Something a little closer to home this evening, caught before the recent snow, and the lunacy that came after, in a moment of sheer sunshine, that lasted an afternoon.

I actually got lucky on both of the weekends immediately after my trip North, and to be honest loved every moment of it. It was such a nice feeling just being out and about with the camera, I really enjoyed the moment. It was like I was breathing through my camera, if that makes sense.

I saw this image and was hoping he would move a little to his left, in fact I was hoping for a couple of bollards to the left, but it never happened so rather than miss the frame I shot it anyway. The original un-edited frame is here...............

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The frame looked ok, but as I studied it there were elements that p*st me off, and just of curiosity I flipped it and found this image in there.

It is a little heavier on the crop than I'd normally go, but felt helped along by getting a second opinion from DJN. I like the image now, and didn't feel the need to edit it too far tonally. As always looking forward to your thoughts. csj..... go flip one of your own and see what you end up with!!!

I had fun shooting this stuff, Pauls kids are great for getting to play with lighting and to test the safety of the studio as a whole. We are generally pleased, and its not long now, until we get our first paying customer and all this effort would have been worth it.

Had a team meeting with Paul and we are back on track to get the last bits done.

Looking to get some edgy portraits now, need a bit of teenage angst in the window, if that makes sense. I'm sure we can find the right person...... the towns full of them!! ;-)

Fun in the sun on Sunday....an image from when I had the light (not that I'm a huge fan of burning sunlight), but not the eye... that said, on second viewing I found a few frames I quite liked, not sure this is my favourite. But it had a little something I quite liked. csj

Fantastic light today, very harsh, very bright, saw a house fire (well the end of it), got trounced in a ball pit, met a blue dinosaur with a tongue piercing, and walked a hole in the bottom of a shoe having walked around the whole of Poole 3 times.

But only took 4 half decent shots on the best weekend for photography in ages.... guess thats the way it goes sometimes..... csj

Thanks for last nights / todays' comments. I am of course an avid fan of Dave's work, which has gotten me in trouble and slated by some. But by most who understand this type of image making and passion for photography it makes complete sense, but it has raised a few questions about my relationship with Chromasia over the last 4 years.

I would like to clear up a couple of things. Sometimes life throws you a lucky ball, and about 4 years ago, I was looking for a new inspiration for my photography, something very close to my heart and I was lucky enough to spring a conversation with Dave via email, having found his site via a google. With no strict direction for ID7 at the time I knew this was where I wanted to be, so slowly I taught myself the way to code this crazy Moveabletype Interface. I did and with a lot of too'ing and fro'ing with emails, and by asking the right questions Dave revealed (not entirely) the make up of Chromasia, at the time I wanted ID7 to be unique, but I saw in Chromasia everything that inspired me in imagery and so I aspired and pestered Dave to help code big chunks of ID7.

So whilst its not a complete copy, I did model it on Daves' site, as it made the challenge slightly easier and it gave me a goal, and a structure to follow. Realising the re-ordering of the templates and recoding certain pieces to work in a particular way. So that's why today it's still reminicent of early Chromasia, and I'm happy to keep it that way for the foreseeable future, albeit that now anyone can have a photoblog with the help of pixelpost or similar.... So I would like to say thanks once again to Dave for his patience and friendship over the last few years......

This image was shot with the idea of showing more of the coastal erosion on the South Coast, and something I don't do that often which is just to Red channel mix to black and white, job done..... it feels naked to me, and needs to be finished, but I thought I'd throw it in the mix to see what you all think. I do love pure black and white..... csj

This is my interpretation of what might happen after we loose everything from neglect. I still don't understand why the National Trust won't shore up sea defenses... these old trees will be chomped by the sea, the shot shows mudflats and the tide in the distance, and where I was stood was seriously boggy, and had tide lines, so this must all disappear under water at somepoint during the day....

oh and this shot looks nice against the B (black) option on the top menu....csj

So that was a challenge, but it seems for the foreseeable future I am locked into this older version of the engine that drives this site. Never mind. It works and it works well, I just don't like being left behind. So to that end I'm going to recode the entire site offline and make it work in the newer platform, then bring it online when its perfect. That was it, back to business as usual.

This image was caught down a side street in Poole at the back of the old Iron Mongers on the highstreet, just after the fire earlier in the year, which ripped through the neighbouring building. I thought we'd lost this shop, but luckily we hadn't. Its one of the last traditional old shops on the highstreet, a vritable aladdins cave of nic naks...

It reminds me of an old shop I used to go to when I was younger and living in WGC, the name slips my mind but it too had everything....

I decided to drop this image to black and white using hte channel mixer and the red channel as the image itself contained a lot of red. The rest of the sdjustments were in the curves, and a tone added on the yellow channel of one of these curves....csj

Update: A friend has just told me the the shops name I used to visit was Kershaws in WGC... ah the old days! ;-) csj

So it's all officially over for another 12months. If you haven't taken down the decs, then GO DO IT NOW else you'll have bad luck (allegedly), and its back to the grindstone tomorrow for most of us. I am looking forward to it, but in a lot of ways I'll miss the time at home with the kids, and just relaxing (obviously). I am excited about the next 12months though, and I have a book to put together, and a lot of work re-jigging ID7 to the way I want it to be.

I am also thinking of introducing guest photographer posts to the site, and audio interviews in podcast (mp3) format to discuss technique and experiences. I have a few names in mind, and will let you know later in the year about when this might occur.

This image is from a walk out today, and really for me summed up the 12th Day of Christmas nicely. Enjoy ;-)

Sorry, I couldn't resist this one, it was literally on a plate. I'm not usually one for boats, but the last two shots, and tommorows maybe another were all shot along the quayside, yesterday when I was out. The wind was up and it was bracing to say the least...... it was also a nice little try out for the 50mm, it plays very nicely with manual focus, and I am very happy with it.

Any fellow Canon owners out there wish to comment on this lens, I am very surprised at its quality over cost. Very very good.

Thanks for stopping by.... csj

Went out today with the 'nifty fifty' as its lovingly known and thought I'd test it out on the front of the 20D, it went really well, its wierd after spending time with a zoom going back to prime lenses, but it made for some interesting battles with composition. I also used manual focus as its commonly known not to trust this lens near wide open with the auto focus, as I found out to my peril on the first bunch of shots off this lens.

Anyway live and learn.

Today though I am very pleased with its resolving power at smaller apertures, and it has definately earnt its place in the camera bag as a manual focus prime. An absolute bargain at around 50 UK pounds.

I got a few frames off, and I hoping if the light is good tommorow to do the same, but will have to wait and see.

Finlay said OI OI OI today and thought it was hilarious.....uhmmmm

Thanks for popping along.... csj

Santa brought me a lens ;-) - A Canon 50 1.8 EF Mark II, its gonna take some getting used to, its definately quirky compared to my L series lenses. But hey its all about trying new things right!

So heres my mum, the 'Santa' that bought me the lens, asking what its going to do for me, and whether it will 'improve' my photography, uhmmm.

I started shooting....... theres a pause in the conversation.

'So what happens to these pictures you take?'...she asks

...Well I edit the ones I like, and post them on the blog for everyone to look at. ;-)

Mums eh!, where would we be without one.?! - csj