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I talked about HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography in one of my posts of yesterday.  Here's a great example.   Click to enlarge.   (Sheesh I think I brain farted and called the acronym something else yesterday, oh well.)



This is by Trey Radcliff.  The photo lives here on Flickr.  And his site, Stuck in Customs, has an HDR tutorial.  There a lots of other HDR tutorials out there.   The main thing with HDR is that it is better to use a tripod and so far I hate using tripods.  But I need to get over that.  I have a lot of photos I took at the Portland Chinese Garden where I tried bracketing into multiple exposures (with and without a tripod) to take my first real try at HDR.   But my poor Macbook just about died under Photoshop trying to merge the photos.

Here is the one photo I was able to merge.    (Click to enlarge.)



But I kinda cheated and didn't do a true HDR merge. Plus since there really was nothing interesting going on in the sky that morning, the HDR effect is not really that apparent.  Usually you can tell HDR when both the land and the sky are in vivid detail.  DSLR cameras are unable to capture the full range of dynamic resolution between both the lightest (often the sky) and the darkest (the land), so for HDR you typically capture three exposures (called bracketing, which is also an available function on most DSLRs), one perfectly exposed, one under exposed, and one over exposed.   Then through the magic of HDR software (or the HDR function available in Photoshop), those (ideally) perfectly aligned via a tripod shots are merged into a stunning, high dynamic range photo.   

Except my first few tries have been less than spectacular.  I think there's more to it than a simple merge - I've merged photos before - I've taken single shots and adjusted them in Photoshop to be both over and under exposed and merged them.  I got better results at that than I have so far for HDR.   The HDR merge does something to the resulting photos that requires a type of photo adjustment that is different somehow than what I've experienced before.  And I've been using Photoshop for going on 10 years now.

From here

Excerpts:

"A resolution is a one-time decision. A mile-marker on our journey, on which we look back when we forget from whence we’ve come and lost sight of where we’re going. But it’s nothing more. The moment you make it, it begins to lose its momentum, and there are very few of us for whom that resolution carries much lasting strength. It’s just the way it is. It’s a strong indicator of a desire, but a poor agent of change. It may, at best, be a compass, but it’s not an engine. And waiting for the magic of January One is just silliness. Do it now. Not tomorrow. Not later."

AND

"none of them come on a silver platter. They come with intention and resolve, they come rough and demand polishing, and they – all of them – extract a price. But I am amazed at how much we can accomplish when we pay that price, and stop screwing around"


( thoughts... )

Note to friends - I doubt this LJ posting will continue at this rate.  Once the first rolls around projects will begin to take off and take more of my energy.  But I will try to post at least more often than 1-3 times a month.   
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I love how taking photos can turn a stressful day into smiles for me.   I captured this random moment yesterday afternoon.

(click to enlarge)

Portland Saturday Market

       
Hi all!

I went to Portland Saturday Market yesterday to take some photos for my photography class.  Here are some of my favorites:

( photos under the cut ... )

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Quote totally stolen from wendy:



(click on any to enlarge)
















(more here)

 I never post anymore.  I know, I suck.   

Love the news about an extra SPN episode!  \O/

Also I just got my repaired Canon 40D back!  My Jenny!   So Jenny joins my new 7D camera.  Which today I decided to call Sammy.  :-)

We just got back from a 3 day weekend in Central Oregon.  Took some photos of a beautiful lake we went kayaking on Saturday.  (photos here)

Working hard, but having fun.

Bob's birthday is tomorrow and Tim's 18th is on the 22nd, so busy with those as well.

Is it September yet?   I'm very ready for season 7!

I gifted S1-S3 DVDs to my cousin Christine and hubby David who live in St. Paul.  I visited with them a few weeks ago in St. Paul.  Chris and I hadn't seen each other for about 20 years!  But we hit it off like wildfire.   They expressed an interest in SPN.   We watched the "Fight the Faries" episode together on Friday when it aired on CW.   So I sent them S1-S3!

I do read LJ regularly btw.  I just don't post much anymore.   Been kinda living on FB and now on Google+.  If anyone is on Google+ let me know--I'd love SPN friends on there.

Saturday I went out with a friend and took a whole mess of photos.   Seriously.  A mess of 'em.   Due to the circumstances of the last couple of days I haven't had time to go through most of them.  But I did distract myself last night and went through a small portion of the ones I took at Multnomah Falls.  We met there early on Saturday before most of the tourists showed up.   I took photos and videos at the base of the Falls and then we walked up to the bridge where I took more.   By the time we came back down, the place was teeming with people.  

We later drove around Portland and out over the St. John's bridge and finally went to the Japanese Gardens.   As I get through all the photos I'll be posting them in batches.( lots of photos under the cut... )

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