This is a shot of the Shipka Memorial which was built in the 1930s to commemorate the Bulgarians who died during the Shipka Pass battle in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78.

If you've taken a look at the 'original' you'll see that I used two images for the final version: an HDR, and the darkest exposure from a three shot hand-held sequence. The processing was reasonably straightforward, but a bit time consuming insofar as I blended the sky from the darkest shot from the original exposure sequence. I also switched to Lab Color mode to mute the colours in the final version. I did think about producing a more photorealistic version, but after watching The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe with the kids this Christmas I decided that a more Narniaesque version was appropriate. As always though, let me know what you think, especially if you think a more natural result would have worked better.

Finally, if you're a friend of mine of Facebook you can take a look at Libby's album from the trip. She got some great shots of the kids in the snow.

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2.26pm on 28/12/11 Canon 5D Mark II EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM 24mm f/8.0 1/320, 1/160, 1/80 manual n/a evaluative 100 no RAW Camera Raw Photoshop CS5 none minor

As I mentioned the other day we've been working on some new developments for our training site, particularly in terms of providing more information about the various photography and post-production workshops we run throughout the year. If you'd be interested in taking a look, the main page is here:

http://www.chromasia.com/training/events.php

It includes details of two workshops we'll be running in September in Blackpool: The Art of Black and White Photography (on the 16th) and Creating Dramatic Images (on the 17th and 18th). You'll also find some further information on our UK one-to-one training dates for 2011, a photo tour to Istanbul in November that I'll be running with Bobbi Lane, and the Gulf Photo Plus Fotoweekend, also taking place in November.

If you have any questions about any of the new content, just drop me a line.

Anyway, back to today's image ...

Since I posted my first set of images of the Buzludzha monument, back in October 2010, we've managed to find out a bit more about it, though we're not 100% confident about the accuracy of some of what follows.

It's the largest monument in Bulgaria, located on mount Buzludzha (1441m) in the Balkan Mountains, and was built to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the Buzludzha congress – where the Bulgarian Social-Democratic Workers' Party was founded (the predecessor to the Bulgarian Communist Party).

16 million leva were collected, as both voluntary and obligatory donations, of which 14,186,000 were spent on the monument. The rest was spent on the construction of three kindergartens. It took military construction units almost seven years to complete, and more than 6000 workers and experts took part in the construction. Over 20 leading Bulgarian artists worked for 18 months in order to complete the interior decoration, and verses of "The International" and "The Worker's March" were inscribed on the entrance of of the memorial.

The interior was partially clad in marble and the staircases were decorated with red cathedral glass. In the 15 meter-high main hall a 500 sq.m. fresco was constructed, which included portraits of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Todor Zhivkov (the leader of the People's Republic of Bulgaria from 1954 to 1989). The dome of the structure was covered with thirty tonnes of copper and two 12m stars of ruby glass were built into the top of the 70m high tower. These were made in the Soviet Union, and were three times bigger than those in the Kremlin. You can see one of the stars at the top of the tower in this shot.

The monument was inaugurated by Todor Zhivkov in 1981.

On 10th of November 1989 Zhivkov stepped down after 35 years in power, the day after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Immediately afterwards the Politburo ordered the removal of his portrait from the memorial (you can see the gap in the mural in this shot). In 1991 the monument was ceded to the state, abandoned, looted and left to rot.

As for the post-production ...

If you take a look at the original you'll see the tone-mapped image (produced using Photomatix Pro) and small thumbnails of the seven original exposures. In this instance the tone mapping was reasonably conservative, as I wanted to avoid producing something that looked overly HDR-like, but I did want to create an image that captured the surreal nature of this building. As to whether it's entirely successful – I'm not sure. I do like it, but may revisit it again as I'm not 100% convinced that I made the best of this one. Let me know what you think.

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2.41pm on 15/5/11 Canon 5D Mark II EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM 16mm f/8.0 7 exposures (1/8 to 1/500) manual n/a evaluative 100 no RAW Photomatix Pro Photoshop CS5 Topaz Detail minor

This is the third and final shot that I'll be posting of the interior of this Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane – a shot of the lower section at the front of the plane (visible in this shot of Jason's) – and in some ways it's my favourite of the three. As with my previous entry it's also an HDR, constructed from a bracketed sequence of 11 exposures with a 1 EV spacing using Photomatix Pro. And again, if you take a look at the original you can see the tone mapped image and small thumbnails of all 11 exposures.

