I don't know whether to be happy, sad, expectant, duck, or run for this momentous date and time, but here is a picture I shot last week, and not at 10.10.10 @ 10:10:10am ..... I just posted it at this time, sorry but its Sunday, and I cant get through the bathroom queue before this time on an average weekend.... Enjoy.

This is an image I'd forgotten that I'd shot with djn whilst up in Blackpool a few weeks back. I think we both marveled at the chance of drinking a cup of Bovril, it warmed me up just reading it. Hence the photo.

It rained today. So in true Brit grit style we went to the beach, with buckets and spades. It looks like others had the same idea.... I plucked my trusty 50mm from the bottom of the bag today, and stuck with it for the duration. I like to test myself without a zoom from time to time. I call it 'prime time'.

As an aside to this blog, I realized something else that frustrated me yesterday, was being told by a Eastern European snack bar owner that she could not accept 2p's as payment for a packet of M&M's... luckily both I and the person in the queue behind me piped up that this statement was not only immoral but illegal, just because she couldn't be bothered to bag up 2p's.... BUT what really got my goat was that it was being handed over by my 4 yr old son at the time..... had to blog it, its of no consequence to anyone else, but it just made both Mel and I's blood boil......

04/10/10: OOops update, just read that in fact handing over more that 20p in 2p's is not legal tender. Ouch now I feel bad. :-(

A beach to my right, dunes to my left, clouds and a seascape to the right, searing sunlight and contrast to the left. Which way would you shoot?

So we "finished" the game of Conkers tonight. Fin won of course ;-). My puny effort of a conker split under the power of a 4 year olds swing (with a little help from Dad)....

This Image was an intentional attempt at shooting in the opposite direction to djn on our beach wander a few weeks back. I seem to get some mileage out of shooting with him, for some reason I end up with quite a few images I am happy with. Strange really, because I often go out alone and never release the shutter.

I guess that the images I create aren't really most peoples "cup of tea" but there is always a single element that caused me to shoot the image, some obvious, some not so. In this instance, in my head at least, It was an ironic statement that our usual coffee stop was neither to the left nor to the right, from my standpoint at least, but was simply over the brow of the dunes, and was literally 200yds from where I was stood. Nothing especially amazing, but for some reason I felt the need to record it. Don't ask me why..... I really can't articulate why......

Oh but to bring this image to the fore, I did however use the video of Black and White conversion Part 2 from Chromasia's Tutorials for Photographers, take the link to the right to see it, or click here. I followed djn's video through the method of Black and White conversion that involved using the Black and White adjustment layer and biasing the image towards the red channel, but I also pulled the Blue channel back to around -148 to bring out the sky. If you play with this method, it really can help you properly master B&W conversion, something I regularly bust my head over when I get it wrong (which is quite often!!!).

The other afternoon, my little lad presented me with a "top find" of two conkers that he'd found on the way to his school, and I figured that as a young lad myself I used to do the same thing. On my way to school I'd rustle the trees and see what booty I could glean before making it to the school playground, where with our penknives we'd gouge a hole through a conker then set about trying to win the opponents top prize of their hardened conker! If we got really into it, we'd bake them in the oven the night before ourselves, or leave them to soak in vinegar, or polish them!....

I took my little lad into the kitchen tonight and showed him how to bake them and put a hole through them, and then how to play conkers. Of course he'll never enjoy the same treat in the playground, its not allowed these days, health and safety or some other rubbish.

We had a go at playing, he got a bit bored, wacked me with it, and then cried......you cant say I didn't try. I guess there's no room for sentimentality in this day and age.

This image is from Fleetwood in the NW, when I was there shooting with DJN. Not an especially amazing image, but I like it.

When I go shooting with Dave (@chromasia) from Chromasia, I have a sense of freedom that I don't really experience in any other walk of my life. I switch off from anything and everything around me, something I think only my wife Mel knows helps me to relax.... I am very lucky to have that understanding in her to be honest.

I'm in Blackpool, helping DJN out tomorrow, we are photographing a wedding in Kendall in Cumbria. Ironically Blackpool is my fresh air, culturally and spiritually, I love being here, and just shooting whatever I see. A kind of freedom if you will.

