I must have processed this shot at least ten times since I shot it back in April of this year, and up until today I couldn't come up with a version I liked. This one I'm happy with.

While pretty much everyone enjoyed the Blackpool Pride Festival there were a handful of slightly less cheerful folk.

Three portraits from yesterday's Blackpool Pride Festival in Blackpool, all of which were shot with the Fujifilm X-T1 and 90mm f/2 (my new favourite lens). As always, it was a great event, with lots of great characters.

I really should explain this one, but I thought it might be more interesting if I didn't.

One from the archives today, shot during my Landscape Photography workshop for Gulf Photo Plus in November of 2013.

Another early morning shot from our Venice Carnival Photo Tour.

While my last shot of death was intentionally spooky (and maybe not 100% successful as a result) this one's spookiness is almost entirely accidental - never shoot at 0.8s if you want a sharp shot :)

When I first edited this image I produced something that looked very similar to the original, as I have another shot of this guy that tells a much better story so this one would have made a good comparison, but the more I looked at it the less I liked it: it was drab, the light was dull and flat, and the mood was wrong. It's just a guy, in a costume, against a fairly bland background.

The final version is an attempt to tell a more sympathetic story. That said, I'm out of my comfort zone with this one so would be interested to hear whether you think this works.

Another early morning shot from our recent Venice Carnival Photo Tour.

I'm now back in the UK after a great week running our 2016 Venice Carnival Photo Tour. It was a 14 hour trip to get home, so I won't write much now, but I do want to say that this is definitely one of my favourite shots from the whole tour: taken at Ponte dell'Accademia a couple of days ago.

Many thanks to Saadia for suggesting I process this one, as despite appearances to the contrary this one turned out quite well.

Here's another shot from our 2016 Venice Carnival Photo Tour, taken early yesterday morning down at St. Mark's Square.

When I took this shot of Libby I was drawn by the contrasting colours and the way her clothes and boots matched the autumn landscape, but when I processed it it was the shape and form that held my attention - the colours became distracting.

This is definitely one of my favourite portraits in recent months: a shot of our good friend Dionne, shot with an IR converted X-E2 and the new 90mm f/2.

If you're a Fuji shooter you'll already know that all their lenses are good, but the 90mm is truly excellent, even wide open. I'd definitely recommend you try it out if you haven't done so.

This is a follow-up to the shot I posted yesterday, and while I like the abstract quality of that one I much prefer the almost surreal feel to this one.

This is the first of two related images that were taken during my Shoot the Street workshop at this years GPP event. Both were shot at the same spot - the plastic curtains that divide the fish market from the meat section - and of the two I prefer the one I'll be posting tomorrow: it's less abstract, but has a surreal quality that I like.

One of the things I like most about photographing at the fish market in Dubai is also one of the things that makes it most difficult - the vast majority of people there want to be photographed. For example, every time I've been there in recent years I've run into the guy on the right, and every time I've photographed him with much the same serious expression. As best I can tell, he's a humorous guy, who laughs and smiles while talking to you, but he has a serious face for the camera :-)

On this occasion he complicated things by grabbing the guy on the left. They may know each other, but the impression I got at the time was that he was just standing there minding his own business - hence the rather puzzled expression.

So, not exactly a candid shot, nor much of an environmental portrait, but I like it nonetheless.

One of the things I like most about the Middle East is that the people, for the most part, are genuinely friendly and open to being photographed: stick a camera in their face, even when they're busy or distracted, and they'll smile. Some of the time I think this is down to the inherent politeness of the region, but most of the time they're interested and open because you're interested in them.

As for this shot: it was taken during my Shoot the Street workshop at the recent Gulf Photo Plus.​ training event in March.

I'd love to be able to tell you a great story about this image, but as I asked Catalin to pose against the fence, I can't :-)

The third and final shot in this small series, and one that may be a bit difficult to work out if you haven't seen either of the other two.