This was taken yesterday evening during my Creating Dramatic Images workshop. We'd headed down to South Shore (Blackpool) and photographed the sunset, the waves at dusk, and this, the largest mirror ball in the UK. “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” was created by Michael Trainor in 2002 and named after the US film about dance marathons. There are 47,000 tiles or thereabouts, none of which you can see in this shot, but only because it rotates and this was a 10s exposure.

I have another five shots from the weekend that I'll post soon, but, in the meanwhile, let me know what you think of this one.

This was shot on Saturday evening after the first day of my Creating Dramatic Images workshop: a thirty second exposure, taken a few minutes before high tide.

This is a shot of the Jumeirah Beach Residences taken from the lowest frond of the Palm in Dubai while I was running my Shoot The City, Day & Night workshop that I ran at the GPP Fotoweekend training event in November. It's also the image that GPP are using to advertise the next occurrence of this workshop at GPP 2012. If you think you might be interested in attending, take a look at all the workshops that will be running this year. It's always a great event, but this year's line-up is truly fantastic.

In other news, if you haven't had a chance yet, head on over and take a look at my new photography and post-production blog. There's only one post so far, detailing what I'm going to be including, but I've also asked for some feedback from you, particularly in terms of what you'd like me to include. So have a look at my first post and let me know what you think.

And finally, I have a few one-to-one training dates coming up – February 24th, May 17th and May 21st–24th. If you're interested, take a look at our events page and one-to-one training page for further details.

captured camera lens focal length aperture shutter speed shooting mode exposure bias metering mode ISO flash image quality RAW converter image editor plugins (etc) cropped?

6.00pm on 15/11/11 Canon 5D Mark II EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM 35mm f/9.0 30s manual n/a evaluative 100 no RAW Camera Raw Photoshop CS5 none 16x9

This was taken on Blackpool beach, facing north towards Fleetwood, at around 9pm last Friday evening. We'd been down on the beach photographing this year's International Fireworks competition (which was a bit disappointing in comparison to some of the other display's I've seen in recent years) and then decided to hang around and do some night photography.

If you've already taken a look at the original you'll see that a) I used two images, and b) that the final version is quite different to both of them.

I did plan on shooting this as a single frame (the image on the left) but the sky in the upper-right section ended up being very bright and featureless. The reason for this is that the clouds were drifting across the sky during the two minute exposure (f/5.6, ISO 100). The other shot started out as a test image, taken to calculate the exposure time I'd need for the longer exposure. There are different ways to do this, but I typically shoot at f/2.8 and ISO 6400, and then work out the exposure from there. The benefit of doing this is that you can easily calculate the exposure you need, but you can also check the composition (often difficult when it's very dark).

So, the exposure for the test shot was 0.6s at f/2.8 and ISO 6400, which translates to 2 minutes at f/5.6 and ISO 100.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, the sky looked better in the test shot, but the detail in the lower section was compromised through shooting at f/2.8 and ISO 6400, so I merged the two and then noise reduced the sky from the test shot. I also changed the white balance of both shots (to almost blue), tweaked the contrast, then added shifted the saturation and tone to produce a darker, colder shade.

Let me know if you think it was worth the effort.

Every year at the main Gulf Photo Plus training event we set aside one evening to go out as a group: all the instructors, Mohamed and Hala who run and organise the event, many of the other staff who are involved, the assistants, and so on. In past year's we've visited Ravi's (a fantastic Pakistani restaurant), another year we went to a fish restaurant, but this year we had a picnic on the beach, quite close to the Burj-al-Arab. There was plenty of great food even better company, and the opportunity to paddle in the Gulf.

I also decided to take some shots of the Burj-al-Arab and the reflections in the water. I took some shots from the beach but then moved onto a concrete structure running out into the sea. I'm not sure what it was for, but there was a huge pile of sand behind it, so I guess it's the start of some new project. Anyway, the paddling was fun, but the shots were less rewarding.

Here's a typical example ...

As you can see, it's nothing special. It's kind of nice to take the shot simply to record the fact that I was there, but it would have been much better if we'd been there at dusk when there would have still been some light in the sky. Anyway, the net result is an OK documentary shot, but nothing I would blog.

Fortunately though, I found something else to photograph ...

As many of you know, I like to photograph things that are easily overlooked – maybe small objects on the ground, obscure details, unusual objects – things that are there, but not immediately obvious. In this case, as you can probably imagine if you take a look at the shot below, I almost didn't spot this one, mostly because it was just so dark. This is the concrete structure I mentioned, lit by the Burj and other buildings in the distance, and it was so dark that it was almost impossible to compose the shot.

