I really enjoyed our little excursion last weekend, we made the effort to spend out Tesco vouchers on the ascent of the Spinnaker tower. Frustrating photographically speaking though as you can only shoot through glass from the top. Whilst this can lead to some interesting images, the glass was tinted with Green, I imagine to cut back UV or some such, or maybe because esthetically from the exterior it looks quite striking. But its rubbish to photograph through.

Anyway I gave it a go. The views were amazing, but like a lot of views, they should only be kept in your memory, some photos just don't work. I'm not saying this image is a classic, but I was interested in the movement of the the human shadows and forms directly below through the glass floor and through the structure. I shot quite a few of these types of image, but typical bad luck , I never had the perfect combination of numbers of people, and position of shadows.

Thank you for all the comments. I don't have a lot to say about this image, it was merely a detail of the building I shot of Ganchovets Station whilst in BG with @chromasia.

I have been in a bad place since I realized that I have been done by a complete fraudster on AMAZON of all places. I mistakenly ordered a camera on Amazon not realizing I was buying from a third party. Who then transpired to be ripping off everyone that placed an order with him. Several people in the sellers area started posting stories of fake emails by RODNEYJWILLIS, and false tracking details. I felt such a tosser for ordering from an unknown source, I spend most of my days telling people to be careful online. Ironic really. I feel like naming and shaming him, maybe I should if for no other reason than to prevent anyone else from making the same mistake. But it follows the adage if a deal looks too good to be true, then it probably is. In this case it was a Canon G10 for £40GBP less than anyone else was selling them for. I wasn't thinking straight.... and hence , my current minor depression around the fact I'm now £325GBP out of pocket..... Live and learn...... csj

A view that became common place during the trip, but one that needed recording for posterity. The flies, bugs and wiper marks from the drive to Bulgaria will remain in my mind for a long while......

Now when I saw this shot in my mind sat next to DJN I realized that it would only be a matter of time before he interprets this scene himself and pulls out the big guns to record it. So not wanting to be someone who lets anyone upstage me, I decided to grab a chance frame or two as we passed by. I had plenty of opportunities during the week as this slip road to town, and the Beer factory / Brewery were landmarks for our early navigation attempts in BG. For a through the window frame, and including the screen detritus I was quite happy with it. Thanks for stopping by ...... csj

The crossing house at Ganchovets in Bulgaria, which I am sure shakes to the foundations (if there are any) every time the train goes by. Which is about 5 times a day. Porter lives in a part of this building, which I just found interesting, as to how someone can live literally 10ft from a line. I also photographed the station and its post war platform and buildings. Was an interesting place. Not entirely sure I photographed it fully, I was feeling a tad jaded that day..... always next time... CSJ

This was seen by me long before it was understood. I think everything I shot in Bulgaria that precedes this image was as a result of this memorial.

I was intrigued as to its meaning, from my arrival in Ganchovets. It now meant I had to find out the significance of the figures, and it wasn't until I was made aware of the Shipka Battles and the year of 1877 - 1878, by my now friends Adrian and Valiya, that I realized it was very significant to the Bulgarian people. I'm not sure what I wanted to say by photographing it, maybe nothing, I think maybe it was just about recording something.

CSJ

Shot at the Shipka Pass memorial in Bulgaria, the title is of no religious meaning, it was just that there appeared to be a lot of people making the 1632 steps to the top and back, and it appeared to be a vertical climb, but in essence it probably wasn't. The monument stands as testiment to the battles of the Shipka Pass that signified the collapse of a 500year rule by the Turks. Russia and Bulgaria regained the territory in one year between 1877 and 1878....

Apologies for the change in the text, I corrupted the blog post and had to recall from meory what I'd posted.

CSJ

Second in the series on 'porter'. I called him 'porter' because other people called him that. I am not sure if that was his name, but it kinda fitted the character in my mind, so I'll stick with it until I am corrected. As he spoke no English, and I spoke no Bulgarian actually getting the facts was impossible, but we gestured and smiled a lot and we got the job done. I think he instinctively knew what I was after, and I was very happy with the results. I have one more portrait of him to go. Portrait of a person and their surroundings rather than a head and shoulders detail portrait that most people allude to. I prefer the 'industrial portrait', that which hopefully says a little about the person in their environment.

Sorry about the slowness of uploading them to the blog, but I really don't know where the time has gone since I have been back from BG.

No rush though eh! ...... thanks for stopping by... csj

CSJ

Here is a frame that I saw in my head before I shot it. I mean I saw the buildng, and believe me it didn't take any prisoners in real life. It truly was quite ominous, and foreboding. It had a very turn of the war, German outpost type feel about it, not helped by the flag dangling from the windows, and whilst everything I have shot in Bulgaria so far has been B&W apart from the last frame, I can assure you that it was not a conscious decision, its just the way it happened.