Let me know which of the three you like best: this one, the shot of the cockpit, or the view from inside the tail section.

As I mentioned, while this is probably my favourite of the three it does pose a problem, as portrait format images are never easy to blog: either I post a version that's a lot smaller than my usual images (not a great solution for a detail-rich HDR image) or you need to scroll the page. Neither solution is ideal, but in this instance reducing the size didn't work well.

On a related note: as those of you who have followed me since the early days already know my switch from academia to professional photography and training was largely accidental: as my blog became popular I started getting work as a photographer, to the point whereby it became financially viable to swap careers. Along the way I've continued to treat my blog as a place to showcase my best work, experiment with different techniques, document the lives of my children, and so on. In short my blog is the primary way in which I output my images ... and it's a great venue with a wonderful audience :-)

The only negative consequence – because I take photographs with the blog in mind – is that I rarely shoot in portrait format, simply because I know that the images will be difficult to display. I guess this isn't a huge issue, but it does mean that I limit myself when I shoot, and while I don't think there's an easy solution to this I am conscious of the fact that I probably miss quite a few great shots, simply because I see and blog the world in landscape format. As I said, I don't think there's an easy solution, but if you do have any thoughts, let me know.

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3.25pm on 15/3/11 Canon 5D Mark II EF 15mm f/2.8 fisheye f/11.0 11 exposures (1/125 to 8s) manual n/a evaluative 100 no RAW Photomatix Pro Photoshop CS5 none minor warping

This is the second of three images I'll be posting of the interior of this Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane. My previous entry was a shot of the cockpit (and included the back story of how Jason and I ran into a few problems with the local police), this one – a shot of the tail section – and a final image that I'll post on Friday: a shot of the lower section at the front of the plane (visible in this shot of Jason's).

As with my previous entry this is also (and obviously) an HDR, constructed from a bracketed sequence of 12 exposures with a 1 EV spacing using Photomatix Pro. And again, if you take a look at the original you can see the tone mapped image and small thumbnails of all 12 exposures. In this instance the post-production wasn't especially complicated, but it is worth mentioning that the rusty door or the right was pasted in from one of the original exposures as the tone mapped version ended up looking more than a bit overdone.

As always, let me know what you think.

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3.41pm on 15/3/11 Canon 5D Mark II EF 15mm f/2.8 fisheye f/11.0 12 exposures (1/500 to 4s) manual n/a evaluative 100 no RAW Photomatix Pro Photoshop CS5 none no

This is a shot of the cockpit of an Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane, parked at the side of the road in Umm Al Quain (one of the Emirates in the UAE), taken not long after Jason and I had driven up to Ras Al Khaimah to shoot an abandoned village on the coast.

The abandoned village was a bit of a washout – it's probably the least photogenic location in the UAE, if not the entire world – but the plane turned out to be a lot more interesting.

If you've already followed my previous link to Jason's shot of the exterior you may have noticed the ladder at the side of the plane. When we got there though it had gone but a couple had parked their 4x4 at the side of the plane and had climbed in from its roof. They kindly offered to let us scramble up too, and as there was a pile of tyres and concrete blocks at the other side of the plane we climbed in, confident we'd be able to get out again after they left.

We spent an hour or so photographing various sections of the interior then decided it was about time to leave. At this point I should probably mention that when we first arrived we bumped into an armed security guard/policeman who didn't speak enough English to make himself entirely understood, but did manage to convey that we weren't especially welcome. He also made this clear to quite a few other people who arrived while we were inside the plane: we heard at least two other cars pull up, and then drive away again after he ran out of his office and blew his whistle at them.

Anyway, to get back to the story ...

After we finished shooting I expected we'd be able to climb down the pile of concrete blocks and tyres at the side of the plane. From the perspective of the aircraft door though, which was about nine feet above the ground, it suddenly seemed like a rather risky method of descent. Jumping nine feet down the other side didn't seem like a great idea either so we sat and pondered our fate for a while. I then remembered an old piece of rope I'd seen hanging in the rear of the plane so tied that to the door and, conscious of the fact that the rope was probably not at its best, swung myself down. Jason decided that he'd prefer to climb down onto his car so I walked across the car park to pick it up and drive it over.

