I liked this, I shot it, I got the settings wrong on the G10, I didn't end up with a RAW file, I got a JPG, I didn't cry.... :-) I'll shoot it again next time... thanks for stopping by....CSJ

Here is a link to the original frame ...... .....original.jpg

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I love this video: think of me, for a few days......adios....

Lots going on at the moment, the best of which is a road trip to Bulgaria with DJN next week, in fact its the day after my 6th anniversary, which has flown by! I am looking forward to that one.

I am very out of the loop in terms of image making at the moment. I think I've allowed work projects to enter my head during my down time, and I've not allowed my creativity to show its head..... never mind, hopefully a few days of fresh air will change my outlook for the better, and maybe I'll load up some memory cards with something half decent to process.

I'm sure if I could justify the time, I'd have a dozen or so half decent blog shots in the can. Like a good friend said the other night on his blog, I have a thousands of RAW images that I've shot and marked in my head, and then forgotten about. I like retrospective work anyway, and I figure I have all the time in the world to post images. I think @zarias may have rubbed off on me too much..... It doesnt change the way I feel about my photography.

I had a few nice comments recently and one or two people have said positive things about my images which means a lot to me. It doesnt take much to make me smile but when someone wants an image to hang on the wall, its just about the best feeling in the world.

For those of you who know me well, you'll know that at times I can be quite charitable, and this month "M"ovember is used to raise awareness of male problems, Prostate Cancer is common, and a large problem. I have a couple of friends suffering with this at the moment and so rather than do nothing, I have decided to grow a "MO" and get a few quid in during the month. So if you feel an urge to support the Prostate Cancer Charity, then get on board, click the link below and give them a few quid, and I promise a mugshot with my MO by the end of the month...... csj

So another day, passes, as we await to hear what's going to happen in the case of insolvency in my friends' business. I am sure everything will come out in the wash, but in the background, we are all making plans to 'rebrand' the business and begin again from fresh. The machines go next week, and then its crunch time. The lab must close, and the retail area must be refitted, and then we can relaunch their business as the "www.i-printroom.co.uk" in a matter of weeks (hopefully). Its a case of people asking me, why am I so involved in this, well its simple. I know that if that was my business and I needed help, and if someone was prepared to give their time and advice, I'd happily take what I could get in my time of need. I guess between us, we have all the answers and we can turn it around.

People we need to print more, we need to 'go retro' and start printing again, the more I think about it the more I realise where I've gone wrong for the last few years.

I had a bunch of 12x18's printed last week, I laid them on the floor last weekend, and I loved every minute of it, digesting the images with my eyes, I will never tire of it. I feel like a preacher right here right now, and I don't mean to sound that way, but I am passionate about this. Nothing beats a good quality print, trust me, get one done, or two and tell me I'm wrong, be careful where you go though, please don't use a supermarket. Search out your Lab, the one with the closing down sign in the window, and give them a chance....

Oh and tonights' image, well the image was really a response to one of Daves' shots, and was my slightly crude attempt at this shot..... 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

On a day that revealed no pictures, but some good ideas about pictures, I thought I'd pull back from shooting anything new, but plan some images instead. I am keen this year to showcase as many ID7 images as possible via competitions and publications to spread the good word, and to encourage more people to pick up a camera.

I'm off out tommorow, lat e morning to a place called Lepe, I'm not sure that the light will be right in the middle of the day, but I'll settle for whatever is available. I believe there are a few subjects there I'd like to photograph, so tomtom on and away I go....

There is going to be an interview with djn1 (David Nightingale) from Chromasia in MP3 on the site, hopefully within the next few weeks, we are just sorting a time to meet up, and we may have a couple of other joint ventures planned, including a portrait shoot for the second quarter of 08, which will be submitted alongside another image into the portrait awards for 08.

As a role model and inspiration Dave needs recording for posterity, and to earn his place in WEB history, in my eyes anyway. Everyone else is an immitator of his art (me included) and to be honest, you just have to read his accolades to realise the man and his images are genius. Other people are lucky, Dave is consistently brilliant. He has agreed to both of the above so its just about timing now..... wish me luck...... 'mental note' - remember to polish the lenses......csj

this ones for djn1 and Craig

So today I had some great news, four of my images were selected by Andy Earl (photographer to the stars), to go through to the finalists show of HiddenGems, in a show of pictures at the Enterprise Pavilion at The Arts Institute at Bournemouth. To be honest although my images are chosen I am not sure what happens now, I think If I'd actually won something then I would have been told. But to have them in an exhibition is still good coverage and might reach ID7 out to a few more people. So I spent the whole of today in the LAB getting the prints finished, and they just cost me hundred and sixty quiderooos....gulp... there goes some of the savings for my next camera. Ho Hum......

