i like this one! :-) the colours are very good
i'm big fan of your work, keep going

David, lovely abstract, lots of Jackson Pollock style energy!

I have to say, your blog has been a real inspiration to me, particularly seeing how quickly you have progressed to produce some images these days which are really stunning. I don't get to check it out every day, but I loved that elvish shot of your three year old you posted recently, absolutely marvellous. The portrait style with your kids reminded me of a shot I took of my 2 year old niece. I'm nowhere even close to your class, but you keep giving me ideas that make me want to persevere with my own efforts. Keep it up mate, its great stuff.

matt

Well, go on spill the beans - how did you do it? And in only 4 seconds?

shapeless and matt: thanks.

peterv: this is one of about 50 shots, all of which involved waving the lens about in front of our Christmas tree. I did try quite a few that involved a smoother, more circular action, but they didn't have the vibrancy of this one (they looked more like a fluorescent pen drawing than lights).

Wow, cool! I would never have guessed a Xmas Tree. Very abstract. The smoky atmosphere with the nervous lights make it ... Dreamy. LIke some kind of drug hallucination (... of which I know nothing). I would expect there to be some kind of psychedelic music accompanying it.

Re: the image... very Pollock-esque. Every squiggle, dip, curve, jolt, loop, and wave had a specific purpose, right? ;) You are very good at framing chaos.

Re: Capture One... Is there something in the Pro version you couldn't live without? The LE version is pretty capable, and anything else you might need could be applied in Photoshop post-conversion. Of course if you're like me you would miss those few additional features and being able to apply them to the raw file instead of the tiff, but I'd also miss the $350 if I weren't able to write it off as a business expense. I used the demo three times on three different laptops on jobs that eventually paid for the full version! :P

Astonishing picture. Just like crex, I would've never guessed Christmas tree. Wonderful, vibrant colours.

This is nice. Pretty colors. I'm curious, you mentioned that Adobe's Camera RAW eliminates hot pixels...are you talking about the technique of shooting a black frame or is there a setting I'm missing?

This is a real artwork, I love the colours. Wonderful

David, yes C1 Pro is 'really expensive, I had in on my old PC but havent done much with it since I switched to my mac. But has a lot workflow related features. But there are places where PS CS is good too especially the shadow recovery and the world of filters... Love the firefly shot. Well done.

David,
I have to agree with a previous post that mentioned Pollack; this image does remind me of his work. Nice job, especially in that you took 50 images to get this one. Today is the first time that I've seen your blog and I'm very impressed and thankful. Not only is the quality of your work exceptionally good (and visibly improving), but the technical details and background information you provide are of great value as well. I'll be sure to visit frequently in the future. Thank you for your effort - it is inspiring.
Art Boughan

Nice image! As usual. Yes, C1 Pro is excellent - somehow the adjustments seem more intuitive than DPP or Adobe Camera Raw. The hot pixel thing is a pain though - even at short exposures. I have a couple of stuck green pixels on my 300D that (depending on the backgroud) show up with C1 but not with ACR.

My family really likes this shot. My son (age 4) says it looks like "a happy storm." I think that's a great description of this photos as well as your site. Thanks for your great work.

Thanks everyone.

Picturegrl: ACR automatically removes hot pixels, there isn't a setting you need to apply.

MexiPickle: thanks. Please tell you son that I think that's a great description :-)

Chritmas tree? Wow, that's a cool trick you used there.
Merry Christmas Everyone!