At this point the armed guard made a reappearance, spotted Jason sitting in the doorway of the plane, and told me not to "no go". He then got on the phone and started walking over towards Jason, so I got in the car and drove over behind him. I almost got to the plane but he told me to stop and get out of the car. After ten minutes of arguing he let me drive the car up to the plane and Jason climbed down.

The next thirty minutes or so revolved around him alternating between talking on the phone and telling us that we shouldn't be there, while we surreptitiously removed the memory cards from our cameras on the basis that reinforcements were likely to arrive at some point soon. Anyway, to cut a long story short, whoever he was talking to obviously wasn't too interested in coming out to join him because he suddenly decided we were free to leave. I did think about asking him if I could photograph the outside of the plane before we left, but decided that it probably wouldn't be a good idea ;-)

If you're interested you can read Jason's version of the day's events here:

http://www.escapism-online.com/blog-entry.php?pid=320

On a more technical note: this image was constructed from a bracketed sequence of ten shots (with a 1 EV spacing) using Photomatix Pro. If you take a look at the 'original' you can see the tone mapped image and small thumbnails of each exposure at the bottom. The tone mapped image was then adjusted in Photoshop using a ridiculously large amount of adjustment layers to fine tune specific sections of the image. I should also add that I intended to produce something a bit more photorealistic, but the more I worked on it the more surreal and HDR-like it became.

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3.52pm on 15/3/11 Canon 5D Mark II EF 15mm f/2.8 fisheye f/11.0 10 exposures (1/125 to 4s) manual n/a evaluative 100 no RAW Photomatix Pro Photoshop CS5 none no

I arrived in Austin (TX) on Monday evening, and it was relatively warm: which was nice, as it was -15°C (5°F) when I left Bulgaria. Since then, however, the weather has become somewhat more Siberian. Not that I've experienced a Siberian winter, but the bone-chillingly cold winds and predictions of unprecedented amounts of snow here in the normally temperate town of Austin make drawing the comparison seem quite reasonable :)

OK, so I'm exaggerating – a bit – but it has been very cold, and snow is forecast for later today. I'm hoping that it won't be too deep, or will melt quickly if it is, as otherwise it's going to cause serious problems for people trying to get to my HDR workshop tomorrow and my Creating Dramatic Images workshop over the weekend (details here). Incidentally, there have been a couple of last minute weather-related cancellations, so if you would be interested in coming along to either or both workshops take a look at the following page:

http://davewilsonphotography.com/workshops/

Anyway, Dave and I did manage to go out yesterday – to an abandoned feed mill at Johnson City – and I got a few shots that I'm pleased with, including this one. It's an HDR of abandoned fire truck, constructed from six originals, processed and tone mapped with Photomatix Pro. The original (that you can see by hovering over the 'show the original' link beneath the image) is the metered exposure.

As always, let me know what you think.

As I mentioned a few entries ago, Jason and I went to the Jabel Shams (or Jabal Shams or Jebel Shams) canyon in Oman, the second largest canyon in the world. I have quite a few shots that I'll be posting, but thought I'd start with this one, shot on the way back from the end of the canyon. For most of the walk the path was relatively safe – if you had slipped you would have probably ended up getting away with a few cuts and bruises – but there were a few sections where you'd almost certainly have plunged several thousand feet to the bottom. Fortunately, that didn't happen, but my nerves were a bit shredded by the end of the walk. Oh, and in case you're wondering, the path in this shot was one of the safe bits :)

In terms of the post-production: this is an HDR image, processed using Photomatix Pro, and the 'original' image is the metered exposure rather than the tone mapped shot.

In other news ...