The image tonight is a composite of the 4 images chosen to go through. If you want to read more, then click here for the Hidden Dorset webpage about the competition. Enjoy....csj

Update 20:31: Just found out from the organisers of the event that there are Three winners being announced Monday 4th Feb at the Private View in Bournemouth, so I don't know if I've achieved anything yet..... wish me luck! - csj

Sorry about the title, anyone with kids will know the story book the 'Gruffalo', and the title of tonights picture was taken from another book from the same author, called the 'Snail and the Whale'. It Finlays' absolute favourite (at the moment_, but after the 101st time of reading it, and the third time today.... it can .... lets say become .... not 'my favourite' ;-).... kids eh! you got to love em.... !..... csj

I liked this image for the sheer fact the sea was alight, and the swell was rolling in.... the dark sky just helped it along. Thats about all tho really.... enjoy

Just recieved a voip call from a mate in Paraguay on his way through Argentina, and catching some carnival action on the way!..... uhm slightly green with envy, I wonder what the colours of Poole will bring this weekend.

Just when I thought I'd seen it all...And was contemplating calling the surfers off Boscombe pier nutters, I saw this man running down the beach and stripping off as he went. I never imagined on a very cold afternoon in December that he'd even breach the shoreline, but alas he did, absolutely crackers and only in Britain!.

All I can say is that he is made of better things than I. I was blue, and I had 3 layers on. The wind was cutting, and it was a true winters day.

Don't forget that the voting will be open on all the images, so that you can choose your favourites for inclusion in the ID7 Blog Book for 08, and I'll leave the link on until the end of Jan I think. I'd also be interested to hear how much you'd pay for a bloggers book, if you ever contemplated purchasing one, or whether its a ridiculous idea altogether.

As always I love to hear your comments, and messages.... csj

And one last plug for Daves' fantastic tutorials online, where you will learn photoshop post production techniques from a master in the field, take the link to the right to treat yourself to the skills you have always wanted..... ;-)

Made a Noteworthy featrured entry on the last ever Weekly Shot, click here to see it.

Last night was a 3am finish, I have Chicken pox to thank for that, my little boy was restless and couldn't sleep, eventually tho, a drop of medised and a few books later, he went off, but was really uncomfortable. I had promised someone a photo here tonight, and I apologise for not posting what I said I would, but this one was from this afternoon at Bocombe Pier, where a quick blast of fresh air, blew the cobwebs out from my head, and woke me up..... its also a kind of response shot to Dave's sea shots this week. I can't quite figure out his single frame HDR or how to do it, I'll try again during the week.

This frame was channel mixed to black and white, and then had 3 masks applied to it to complete the tonal range in the water and columns, then a curve or two to create the tone.

10/12 pm Late one tonight, apologies for not much comment, will complete the rest of this post tommorow. CJ

11/12 am Well its tommorow and as promised I said I would let you know about this image, but before I do that I would like to say that my image stocks are running low, thanks to a dodgy few weekends worth of weather so I am having to go back through the archive if you will, there are several images that for whatever reason I didnt post the first time round, maybe in favour of another image, but that now on second glance seem a lot lot better than I first thought they were. That maybe through desperation but to be honest, if I like them now thats all that matters. Also I've been contemplating producing a coffee table book (11" x 13"), not to make me huge amounts of cash, but just because I would like to have something as well as the website to show people / bore people with ;-).

So I have started collating all the Hi-Res images together from the site, from image one on day one to the current date. You think I'd have them all safely tucked up in a single location wouldn't you. But thats not really how its worked out, with a few machine changes over the years. And working on ID7 from different locations, anyway it should be possible to find them all, so I'll fill the winter evenings doing that, and will still try to get out with the camera when I can. I intend to build in some choice over the contents and look of the book also, by allowing you my illustrious viewers the opportunity to vote for the images you'd like included in the final print. I'll adapt a thumbnail page with a voting system built in and will allow you time to choose your favourite images. At the end I'll tally up the most popular images voted for and add them to the MOST COMMENTED images and then use these as the basis for the book. I might be on a fruitless venture here, but I figure you have to give these things a try right!?.... ;-)

Oh and the image was a 2x1 crop from a stock of frames of the old burnt out West Pier in Brighton before it really collapsed, shot back in April 2005, but from a series of images that I havent had the opportunity to work on, until now.