I haven't blogged in months, I guess its just been one of those years, and I figure that whilst I enjoy doing it, I'm not sure if its a legacy that anyone appreciates. Seeing Dave is always inspiring, seeing him twice in a month will be great, time will tell if I start blogging again. I wish it was just that easy. Anybody who has tried to sustain a blog will know exactly what I mean. You know who you are.

Something quiet today, again. I am so tired after the 2.30am rude awakening from my 3yr old that I decided I needed to post something peaceful. Not my greatest image, but hey!.....

So many interesting things occuring out there in the blogosphere this week, I've been following the TOS issue with FACEBOOK with interest, and also the advent of Twitter and all of its associated sites, and applications. Its going to be an interesting year. I also signed ID7 upto the Photoblog Awards 2009, and you can vote for the site by clicking the icon top right of main page..... I know there are a lot of sites out there to peruse. And any time spent looking at ID7 is most appreciated ...... csj

Words and whispers are rumor spreaders, but the printed word is set in stone, until it becomes kindling or a chip wrapper. But with the modern age there comes a new way to communicate, and proliferate truths and un-truths.

I spent most of my spare time at the weekend, chatting to friends, and relaxing with the family, interspersed with 'Twitters' from the blogosphere; small snippets of information from multiple sources, feeding in through my chosen method of receiving them (twitterific). I am now in touch with a whole host of interesting people, and the snippets range from the dire to the down right interesting (mine are mostly dire), but that said it seems to be a whole new communication concept. A very powerful, mis-understood method, that can be broadcast to millions instantly, and has the power to notify, those that are interested immediately (followers) and those that you are interested in what you say (following) and if your lucky, they will pick up this news, and if it meets with their area of interest, they'll move it on (RT - ReTweet) to their own list of followers, and so the word spreads. Now in the light that this is so powerful, you can fall into the mind set that anything that is Twittered is indeed fact, and we need to be wary as I Twittered something that I'd read this morning (from a valid source); and that was, 'PENTAX are no longer being stocked by JESSOPS in the retail sector'. Surely the demise of a giant of the photographic industry. But to be honest I don't know that this is indeed a fact or a whisper of half truth. I am sure that in time we will know the truth but we need to careful of rapid fire communication, and apply the same rules to our basic surfing, prove prove prove that what we are reading is indeed fact, because a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. We are truly standing on the shoulder of a giant, and I believe that 'micro-blogging' is the future of communication, as we know it. It's an extension to our armory, and is quicker, easier and more readily cross-platform available than any other form of communication / social networking that is currently out there. So for those of you still completely mystified, pop over to www.twitter.com and register, then download twitterific or tweetdeck, or indeed FRING on a mobile, or CHIRP for PC (google it), go to your friends search, add @ID7, and use me to test your new found communication method. Its quite addictive......honest......

This shot is a 3 frame HDR, the EXIF is from the middle exposure. It was shot at ShellBay on the carpark side, and just a short walk from the Chain Ferry. It looks lovely, its not too bad up-close, but put it this way, I wouldn't want to swim in it! ;-). And my daughter asked if there were crocodiles in England... She has a fair point!..... csj

So like an un-assuming idiot, I hadn't really calculated the significance of todays' date, not least that it only occurs once every four years but that I just hadn't realised until about an hour ago, what an idiot, that kind of thing really gets me!!!!, I blame it on age......

So its fitting that an image from 'Lepe' (leap) makes the entry on ID7 tonight....

A little strange tho this image, but there was something in it I liked and it just caught my eye, not literally but....... oh you know what I mean (I hope)...... csj

And to quote a good friend at a camera show..... "its not camera gear that makes friendship, its coffee and good conversation"... nice one Alun but I still want a 1Ds MKIII!...til next year...

Really struggling to keep eyes open tonight so please excuse my lack of text and dialogue. Didn't get too much shut eye with not feeling well, and I'm off up early tonight. Apologies....

This was a quick frame from last weekends jaunt. I figured one more high tide, and it would be gone from site. Fat lot of good that would be then!....