Full details regarding both my Austin (TX) workshops are now online – my one day HDR Crash Course and my two day Creating Dramatic Images workshop:

http://davewilsonphotography.com/workshops/

I spoke to Dave Wilson earlier today – who will be coordinating both workshops – and he told me that there are already a number of bookings and a lot of interest, so book soon if you'd like to come along. Just drop Dave an email as follows:

dave AT davewilsonphotography DOT com

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12.36pm on 15/11/10 Canon 5D Mark II EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM 16mm f/8.0 1/60, 1/160 and 1/400 manual n/a evaluative 100 no RAW Photomatix Pro Photoshop CS5 Topaz InFocus minor

Of all the images that I took at Buzludzha, this is my favourite, but I almost didn't process it. Well, I did take a quick look at the images in Photomatix Pro, but couldn't come up with anything that I thought would work all that well so decided to leave this view for another time. When Craig posted his version though I decided that it was definitely worth making more of an effort. Initially, I thought I'd aim for a fairly natural interpretation, much as Craig did, but the more I worked on it the more it seemed that an OTT interpretation would work better.

Anyway, it's still a flawed image (there are some tone mapping issues here and there), but as I've already spent at least four hours working on this one I'm not inclined to do too much more to it at this stage.

As always, let me know what you think.

Oh, and the 'show the original' image is the tone mapped image exported from Photomatix Pro, not one of the original exposure sequence.

According to wikipedia ...

"Buzludzha is a historical peak in the Central Stara Planina mountain range in Bulgaria and is 1441 metres high. In 1868 it was the place of the final battle between Bulgarian rebels led by Hadji Dimitar and Stefan Karadzha and the Turks. In 1891 the socialists, led by Dimitar Blagoev, assembled secretly in the area to form an organised socialist movement. In honour of this act the Buzludzha Monument was built."

However, despite the fact that the monument was opened in 1981, to celebrate the 1300th anniversary of the founding of the Bulgarian state, it's now a ruin: the roof is full of holes, the windows are gone, the murals inside the building are crumbling, and the building is covered in graffiti and anti-communist slogans.

So, that's the history ...

Last Friday, Craig and I headed up there and parked in the car park at the bottom of the hill. We then spent the next 25 minutes dragging ourselves up the extremely steep path, and arrived panting, on the verge of a coronary, at the summit. We then discovered the road, which would have been a slightly easier way to get there :)

Anyway, I'm still researching the building, so can't tell you much more about it at this stage – other than that it's definitely one of the most fascinating buildings I've ever come across – but do have another four shots that I'll post at some point soon. If you're interested, Craig has posted a slightly more natural interpretation of the interior here:

http://www.id7.co.uk/portfolio/archives/1010261900_clean.php

As always, let me know what you think.

On a technical note ...

I've categorised this one as an HDR image, but it's not, at least not in a technical sense. I did use multiple exposures (a bracketed sequence of 11 images: 1 EV spacing, 1/250s to 4s), but manually blended them rather than creating a 32 HDR bit image which I then tone mapped. I did try using Photomatix Pro but, on this occasion, couldn't produce a version I was especially happy with. The 'show the original', in this instance, is the .5s exposure from the original sequence.

While I have become somewhat disenchanted with over-the-top HDR images, it is a technique I'm continuing to explore, not least because it does enable you to produce images that are impossible (or very difficult) to create by any other means. If you take a look at the metered exposure, linked below, you will see what I mean, i.e. the foreground and the area to the right of the image are both very dark.

.../archives/emirates_towers.php

The final image, as you can see, is considerably more vibrant, and the tonal range is more balanced. In short then, in my opinion at least, it's a technique that's great for this type of scene.

Oh, and this is a shot of the Emirates Towers, shot from the DIFC in Dubai.

On a totally different matter: we're currently running a competition to win a lifetime membership to our Photoshop tutorials. If you'd like to take part the details are linked below:

    http://www.chromasia.com/tutorials/online/competition.php

This is my third and final shot of Jumeirah beach (the first two are here and here). Unlike the previous two, this one is an HDR image, processed with Photomatix Pro. In this instance my reason for doing this was to ensure that I captured a full range of tones in both the lightest and darkest areas of the image, i.e. no blocked shadows, no clipped highlights. Of the three, I prefer the level of detail in this one, but think that the first one I posted is probably my favourite of the set. Let me know what you think.

The metered exposure is here:

.../archives/jumeirah_beach_3.php

There wasn't anything especially complex of difficult about the post-production, but if you're interested I cover most of the relevant techniques in my Photoshop for night photography and Toning colour images tutorials. The HDR process is covered in High Dynamic Range images: part two.

