on my blog, and can understand your feelings of revulsion.

To me, photgraphy is independent of political opinions, so I wouldn't have taken the step to ask to be removed.

However, based on all my experience in marketing research, I think the whole thing is a sham, since it allows people to vote over and over again. One man one vote, I say.

As for the shot, it would be really cool if the newspaper was significant and had a headline which suggested why the streets were empty. You know, "Freeze grips area," "Curfews Adopted" kind of thing. Ah, but I dream...

Stupid politics. :(

Right on David !!
Thanks for the heads up on the polico's

Thanks everyone.

fraxinus: ok, I'll try a bit more gritty realism :-)

Brooks: thanks. I'm not sure what they'll do about the poll now, but I guess you got a decent pair of shoes out of it so it isn't all bad ;-)

Sharla: thank-you – all the votes I received were much appreciated and I have no doubt that the polls were/are being conducted fairly – that wasn't the problem. The issue for me was that I have no wish to be associated with a site that promotes an ideology so at odds with my own.

m: if nobody had noticed them, myself included, it wouldn't have been an issue, but I did, as did a lot of other people, and I'd much rather not be associated with a site that so actively promotes such an extreme right-wing ideology.

Daaave: I'm afraid I don't have time to put up the original but basically the processing involved colourising the image, selecting the yellow areas of the base image, then masking the colourised layer in those areas.

Frank: yes, an appropriate headline would have been great.

dave, congratulations on another astounding image. i really connect with your pictures, having been raised in blackpool and instantly recongised the tache as one of my former hangouts. im a very amateur photographer, so i'm not going to ask any questions about the picture because i would expose my ignorance, but i know a great shot when i see one and this is superb, you've managed to represent blackpool in a flattering but realistic way (something i hitherto imagined impossible). you have made the town your own and i guess all i can say is well done...

Dave I really love this one -- it's very "chromasia meets smudo" in feel somehow -- if that makes sense. The motion and lights are just fantastic.

You know, I think the great lesson here is that if you want to be a media/publicity whore, you can just as easily end up getting burned.

Chromasia was all too happy to suck up publicity and praise from somebody's useless poll. This wasn't just a passive "Oh, wow, how nice to be nominated. I don't really care, but boy if I win I guess that's nice." The link was on the front Chromasia image for days! And in his haste to have himself crowned king of the realm, djn failed to pay much attention to what was on the site "sponsoring" the awards. Or maybe he did and didn't care.

Heather Champ had the dignity to withdraw immediately. The others only came after a week or so, probably when they realized that there was no way they could win. Chromasia pulled out, but not until it was clear who "the winner" would be. After all, wouldn't want all that campaigning to go to waste.

Now djn can claim to be both the winner and morally righteous. It's a stupid poll on somebody's pointless publicity stunt of a site. Winning means nothing, and withdrawing means nothing.

Give me a break folks!

"You know, I think the great lesson here is that if you want to be a media/publicity whore, you can just as easily end up getting burned."

"And in his haste to have himself crowned king of the realm, djn failed to pay much attention to what was on the site “sponsoring” the awards."

Yep. I'll be considerably more careful in future.

And Media Man, please don't post anymore anonymous comments otherwise I'll delete them.

You tell 'im Dave! I was going to post a reply to him myself but thought you might just like to ignore him. Well done.

There's nothing wrong with wanting to win. Those that don't want to win are by default losers !

As a postscript to all the ideological back patting. No one seems to have noted that the originator of the web log awards was a blogger who started the award to pay tribute to those in his blogging community who'd helped him when he was made redundant. He paid back the $1000 they gave him to a charity and set up the awards site.

this is probably a dumb question...but how did you get the newspaper to look transparent? is it because of a slow shutter speed? and someone asked about orange hues when shooting night shots...is that because of the white balance?

i absolutely love this shot. im so jealous of your talent.

Good heavenly gracious. All this self absorbed posturing is soooooo out of place.

Look. I'm a white heterosexual male Christian conservative and I frankly don't CARE if you find my politics - assuming you know what they are - abhorrent. Conversely, I don't care if you worship on the altar of Michael Moore. It's simply not relevant.

I DO care that you do some damned fine work, deserved your win, and I and many others wouldn't have found you among the five million other blogs if this contest hadn't taken place. I would think that, with only 3000 votes for the whole category, it might be to your benefit and the benefit of your fellow photobloggers to get some publicity for the genre. Or do you blog only for the benefit of a small group of ideologues?

Keep posting, you're terrific. I'll keep coming back.

All the best.

I think that it's probably best we draw a line under this discussion as I suspect we're not going to make much progress with it here. That said, if anyone wants to email me about it I'd be happy to discuss it further.

Brenda: the transparency is explained in my description – the newspaper blew away half way through the exposure. As for the orange hue you normally get with night shots: yes, you can correct this by using white balance, either by using a custom setting prior to the shot, or afterwards when you convert the RAW file (or manipulate it in Photoshop).

Sorry..missed that in the description. I see it now in a later post.

Wow.... So wonderful, well done and clean shot... congrats, I love it.