I'll let you guess who I'm shooting in the style of today. So the sun was out, the mood was positive, and a trip to the beach was in order.

I went out with a sole focus and intention to contrive one or two shots. I figure I lack an imagination, and plaguerism is the only solution ;-)

Never mind I got some nice shots and some that I am pleased with, so should be able to post most days this next week.

This one reminded me of this one here. This shot involved sticking my camera in a 6 inch hole in the sand, not a pleasant experience by all accounts, but I had fun trying to get the shot. As always a little comment or two never goes un-welcome. C

Oh and this one looks nice on the white background option.

This was my entry for yesterdays' Thursday photo challenge:

Thursday Photo Challenge

When I took this, albeit that it appears contrived, the leaf was on the beach, as was the stone, it was just its positioning that may have had a tiny bit of man handling.... OK OK so I moved the leaf....

This shot had a hue change and some softening to drop the background out, I wanted a cold autumnal / wintery feel to the shot, so the underlit beach made it so.

Apologies for yesterdays blog entry, ooooh I was as mad a mad thing. Anyway back to the image, todays' entry is another in the series from 'up north'..... Not much else to say, apart from that it applies a similar technique to the first in the series here:-

http://www.id7.co.uk/portfolio/archives/0709261900_clean........

Let me know if this image works aswell?, and if not, why not in your opinion, I was struggling but something kept making me go back to it. I like it now thats its finished.

Where is all my washed up detritus?, and interesting waste?, where are all the whisped out skies?, and polarised light?, where are all my washed up wrecks?. Who needs that when I have my little boy!.

I went for a red bias here to give him the ghost like impression, and again stuck to a channel mixed use of black and white, with a slight layer mask on his trousers, and jacket to make the detail return, and a second soft layer, and a vignette to finish. Taken at one of my favourite places, altho today was short lived as the beach track was a long way with a pram, and we were cream crackered by the time we'd got there.

So todays strange question came from 'Big Nick', a 46 year old, 6ft 6" friend of mine, who currently works, and lives, in the leafier suburbs of London.

Bearing in mind I havent spoken to him for several years, in fact the last time I saw him, was at a mutual photographer friends' wedding, with his (then) girlfriend.

We got onto the topic of this Blog, and Blogs in general, as he had logged in to take a look at ID7 and he just didn't understand the point.

He said and I quote "WHY?, just WHY would you bother to do this?, when you can go down the pub and meet people", which brings me back to my motivation and inspiration, and the whole point to this social photography.

I guess he answered his own question, when I asked him "When was the last time you took a photo?", to which he replied "I hate photography now, I can't stand photos!".

Thankyou THANKYOU THANKYOU I thought, I'm not going mad typing away into the ether, in the vain hope that someones looking. Having said that, if you sit back and think about this, are we leaving a legacy here?, taking part in something special?, or just wasting our time?, we aren't hurting anyone?, or imposing wreckless thoughts or opinions?.

I'm going to sit on the fence and let you think about that. For me personally, its an outlet, a way to express myself and to show a few people what makes 'me tick', what 'floats my boat', that which 'makes me smile', and creates a feeling of well being in me, that and my family of course!!!!.

The picture, Oh yes I nearly forgot ;-) it's an inshore, low angle, slightly cropped, black and white (Channel Mixed), blue channel pulled, vignetted, curved image, with a subtracted mask of a shot from Fleetwood that I quite like. Enjoy

A little sandwich of stones and timber, created naturally with the force of the tide.

Just a little something we spotted beachcombing, about a half hour after that portrait was taken. There was something in the gnarley wood that I liked, I'm not sure what but I pointed the camera, I exposed for the wood, took two frames, then decided I didnt like the shot.

I got up off my front, and walked away. Its amazing that its not until you spend a little time looking again later at those moments, that you see something in it again that you like, for all the same reasons that you had when you took the shot. Wierd, and fickle thought processes.

The last of the series, you'll be glad to hear, but this was Mel's choice out of two other edits. I quite liked my black and white attempt which I'll link to here (later), tommorow moving on to something different, but as ever would like to hear any comments on this the most challenging of the images taken last weekend in Blackpool, a portrait tomorrow I think unless something else pops into frame.

An injection of colour this evening, having played with adjustment layers, and meddled with creating masks, I had a go at this shot.

Agreed that I could have used a wider angle, a lower angle of attack, and possibly some heavier editing on the background subjects, but there was a sense that this shot had been taken a million times before, not only because the ground where I was stood was worn out, but because as a photographer, this shot was just too tempting, and had to be taken.