It's now day three of Gulf Photo Plus 2010 and I'm about to start my landscape photography workshop. We're heading out to the desert this afternoon, and then back to the DIFC for an urban landscape shoot tomorrow morning. After that it's back to the lab for some post-production training. I'm really looking forward to it.

As for this shot: it was taken down at the Gate Village down at the DIFC and is an HDR, constructed from three exposures (-2 EV to + 2 EV) using Photomatix Pro.

If you're interested, the metered exposure for this sequence is here:

.../archives/gate_village_1.php

First of all, thanks for all the great comments on my last three IR shots. It was fun to try something different, so it was good to see that they were well received.

As for this one: it was taken on the same trip and I think that the object in the shot is the upturned roof of an old caravan or trailer.

In this instance the post-production was relatively straightforward, but if you take a look at the original you will see that I made quite a few changes:

.../archives/untitled_0085.php

The most obvious change is I flipped the image horizontally, but you will also notice that the roof and foreground are quite a bit brighter in the final version. In this case I used Photomatix Pro to produce a pseudo-HDR version (as described in this tutorial), which I then blended with the original image. The final changes involved toning the image, as discussed in this tutorial, and a 16x9 crop.

As always, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

I was going to post another of the shots I took while out and about with Theis Dahl at the weekend, but I went back up to the Wyre wrecks on Tuesday and shot some new material. As you can see from the title, this is 16th image I've posted in this series, but it's the first new one since September 2007 as each time I've been back I've struggled to find a new angle; i.e. I ended up duplicating, or near-duplicating previous shots.

On Tuesday though, I tried something different, but rather than explain it I'd be interested to hear if any of you can work out what's different about this one. I should say that this is a pseudo-HDR image, created with Photomatix Pro as described in the following tutorial:

.../tutorials/online/hdr3_info.php

In this instance though, this isn't what I'm referring to; i.e. there's something else too.

Let me know if you need a clue ;)

First of all, many thanks for all the great comments on my last three shots - the 'after the rain' series featuring Rhowan and Harmony - they're very much appreciated :)

As for this one ...

One of the things I like about shooting HDR images is that you can shoot in even the harshest sunlight, when a single shot would be a complete waste of time. For example, if you take a look at the metered exposure for this scene you will see that it contains a range of clipped highlight and shadow detail; i.e. the dynamic range of the original scene was too high for a single shot.

.../archives/ganchovets_station_2.php

In this instance, as are most of my HDR images, this one was constructed with Photomatix Pro, from a seven shot sequence (as described in this tutorial), and as with my previous shot of one of the Ganchovets station buildings, I was aiming to produce a reasonably moderate image. In this case, it is fairly obvious that this is an HDR image, but I do think that it retains some sense of photorealism.

As always, let me know what you think.

Update: for a slightly different interpretation, taken one month earlier, take a look at this shot: posted by Craig a short while ago.

As promised, here's the first shot of our local environment over here in Bulgaria. It's one of the station buildings, just down the road from our house, and despite the rather dilapidated appearance it is inhabited.

On a related note: taking this shot reminded me that it's been too long since I pointed my camera at something other than the kids; i.e. I really struggled to think of a way to photograph this building from this angle without replicating this shot: taken by Craig on his recent trip over here. As you can see though (if you've clicked the link), despite spending some time pursuing alternative angles, I ended up taking exactly the same shot. Despite the blatant compositional plagiarism though, I am pleased with how this one turned out.

And if you're interested, it's an HDR image constructed with Photomatix Pro from a seven shot sequence. In this instance, the settings were fairly moderate; i.e. I wanted to create a vaguely photorealistic final image rather than something more over-the-top.

As always, let me know what you think.

Update: following mikelangelo's comment (below) regarding the haloing around the building I decided to do a bit more work on this one. The original (slightly haloed) version is here:

.../archives/ganchovets_station_1.php

This is my last shot from my recent trip to the 2009 Gulf Photo Plus training event, and like the previous seven shots in this small series it was shot down in the Souk. Unlike the others in this series though, this one is a pseudo-HDR image, not because I especially wanted to produce an HDR-like image, but because the original a) lacked detail, and b) was slightly over-exposed. If you're interested you can take a look at the original here:

.../archives/souk_portrait_8.php

And you can find out more about creating pseudo-HDR images from a single RAW file here:

.../tutorials/online/hdr3_info.php

In this instance, running the image through Photomatix Pro enabled me to really bring out the detail in the original and, because I used reasonably conservative settings, the end result still looks fairly natural.