And they say Sandbanks isn't changing shape....uhmmm I beg to differ!... csj

So tonights' doesn't really need much text to say whats going on, and after listening to some advice, I decided to give this one ago as a straight black and white conversion, on the Red Channel again, and without much else, apart from four adjustment layers, layer 1 was a 18% blur 'duplicate layer' of the entire image, layer 2 was 'selective colour' layer, with 65% bias on RED / YELLOW / CYAN and BLUE, layer 3 was the Red 'Channel mix' layer for the B&W conversion and layers 4 and 5 were masked 'curves' to work the sky and foreground detail, the final layer was a slight vignette mask layer. And yes the original was THAT bad ;-)...

So I call it a 'straight' B&W conversion, but what I actually meant was I needed to work on a sows' ear and try and create a purse.(Mental Note: try harder next time!)......

I had also produced this version, and to be honest this was one click in Lightroom... would be interested to know which you prefer...

........archives/0802151900b.jpg

I'm not sure now I've looked at them both.... 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

Thanks to everyone that pops by commenting these days, it really does encourage you to get out more and keep on producing images.

I would like to let you all know that I do take time to reciprocate your messages, by my spending hours looking through everyone elses images, so keep on coming because I like looking at photos as much as taking them and blogging them... so thanks again .... csj

Not a lot of point saying much on this entry tonight, when you can go to Chromasia and see some proper photography..... what a shot Dave, fantastic mate....

Seriously tho, this was edited in Lightroom, and and then passed to Photoshop to mask three curve layers, and a 70% channel mixed layer affecting Blue, and a slight soften on a duplicate layer revealed to 22% to finish. And I'm all done..... 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

Another from last weekend ....... and after a 13 hour day today this is the best I can muster up tonight from those images. Apologies, but I wanted to post this one, as for me it showed the plight of this Southern coastline, as it falls into the channel, if you look just behind the battered defenses you can see an entire tree, fresh, thats just collapsed onto the beach, the whole row there has been undermined by the tide, and wont be long before they too meet the same fate..... ouch...... csj

Also Fin was having trouble getting off to sleep tonight, so I've been up with him.... something was upsetting him, I think it was an orange nightlight, banged that off and alls quiet now.....;-)

Oh and I didn't get a placing in the hidden gems competition, so try try again, better luck next time eh!....

Another from yesterdays Lepe beach walk....... Not sure about these now that I have them, it was worth the journey to see, but the more I look at the images the more I have to concur with Mel, that they are TOO obvious.....

Mental Note: Try harder next time, or leave them and come back later ...... csj

Finlay was in good spirits today, and so I didn't feel bad about taking a trip out for me on this one occasion.

Earlier in the week I had seen some images of tonights' location, and thought I would love to find it, and have a go there myself, well I'm glad I did, because I found a great spot, very quiet, but was quite shocked to see the extend of land erosion that I found.

Now whether thats due to exceptional tides, global warming, or the shear fact the channel is always on the move I dont know, but what I do know is that an awful lot of the mainland has collapsed into the sea as a result, and the 'sea defenses' dont look upto much at this particular point. I drove to Lepe, after dropping the kids, and dropping some kit around a friends, and picking up the exhibit prints, and dropping those at the Gallery, and then heading on my journey to a small inlet near Southampton water, and over looking the Isle of White. I shot what I saw as I walked for a mile and a half I'd guess, and the following few posts will be from todays' trip..... as always let me know what you think. csj

This has just been Channel mixed to black and white, and to be honest I haven't done anything else apart from just dropping a little vignette on it. This actually happened and I don't read papers in general, it wasn't mine, I didn't put it on the rock. HONEST..... I can say that hand on heart its not contrived. It might be a horrible cliche, it might be a rubbish photo, but it was TOO ironic not to post.... ;-)

Apologies again, this week has been a bit busier than normal with work, a colleague is off sick and work soon lands, also went for a curry last night, and simply didn't have time to post, so apologies for no image yesterday.

Also the comment code in the site, is trapping every comment as spam and I'm having to release them all as they come in, so I'll look into making that a bit better over the next few days if I can. csj