Once I had spotted though I was determined to get the shot, but it proved to be a bit difficult, mostly because I didn't have my remote release with me so could either shoot sub-30s exposures or hold the shutter button down for several minutes in bulb mode (which is never a good idea). Instead then I switched to ISO 800, f/8, and shot a range of 30s exposures. I was fairly sure I'd nailed it so wandered back to the group.

The more I looked at it though the more it looked like a bodged shot. It was fine on the LCD, but the depth of field was too shallow, there was a fair amount of noise, and I decided I needed to tweak the composition. So I went back and shot it again.

This time though I shot at ISO 400 (less noise) and switched to f/5.6 to compensate. This meant that the depth of field was now even more shallow, so to compensate I shot five exposures, each focussed on a different part of the structure. In the first the detail in the foreground is sharp, in the next the detail just beyond that, through to the final shot where the horizon is sharp. I then stacked and masked these images in Photoshop to create a combined version with a much larger depth of field.

After that it was just a simple matter of adding a few curves, taking the noise out of the sky, and boosting the saturation.

Motto of the story: there's nearly always a good shot you can take, you just need to pause long enough and look hard enough to find it.

captured camera lens focal length aperture shutter speed shooting mode exposure bias metering mode ISO flash image quality RAW converter image editor plugins (etc) cropped?

9.32pm on 10/3/11 Canon 5D Mark II EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM 24mm f/5.6 25s manual n/a evaluative 100 no RAW Camera Raw Photoshop CS5 Topaz Detail minor

It's now Sunday, and I'm back in the UK for a week before heading back to Bulgaria. As always, Gulf Photo Plus was a lot of fun, not least because I got to meet up with some old friends from previous years, including: Bobbi Lane, Chris Hurtt, Robin Nichols, Joe McNally, Zack Arias, David Hobby, Mohamed Somji, and Hala Salhi. It was also a real pleasure to meet the new instructors at this year's event: Joey Lawrence, Vincent LaForet, Matt Kloskowski, Melissa Rodwell and Steve Simon.

If you're not familiar with the event, it's organised around a series of workshops. For example, Zack does a one-light workshop (amongst other things), I do a range of shooting and post-production sessions, Vincent did a week long session on using the 5D II to shoot video, and so on. There's also quite a lot of socialising, most notably at the Vista Bar on the roof of our hotel, and a range of other events, sessions, exhibitions, and so on.

One of the highlights of this year's event was a live shoot-out between Zack Arias, David Hobby and Joey Lawrence that took place during the closing ceremony. Each of them had 25 minutes to shoot and post-process a shot of two models, in front of an audience of several hundred photographers and students. David went first, and used about six "voice activated" light-stands (aka people with cameras and flash guns that were slaved to David's camera) to create a great, paparazzi style shot of the models. I don't think he's posted it online yet, but I'll link through when he does. Zack used three lights, and created an equally stunning shot. Joey, on the other hand, went for a slightly less sophisticated approach and shot a polaroid.

Update: David's take on the shoot-out is here:

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2010/03/speedlights-at-twenty-paces.html

Anyway, I'll tell you more about the event and everything else that went on later this week, but for now, here's another shot of the Jumeirah beach taken while I was out with Catalin Marin and Robin Nichols. The content is fairly similar to the previous one I posted, but I decided to process this one in a slightly different way. As always, let me know what you think.

Oh, and if you've been following my Facebook updates you'll know that ended up in the Emirates hospital on Friday evening, suffering from disturbingly painful stomach cramps. I'm still not quite sure what the problem was, but after taking a variety of tablets for a couple of days I now feel a whole lot better. At which point I should definitely thank Khaled for driving me to the hospital and Miriam for driving out there too to look after me.

I arrived in Dubai on Friday morning, but didn't manage to get out shooting until yesterday afternoon. I took a trip to the Palm Jumeirah, with my good friends Catalin Marin and Robin Nichols, and while my pre-twilight shots aren't great, I'm pleased with at least three of the ones I shot after sunset. I'm not sure if I'll post all three: the post-production is quite different for each one, but they share much the same content. I'll see.

And if you're interested, the original (Camera Raw default version) is here:

.../archives/jumeirah_beach_1.php

And I would write more, but I have some work to do this afternoon, after which I'm heading off to the Mall of the Emirates to attend the opening night of the in the blink of an eye' exhibition (which features six of my beachcombing images). The other photographers who are exhibiting their work are Joe McNally, Joey L, Melissa Rodwell, Steve Simon and Zack Arias, so I'm definitely feeling honoured that I was asked to take part.