As always, let me know what you think.

While my shot of the Burj Dubai reminded me of Gotham city, this one reminds me of Tracy Island from the Thunderbirds. Mind you, I suspect that quite a few of you are a bit too young to remember the Thunderbirds, but it was one of my favourite programmes when I was a young lad.

Anyway, reminiscing aside: this is a shot of the Emirates Towers in Dubai, shot from the roof of the DIFC. In fact, if you take a look at the shot I posted the other day – Sheikh Zayed Road – you can see roughly where I was shooting from; i.e. the DIFC is the square/arched building immediately in front of the Emirates Towers.

As with that shot, this one was also constructed with FDRTools from a sequence of seven bracketed exposures. And if you're interested, there's a slightly larger version here:

.../iblog/archives/tracy_island.php

As always, let me know what you think.

On a related matter: my latest Creative workflow tutorial went live yesterday. It's based on my shot of the Burj Dubai and the fountain. If you're interested, there's some more info here:

.../tutorials/online/cw_info.php

And finally ...

I'm heading out to Bulgaria next week. I'm driving over, with my good mate Craig – www.id7.co.uk – and leave first thing on Monday morning. I'm picking Craig up just north of London, after which we're driving down to catch the 5.50pm Dover to Calais ferry. When we get to France we're going to drive for a few more hours and will probably get some way into Belgium, maybe Germany. The following day we're aiming to head down through Germany, Austria and Hungary, and on the last day we're planning on driving through Romania then drop down into Bulgaria from the north. From there it's another hour and a half to our village. All in all it's around 1900 miles, so I imagine that we'll be fairly tired by the time we get there, but the first job on Thursday morning will be sorting out internet access and getting back online.

This one was taken from the same vantage point as this one; i.e. 82 floors up the part-finished Nasa Multiplex, and is a shot of buildings that flank either side of the Sheikh Zayed road, the main drag from the airport to the centre of the city. Unlike my shot of the Burj Dubai this one is an HDR: a seven shot sequence constructed with FDRTools.

On a totally different matter, and with apologies to those of you who already read the following when I posted it on twitter, I wanted to let you know about a couple of new services I've introduced on chromasia. If you take a look at most of the (larger) images on chromasia you will see a 'Buy Print' and 'Send as E-card' beneath them, both of which are provided by Fotomoto. I'm currently beta-testing both services and have been very impressed so far, especially with the 'Buy Print' option. In the past our method of providing prints was a bit cumbersome; i.e. people needed to email me, then send a manual payment through PayPal, after which I'd upload the image to the printing company we use, get it back, mail it out, and so on. Fotomoto, on the other hand, provide an automated service; i.e. you can order prints in a variety of sizes and all I need to do is upload the high-res' file when a particular image is ordered.

If you're interested, just click either of the links to see how they work or take a look at this New York Times article which summarises the aims of the company and what they hope to provide to the photographic communit. Personally, I'm really excited by this as it will allow us to provide high-quality prints, to a world-wide audience, in a much simpler way than previously.

And finally, if you are interested in ordering any of my images as a print, Fotomoto are offering free worldwide delivery for the next week or so, so now would be a great time to try out the service :)

If you were a visitor at around this time last year you will probably remember that I posted quite a few shots of the Dubai International Financial Centre (The Gate #1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7). When I shot it last year I was working on a project for a local gallery, and thoroughly enjoyed the shoot, but I certainly didn't expect to be shooting it again this year.

A couple of months ago though the DIFC got in touch as they'd found my 2008 images and wanted to licence them. They also asked me to spend another three days shooting the building and the Gate Village (comprised of shops, restaurants and galleries). So I've spent the last fews days shooting, and have a couple of thousand images to work through over the coming weeks. I probably won't post quite as many as I did last year, as I'm hoping to shoot some personal material while I'm here too, but I did think that this one was worth sharing.

As with a lot of my recent stuff, it's a seven-shot HDR, but in this instance it was processed with FDRTools rather than Photomatix Pro.

As always, let me know what you think, even if it is to tell me that you're totally fed up with me posting HDR images :)