I have a few more frames to post over the next week or so, another portrait, and one or two more observational pieces. I really did enjoy the trip, and have heard back from Chromasia Base Camp that they are all well and settling in, so it was a good job jobbed in my opinion.....

CSJ

He was the last one up this morning, bless him. Little Fella is 3 years old today and loving every minute of it. We had a successful party with 10 of them at the house on Saturday, it actually went really well. I can't take any of the credit for that (apart from my play|pause skills during 'pass the parcel') my wife did the lot to be honest. Genius!!!

We took respite in the sun the day after, and went for a long walk down through the winter gardens in Bournemouth, and along the pier.

Can you believe you cant get a slice of toast on its own at the restaurant down there, it made my blood boil.

Then I thought to hell with it, and enjoyed the rest of the sun. It was lovely. Fin enjoyed himself, and I guess thats all that mattered. A nice relaxing Sunday.

Today he opened the remainder of his gifts from Grandparents and us, and he got his first camera!!!! oh yes. Not that I'm a a pushy parent or anything, but Daddy knows best! eh ;-)...... expect one or two of his efforts to appear on here soon.

This image was simply a moment in time, a grab glance and click. I quite liked it.

On a slightly different note, I was Tweeted (twitter.com) a message that pointed me towards a very emotive video, it absolutley rang true to me, and my image making, take a look and let me know how you feel after you have watched it...

http://www.zarias.com/?p=284

Produced by Zack Arias and was a guest entry on a Scott Kelby website.

So tonights' entry is a re-edit and re-post of an older shot, but one that has just been called for entry to the 'Garden Photographer of the Year' competition, and I re-titled for the occasion. I only happened upon the competition by total fluke, and was helping another photographer friend put up an entry in the last hour of time before the comptition closed.

I thought I might aswell upload a couple, so I did. This is an old image, and was posted a few years back when I hadn't really played with the picture with any thought or patience. Let me know which you prefer. The image is made up from a very low-res set of JPG images, as the camera at the time didnt have RAW output. Again this was more down to money than choice at the time, but again, its not about the camera or the lens for me.

This was a Nikon E995 Coolpix and only 3.25mp I think, but I was quite pleased with the end result, and I guess someone else must like something in this image for it to be called for final judging...

Anyway I hope its better than the original post which you can see here:-

........archives/0505152001_clean.php......

Thanks for stopping by, would be interested to know if you think this version is better.....wish me luck..... csj

Oh and this one looks good (in my opinion) on the white background.

Shot in a car-park in Perth WA, somewhere near a Koala sanctuary, and opposite a coffee shop. Not a lot to say on this one other than that it was a cliche waiting to be snapped, very shiny irresistable in someways, and what with it being a bright, warm, Australian summers day, I could not resist.

If you have anything to comment then feel free, but this one for me was a pretty obvious cliche.

Saw this at a road side stop on the long trail up the west coast of Australia, a couple of days on the road, sleeping at sheep stations (farms) and living pretty close to nature in the outback soon took its toll. Anyway toilet stops were prescious moments, so you can imagine peoples dismay when they saw this sign....

Which way would you run?

Fun....Fun...... Ed

Another photo from the past, caught on film, when all I had in my pocket was an Olympus Trip 35 (semi auto) with a roll of TRI-X on board.

I jumped out of the car, laid flat in the middle of the road, took 3 frames, and then carried on the journey.

At the time I was very pleased with the shot, however if I ever made it back there again, I would do the shot somewhat differently.

Anyway that said, this image holds fond memories for me, of a time when taking a picture was a lot harder and processing a film was all new territory.... There was in deed a long road ahead.

A good mate, a tank full of petrol and a destination in mind was all we needed to have a bit of fun in the eightees. Matt was good at "coming up with a plan".

We didn't need much either, just his car some friends and we were away.

I remember spending a lot of time in Brighton when I was younger.

Funny now then that its one of "our" favourite places to visit.

As simplistic in its outcome this image of one of the spires on the pier summed up the light of the time. There are a few in this series, I may just post them under Brighton as a categorie in the future.

I studied photography after I left school, which actually took me to my dads' place of birth, WARE.

I went to the local Art College and studied photography under the masterful tutiledge of Paul Bennett and Malcolm Kemp, they certainly molded our skills at the time.

Rightly or wrongly, we all became quite structured and routine in our photographic approach, something I was to later realise was maybe a bit to restricting. Anyway enough on that......

It was being in and around the old market town of Ware that I had opportunity and time to take a few shots, which until now I havent really done anything with.

Let me know as always what you think.