After that it will be time to hit the sack as my first GPP workshop kicks off bright and early at 8.00am ... and I'm so not a morning person ;) I am looking forward to it though :)

I don't have too much to say about this one other than that it's one from about 100 shots I took while being a passenger in a variety of vehicles in Dubai. Of the 100, this is the only one worth posting, but I'm pleased with how it turned out.

As always, let me know what you think.

On a different matter: I'm pleased to say that we've announced the winners of our Creative Point of View competition for our tutorial subscribers. If you're interested, there's some more info and the winning shots here:

http://www.chromasia.com/news/

When I was younger I used to enjoy climbing – not in a north face of the Eiger sort of way, but I did enjoy it. The older I've got though, the more I really don't like heights, so struggled a bit with this one. It was taken from the helipad of the building I shot the Burj Dubai from, and what made it especially unnerving was that there were absolutely no safety measures: no guard rails, no netting, just a long drop down.

Anyway, I was perfectly safe, and didn't get within five feet of the edge, but my knees were feeling decidedly rubbery by the time I'd composed the shot and taken the three images I used for the HDR. And if you're interested, the building on the right of this image is the one that was on the left of my shot of the Burj Dubai; i.e. this one was taken about 90° to the left.

The shot I'm going to put up tomorrow, while nowhere near as dramatic, is probably one of my favourite HDRs in recent months. It was also taken from much nearer the ground :-)

This one was taken from the same building as yesterday's, but from the 24th floor rather than the 34th, and the angle of view is about 90° to the right. Personally, I prefer yesterday's, but I thought I'd post this one too. I also have one, shot from a bit higher up the building, but I'm going to post that one on Monday.

The tall building you can see in the distance is the Burj Dubai, which earlier this month became the world's tallest structure at 629m – a shade over two thousand feet. When it's finished it's expected to exceed 700m and have over 160 floors. To put that in perspective, this shot was taken from round about the 34th floor of an apartment building; i.e. the Burj Dubai will eventually be around five times higher than this vantage point. When it's finished I'd really like to take a shot from the top :-)

I took two more shots from this building that I like, one of which I'll post tomorrow, the other of which will go up on Monday.

Oh, and many thanks for all the great comments on yesterday's image – they were much appreciated.

This isn't quite as good as the shots I took at last year's international fireworks competition (here and here), but I'm quite pleased with the way it turned out – it's colourful if nothing else. Last year I had the benefit of access to the pier, from where the fireworks were launched, but this year we were a bit further back – on the esplanade just north of the North Pier. It was a good vantage point, but the shots I took are not quite as dynamic as I would have liked.

In terms of the EXIF data: I haven't posted it because all the shots I took were shot on bulb, with an aperture of f/16, ISO 100, and shutter speeds ranging from one to around eight seconds. I definitely have one more to put up, which is a bit different from this one, but I'm not sure about the rest. If any of them are OK, I'll put them up.

I don't think this one is quite in the same league as yesterday's, but it does do a reasonably good job of demonstrating quite how hectic it can get when you're close to a big display. What I probably didn't make clear yesterday is that the crowd were viewing this display from the promenade and the display was launched from the pier. I was with the launching team, about one third of the way down the pier; probably a few hundred feet from the sea-front. It wasn't the best angle from which to view the display, but it was certainly a lot more exciting than either standing with everyone else or shooting the display from the beach.

As with yesterday's this was shot at f/16, but this one was a nine second exposure. And in this instance I've cropped a 3x2 portrait format shot to a 3x2 landscape one. Normally, I wouldn't post anything that had been cropped so drastically, but with fireworks the only viable option is to set up your camera and try and work out what will end up in the shot. In this one, there's a considerable amount of blown out areas in the original so I could bin it or crop it.

There's a final display next Friday so I'll try and come up with another interesting location to shoot from, either that or I'll shoot from the pier again.

Three weeks ago today I mentioned that it was the start of the International Fireworks competition is Blackpool. Every Friday since then there has been a display: from Croatia, Italy, France and China. I also mentioned that a) I'd put up a shot from each display, and b) it would be a creative interpretation of a fireworks shot. Well, as the eagle-eyed among you may have noticed, I only posted the first rather odd one, and there haven't been any since up until this one, from China's display earlier this evening.

I have been photographing them, but I was commissioned by Blackpool Tourism – which has been great – but I haven't had too much leeway to experiment (the displays only last for about 25 minutes) so have taken quite a number of standard fireworks shots, which were fun to take, do a good job of showing the fireworks in relation to Blackpool Tower and the pier (from which they were launched), but I haven't felt like posting them here.

I think that the main problem is that I don't much like images of fireworks. They're great fun to shoot, but not overly riveting to look at, so up until this evening I haven't produced anything I felt like sharing. This one though, I like a lot more.

