This is the first in a series I took at Hengistbury Head this weekend. This one is looking back to Bournemouth. Of the set, it's my least favourite because the sun was still too high in the sky and it's blown out a little.

I got to use my new Lee filters for the first time which has helped the shot and I can see why other's photos taken with ND grads have this nice pink tint to them.

Canon 400D, Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro lens - 1/2 sec, f/11, ISO 200

I took a couple of macro shots a few weeks ago but all the insect images went in the bin as they were out of focus or blurred. This bee was still in the process of warming up for the day so didn't move about much.

My only issue with the image is that the conversion to Jpeg hasn't gone that well - in particular it looks over sharpened and the colour of the catch light has gone quite blue compared to the original Photoshop image. I may end up reprocessing it to see if I can fix the flaws.

Canon 400D, Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS lens - 1/250 sec, f/5.0, ISO 100

We had a rather large fire on the heath behind our house last week. It Bournemouth Echo article as it's the second time in a month there was a fire here. Unfortunately there is not much left now which is a shame because it's a rare bird breeding ground.

I should have taken my long lens; this shot was about as close as I could get due to a police line around the fire.

I don't think they liked the fact I was taking photos though as it got my name and address in their notebook.

Canon 400D, Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 lens - 1/60 sec, f/11, ISO 100

I've been a bit lazy with photos lately. Some have gone to Flickr but not blogged. I also haven't been taking as many as I would like. I blame the cold weather mainly but also I'm doing about 14+ hrs travel a week at the moment for work and the last thing I want to do in the evening is go out and take photos. Hopefully things will pick up as the weather gets warmer.

I'm also torn between the new Canon 5D MkII and swaping all my kit and going with Nikon. Tough call - if I was starting out and knew what I know now about the two systems I'd go with the Nikon in a heartbeat but I have a lot of Canon gear which I'd have to trade in at a loss to swap over.

I'm probably going to sit on the fence for a while and see what happens. Unfortunately prices are set to rise due to exchange rate issues but there is a rumour of a new Nikon D700x so I'd be interested to know if they can stick the final nail in Canon's coffin.

This is really the tale of three processes. I originally shot this with HDR in mind but when I processed it I came up with:

...which I think looks awful. I almost fell out with HDR at this and took the middle exposure to do a standard "7-point system" process in Photoshop to get this:

...which is much better but a little plain when sat next to the HDR version.

I wondered how I might get the best of both worlds so ended up loading the two images as aligned layers in Photoshop. My thought was to take the main image data from the plain one and use either the luminosity, hue, saturation or a combination from the HDR image.

The result wasn't great as it just became garish again so after messing around with different blending modes I settled on 'overlay' to make this image which I personally think is the best of the three.

So what do you think? I would love to know if you agree so please look at all three images and fave the one you like the most.

Best viewed large on black.

Canon 400D, Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 lens - 5exp (1.6-20sec), f/8, ISO 100

As promised, here is my pick from yesterday's early morning shoot. There seems to be something about HDR that can turn an ordinary picture into somthing magical without too much effort.

If you look beyond the pier you will see a smear of lights which was the boat that appears in other pictures. I left it in to illustrate how long this one took as the boat was travelling very slowly.

You may also have noticed I've borrowed a naming convention from Thomas Hawk, that is "Plate 1", "Plate 2" etc because I take a lot of photos of the same thing and need some way to differentiate them.

Best viewed large on black.

Canon 400D, Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 lens - 10 seconds, f/8, ISO 100

Since Claire got up way before dawn to catch a plane this morning I decided that since I was awake I would go and grab some dawn pictures.

I was at the beach about half an hour before dawn so I took some test shots of which this is one. The orange light is from a sodium street lamp just out of shot which, I think contrasts nicely with the blue sky.

I almost called this one "Oh my god, it's early" but the face in the life guard hut made me change my mind.

In the end I didn't get a nice sunrise because of the overcast sky. I saved the best for last though and will upload those shots tomorrow.

Canon 400D, Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L lens - 7 exp (1/5 to 3.2 second), f/16, ISO 100

This was the sky outside of my study last night in HDR form. I used Photomatix to blend 7 exposures taken at different durations. I've tried HDR photography before with Photoshop but this is the first time with Photomatix.

I'm happy with the result but my tripod was at full stretch and it slipped slightly during the sequence which Photomatix then had to correct for so the image loses a bit of definition.

Canon Digital IXUS 860 IS - 1/200 to 1/640 second, f/5.8, ISO 80

Since I haven't posted for a week or so... This one is from the Zorbing on my stag day. Zorbing is... "a sport in which a participant is secured inside an inner capsule in a large, transparent ball which is then rolled along the ground or down hills". Basically a giant hamster ball rolled down a hill. Great fun though the harness Zorb (when the riders are strapped in) can be a little bumpy.

I created this composite in Photoshop.

Canon 400D, Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L lens - 1/100 second, f/4, ISO 100

We see this fox quite often around the neighbourhood and this is the second time it has come into the garden in broad daylight.

It's quick though so I had to jump for the camera and use the lens that was fitted. I wish I'd had more time to use a smaller aperture though as it's a little soft. It's heavily cropped and a vignette added to try and focus attention on the fox.

I didn't want to risk opening the patio door so the shot is taken through glass which doesn't help.

Canon 400D, Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L lens - 1/320 second, f/4, ISO 100

This is the last and my favourite of the architectural series from January. The photo itself is Bournemouth library in the centre of town. As usual there has been some processing because the original was very grey.

Canon 400D, Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L lens - 1/80 second, f/11, ISO 100

The second in this series and right next door to the previous one. I have to admit I cloned out a bit of the sign to highlight the word but it summed up the mood that day. I have forgotten what the whole word said but in searching for another photo I came across lots of very good photos taken on Bournemouth beach which are well worth a look.

Canon 400D, Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L lens - 1/100 second, f/11, ISO 100

This was taken a few weeks ago down by the beach in Bournemouth. For the end of January it was very warm and I liked the simple lines (also, it was very busy and pointing the camera up was the only way to miss the crowd).