Anyway the weekend spent with Dave from Chromasia was not about necessarily finding new and untaken images, but about the techniques that we can use to make our images more appealing, and to master at least one small part of Photoshop for the sake of improving them. A great teacher, and patient onlooker, I can only recommend that you take time to save up your pennies and get along to see him, it was very worthwhile.

These old tubs must have a story or two to tell, and whilst sniffing around the net, it appears that a lot (not all of course) of the earlier steam vessels to sail out of Fleetwood at the turn of the century fell victim to stray mines and the like. I'm not entirely sure of these wrecks and the fate that befell them, but If I lived nearby I would revisit them quite often. It's a remarkably peaceful place. C.

Another shot from the Wyre Wrecks from last weekend, I wasn't sure about this image, but fathomed that it had something worth a view.

In light of a few more hours post production on another batch of images I chose to put this one up. Let me know what you think. Its almost a 'nothing' subject and I guess you had to be there to get the full sense of scale, however I liked something about it. I was promised a little bit of traffic now that I am posting again, but as that's unlikely I'll keep on talking to the web 'o' sphere in the vain hope that someone browses along one day. If you do happen upon these images, please leave me a critique or an opinion, cheers C.

Dave and I set out on the 1/2hr road trip to Rossall near Fleetwood to photograph the Wyre Wrecks, however the main access route has now been developed for housing and our access was blocked off, so a quick word in the ear of a local, who was able to point us down a track. Which inturn lead through the main recycling plant, and landfill site for Blackpool (yes it honked). We eventually made it to a bizarre picnic area & man made lake on the edge of the river Wyre, just over the way from a local football stadium.

We both worked around a series of subjects, some contrived from shots I knew that he had already taken, for my reference, and also some new angles, and views.

I tried purposefully not to shoot over his shoulder but I guess great minds think alike.

I hope you like this image, It's the first time I properly applied the tutorials in post processing and well Daves' shot ,(click here) well he just copied me ;-)

So I took it upon myself to be selfish, and dibbed into the family pot, used some cash (Birthday pressie honest), and took myself up the motorway, six and a half hours to Blackpool. I was off too meet a photographer who to be honest has been the only source of photographic inspiration for me in the last 4 years.

Dave from Chromasia dropped me a line to let me know that unfortunately, the group session weekender,I had promised myself had had to be cancelled due to the appalling weather, but that he and Libby had decided to offer me a one on one instead, which I readily jumped upon and looked forward to.

I had been looking on in awe really at Daves "work" just wondering how he ploughs through the workflow of creating these images and still remains sane with kids running around his ankles. So faced with an opportunity to visit him in his home was just too much of a temptation, and one I won't forget in a long long time.

The weekend comprised of tutorial, and post processing depth, and knowledge and Dave didn't hold back going through several images stage by stage. I learnt more in the first ten minutes of being there than I had in the last 10 years of using Photoshop in all its flavours. So was it value for money, I'd say so, for me personally It was great to get into some of the positions of someone else's shot,to see the thought processes of an inspirational photographer, and see the end result, having been there for the shoot. It took me back to when I used to go out with other photographer friends. I know my "seeing eye" has dried up a bit, but I am always thinking about using the camera again.

Another moment worth commenting on was having the opportunity to "flick" some prints around, this was great and took me back in my mind to darkroom days, spent analysing images on paper rather than a screen. There's nothing like a print as an end point to an image, its really the only way each of our images should be viewed, and stored. It's just that technology has taken this away from us. Shame. Anyway I am happy with having met Dave, my Photoshop skills will no doubt extend beyond his tutorial and I am generally a very happy person with a new awakening.

Cheers Dave, Libby & kids, it really was a slice meeting you, and I wish you all the best for the future of Chromasia. C

Oh I nearly forgot, this shot was one that Dave commented on having tried several times before, I gave it my best shot, the Polar Bear has been edited out, and was actually a dog doing some acrobatics, it just looked like one at the time.

A recent venture to Brighton, brought upon a fresh set of ideas for id7. I have mentioned it before, but never really pushed it any further. I was in awe of the Northlaine Photography business, selling its prints and wares via its gallery, and stall in the main public shopping mall.

A very positive photography business, selling just a small range of similar themed images based around Brightons' burning / burnt out west pier, and other local cliches. But catching the market just right. I was impressed to see the same stall and person working there a year later.

I'd love to have an outlet like this.

It got me thinking about next year, and what possibilites there might be for id7 imaging.

Pondering.............