My First Attempt at HDR Photography

This is probably just about the coolest thing since sliced bread.

Original picture as shot with an increase in the exposure to bring out some detail in the shadows. As you can see, doing so immediately blows out the detail in the sky and the sky reflections in the water, and the trees in the background are pretty washed out. There's also still a lot of shadow area that is lacking detail.



Enter the concept of High Dynamic Range, which brings the world of photography a bit closer to what the eye actually sees (although this does have a touch of surrealism to my eye). Take multiple shots of the same scene, expose some to give detail in the shadows, some to give detail in the highlights, and merge them on your computer at home.



I'm pretty impressed. I think I'll keep playing around with this and see what happens.

Herds of Cows with Cameras

I was reading G. Dan Mitchell's photography blog today. He posted a really nice shot of rocks surrounded by a lovely flowing river. After describing the shot, he said:

There is a funny story to add to this. As I was shooting, as often happens when one sets up near a roadway with a “pro-looking” gear (hey, all it really seems to take is a tripod), other visitors began to pull over to see what the photographer was shooting, jumping out of their cars with cameras in hand. This in a very dark section of the canyon. With me using a very long lens. Pointed straight down at some boring rocks in the river. Quite a few just shook their heads, looked at me like I was nuts, got back in the cars, and drove on. :-)

This struck me as enormously funny for two reasons. One, I've seen it all the time, especially when driving through some of the more scenic state parks. Someone will stop and get out of the car with a camera (especially a "pro-looking" camera), and everybody else will then follow suit like a herd of cattle. The second reason it amuses me is that my mindset was always that I steadfastly refused to go along with the crowd, no matter how spectacular the view. If by chance (or parental stopping) I got drug into such a scene, I always felt kind of dorky - like I knew there was a better shot somewhere off the trail that none of the other dorks would ever find, and why in the world did I have to get stuck following a herd of dorks who didn't know what they were doing, anyway? :)

Okay, so I've revealed my innate lack of humility.

Enjoy some of Mitchell's photography. His aspens are really nice.