And then there was HDR . . .

I know I'm WAAAYYYY behind the times as far as new age photographers go, but I will quite happily admit, that today, for the very first time, I have made HDR images. So I thought I'd put them here, though I don't think many people see this regularly. Its kinda nice though to at least have a place for myself to keep track of what I've been up to, with very visible dates attached. 

So it was a wonderfully stormy day today, but the storm had given way to sunshine by the time I crawled up to Mt Tolmie with my camera. All that was left of the foul weather was some wicked wind that I had to contend with, so I only took a couple photos, using my bracketing on the camera, starting off at a -0.7ex then with a +/- of a full 2 stops just to see what could be done here. So this is what I got quickly before admiting defeat against the wind and going home again. 

Facing north, with a circular polarizer and the sun at my side gives the sharpest colour. Despite the shot being at mid-day, there is more information both in the dark areas and the light.

A trickier direction to try and shoot mid-day, more or less straight a the sun, there is less colour available, and my polarizer didn't so much for me. The best part of this shot though is the contrast of the clouds glowing over the city.

Prime example with a circular polarizer of the difference that is made just by the direction you face in respect to the sun. 90 degree angles give the best results. Hard to believe really that these two shots were within a minute of each other, from more or less the same spot.

So now I`m sitting here with the Photoshop CS5 for Dummies on my lap, I borrowed it from the library, and I`m going to go explore some more photoshop features now. I still find that editing is not nearly as dynamic as in Lightroom though, and I suspect this Adobe Bridge thing can help me out, I just haven`t nailed all these things down yet.

My cousin's wedding.

 Well, I do have to say, getting the opportunity to shoot a few at my cousins wedding was a huge boost to my photography ego. Even while editing them, I was kinda getting down on myself, I need more practice indoors. I'm a pro outdoors, but I still haven't read the little book that came with my speedlight . . . But once I gave myself a bit of time to cool off after editing, I was really happy with the results. Heres just a few.

 

 Probably my best portrait so far. That's Annabelle.

My cousin Jennifer. A moment of peace between trying not to cry or hurl.

 

Sisters, Karen and Jennifer. The location was beautiful, the only trouble was dodging harsh light because it was a mid afternoon wedding.

Gotta go to work now, so thats why I'm keeping it brief. Ciao

Went on a holiday . . .

Then to a wedding. I took many great photos at each. I've really been trying harder lately to make sure I bring my camera, and make sure it gets to come out of its bag. I've just been feeling distracted this past year or so, and this has gotten surprisingly difficult. I'm starting to feel now that I could possibly make a profession out of this, but I'm my own biggest critic, and that is really the only thing stopping me. Oh, and a phobia of being poor.

So, the photos I have to share today begin in Oregon. We were at the sea lion caves, and now that I have photoshop instead of just lightroom, I might revisit this one later to re-edit it. But it still gets me pretty excited. Like all my photos, it should be viewed best by clicking on it and expanding it as much as possible to get the full resolution and effect.

The original was dark on the walls and slightly over developed through the center. But I think its quite beautiful now, and makes me think of the whole 'sirens on the rocks' bit. I have since finally figured out how to work the bracketing on my camera, but this would have been a perfect HDR scenario to reclaim information on the walls without sacrificing.

Crater Lake, OR. Once again, not knowing at the time how to work my bracketing, I had a lot of photos where I had to work to balance the over exposure of the sky, or the under exposure of the foreground. This shot was the only one I think I had with no sky, and I have it rotating on my background with a few others, but every time I see this one it gives me that little feeling in my gut. I love it. Crater Lake was amazing though, and I'd recommend anyone go if they have the time, its only a few hours south of Portland.

Redwoods in California. I really liked the labyrinth look the bark has, like vines growing outside the tree. I'll continue this post tomorrow, but I had a nap while this photo was loading and now I'm feeling a little less inspired.