In previous weeks I've shot from the beach, but tonight I was on the pier alongside the crew who were launching the display and this is one from about 140 shots, taken at f/16 with an exposure of two seconds.

First of all, my apologies for not managing to post anything yesterday, but by the time I had some free time I was feeling terrible, so went to bed instead. I've now posted an image to cover yesterday's shot: it's not a great photograph, but it does contextualise mine and Paul's experience.

As for this one: I don't think it's as striking as the previous one (thanks for all your comments on that one) but there are two things I like about it: the apparent left-right shift from night to day, and the mix of sodium lighting and the much colder light of the moon.

Update: following a couple of the initial comments I've darkened this one slightly.

I'm cheating a bit with this one, i.e. posting it a day late yet dating it the 10th, but I thought it would be a good one to fill the gap between the two night shots of the wrecks. In this one you can see Paul on his side of the roof with the shore in the distance behind him. Fortunately, it was already past high-tide at this point so, despite both being absolutely frozen, we were beginning to relax a little in the knowledge that we weren't about to a) be submerged, or b) make total fools of ourselves by calling the coast guard ;-)

I went back to the wrecks last night, with Paul, and what should have been a gentle stroll under the stars turned into something a little more adventurous ... to say the least. It was 11.30pm, and the tide was coming in as we were taking a shot of one of the boats.

We checked the tide times on Paul's web-enabled phone, and confirmed that high tide was 11.36pm. So, almost high tide, but we were getting our feet wet. We decided to climb aboard one of the boats I'd photographed before – wyre wreck #5 – and wait until the tide receded. We took a few shots and noticed that the tide was still rising – it was now about a foot deep around the boat. We pondered for a while, and it got deeper. At this point it was beginning to look as though we were stuck on the boat for a while.

When it started filling the bottom of the boat we decided we better climb onto what was left of the roof, Paul on one side, me on the other. We checked the website again and found out that the tide time were GMT, not British summertime; i.e. high tide was expected at around 12.36pm.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, the tide came within three feet of the roof of the boat, by which point we were several hundred yards from the shore, and we didn't manage to get off again until 2.30am by which point we were frozen silly. Still, I did get this shot and we didn't have to call the coast guard, so all in all the trip probably counts as a success ;-)

Oh, and I haven't put up the EXIF data but this was taken at 17mm (or thereabouts) and was a four minute exposure at f/5.6.

First of all, thanks for all the great comments on yesterday's shot – as I write this it's my 11th most commented entry. Admittedly, loads of them were written by me, but it's still not bad ;-)

Anyway, here's the last in this short series and I really can't decide between this one and yesterday's. That said, if I had to choose one of them I guess it might be yesterday's. Oh, I don't know – you tell me.

One interesting point, that I nearly forgot about: the bright lines on the horizon (towards the left-edge of the image, and from the right edge to around a quarter of the way in) are boat trails; i.e. boats moving along the horizon during this eight minute exposure.

On a related note: I bought one of those little spirit levels that you attach to the flash hot-shoe of your camera the other day and I have to say that it was brilliant for night photography. Under normal circumstances getting the horizon level at night – i.e. when you probably can't see it – is a bit of a hit or miss affair. The spirit level, which was only a few pounds, has already saved me loads of time and effort and I definitely recommend you get one if you're going to do any night shooting.

At the risk of boring you all to death, here's the second of three night shots of Fleetwood pier, all of which have been processed rather differently.

One of the things I really love about night photography is the ability to turn darkness into light, and while last night wasn't pitch black – it's only a few days until the full moon – there didn't seem to be a great deal of light around. Another thing I enjoy is deciding on the colour balance of a shot. Out of the camera, at least if you don't set the white balance, most shots have an orange cast as a result of the light pollution from the sodium lamps used in most towns and cities. This shot (and yesterday's and tomorrow's) was much the same, a rather insipid orange/brown. So, rather than leave it that way, or go for a more 'natural' look (as with yesterday's shot), I thought I'd try something different with this one. And just for once, the argument that it's been Photoshopped is, IMO, irrelevant; i.e. when you can't really see the scene in the first place it's more difficult to argue that one interpretation is more appropriate than another ;-)

Oh, and I can't decide which is my favourite of the three, this one, or tomorrow's; so I'll be interested to hear your thoughts.

My apologies for this being a bit late, but I didn't have anything to put up this evening so went out night shooting. And, what with one thing and another, I'm rather behind schedule this evening.

As for this shot: it's yet another photograph of Fleetwood Pier, and while I'm not 100% happy with it, I did enjoy spending an hour or so on the beach and will probably go out again over the next few days if the weather holds out.