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Archive for the ‘HDR’ Category

When you drive around Scotland you will find these old stone bridges everywhere, literally. You don’t even have to get off the beaten track, just drive around the Scottish highlands and you can’t miss them.

Personally, I love them, it gives the Scottish countryside a well defined “look”, something that distinguishes it from other countries and landscapes.

Here is one shot a few years ago, I’m sure I would not be able to find this particular one again, but I would be able to find many others. As you can see the weather was not very cooperative, it rained, but then again, it does that often in Scotland.

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Over on the North Eastern shores of Lake Tahoe is an area called Sand Harbor, where you will find these awesome rocks. They can make for excellent subjects and foreground interest in any photograph.

This shot was taken early around 7pm as the sun was setting behind those mountains. The lens was my trusty EF17-40 f/4L at its widest (17mm) setting. On the 5D full frame, you get some vignetting at that wide an angle, but Lightroom’s lens correction feature fixed that without a problem. A wonderful feature indeed.

It did take a bit of a scramble down the rocky banks to get to this point. The best results with a wide angle lens are obtained when you get right up close to anything you want in the foreground.

As usual, this is a 3 shot HDR, processed with Photomatix the given some treatment with my Warming Vignette preset.

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I don’t often do B&W. not because I don’t like it, but I just don’t “think” about it. For some reason I rarely do a B&W conversion, but this time I did and I must say, I LOVE the outcome.

There are two processing techniques here. The first is an HDR treatment, using 3 shots at 2 stops apart. I liked the result, but I then started playing with my Lightroom Presets and I really liked the result on this.

As stated in a previous post,, California will be closing Mono Lake State Park next year due to budget cuts. This is what prompted us to go see this lake again.

Hope you like the B&W

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On the Eastern end of the famous Piazza San Marco in Venice stands the Basilica di San Marco, the most famous of Venice’s churches. Thanks to its opulent design, gilded Byzantine mosaics, and its status as a symbol of Venetian wealth and power, from the 11th century on, the building has been known by the nickname Chiesa d’Oro (Church of gold).

This shot was taken from the Piazza San Marco itself.  I love the architectural detail and this is a 3 shot HCR, 2 stops apart and processes in Photomatix.

Those domes and Byzantine style is quite attractive I find and is very interesting to shoot.

It was quite a long walk through Venice’s labyrinth-like streets and we would not have found it were it not for the map we had! This place is awesome though and perhaps the most romantic place I have ever visited. Linda and I regret not having planned our trip differently as we would have loved to explore Venice for a few days longer.

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As promised, here is a photo of the famous Rialto Bridge in Venice. It is the oldest bridge over the Grand Canal and is, of course, for pedestrians only (no cars in Venice). Down the middle of the bridge are two rows of shops and the roads leading up to the bridge are equally full of shops, stalls and people selling just about everything you can imagine. From trinket-like souvenirs to expensive Italian leather shoes and handbags. During the main part of the day the bridge is positively packed with people, speaking every language imaginable.

But when evening comes around, the shops and kiosks close and the place takes on a different atmosphere. It’s a lot more relaxed and people seem to be there to enjoy that quiet time just before dusk, then move on to find a place to eat or enjoy a pre-dinner drink with friends and family.

As you see, this shot is taken at that magic moment. You can see a few people on the right sitting tables and there are relatively few people on the bridge itself.

After taking this shot, Linda and I went off in search for some pasta and Chianti . . . .

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Venice is undoubtedly one of the most romantic places I have visited and very appropriate that Linda and I visited there during our honeymoon.

This shot is of the Grand Canal and is taken from the Realto Bridge. The Realto Bridge is the oldest bridge across the canal and I have a photo of it coming in a future post.

Linda and I had dinner under one of those red canopies you can see on the right. It was a wonderful balmy night and just such a beautiful location. We will always remember that night. We did have a little surprise when a power boat came by and the wake caused water to splash up around our ankles, yes the water is that high!

If you haven’t heard, Venice is slowly sinking and with global warming raising the water levels, prospects are not good for this unique place. We saw this for ourselves when walking around, the water is VERY close to some of the pavements and in some places it sloshes up over the walkways.

As for places to visit, Venice has to rate very high on anyone’s list. The atmosphere is quite unique and the narrow streets are just wonderful. So many quaint corners and we found shopping to be considerably cheaper than in Tuscany.

Needless to say, Linda and I had a ride in one of those gondolas. It was all very beautiful and we hope to go be able to go back one day soon.

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Sadly, Mono Lake Tufa State Natural Reserve is one of the 70 California State parks that will close due to budget cuts. This will happen next year in July. So Linda and and I decided to go and shoot at Mono Lake over the Labor Day weekend and make sure we got shots of this awesome place.

We visited several times and, while nice, there were no clouds and the light was very “blah”. We decided to have one more attempt, on the day we had to leave, and got up at 5am. To our delight the sky was filled with clouds and the whole feel of the place was just amazing. We could not stop shooting!

So here is a shot taken at the South Tufas. It’s an HDR made from 3 shots, two stops apart.

While I am unsure how one closes a lake, it will be sad to see this state park be closed. As you can see, you can walk right up to many of these tufas and I hate to think of them being damaged by vandals. The South Tufas are up to 1000 years old so not something that will “grow back” quickly.

So, if you are a photographer or just someone who wants to see this place, go before July 2012.

I can highly recommend it.

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We visited the White Mountains in California today, where you can find the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. These Bristlecones are the oldest living things in the world and there is one tree that is an alleged 4750 years old!

The tree here is not quite that old and you can see it has struggled. I found this tree up at 11,000 (!) feet elevation after a 12 mile drive on a dirt track. I needed to go into 4-wheel drive mode to navigate the steep trails, quite exhilarating and not something I had done for a long time. To my delight, Linda thought it was just fantastic, never having done this before.

Our drive was rewarded with some of the most spectacular scenic views ever. It is so beautiful up there. I was not kidding on the elevation. The visitor’s center is at 10,500 feet and is where most visitors stop. There is another grove about 12 miles further on and only accessible via that dirt road. It took about 45 minutes to get there.

This tree was still alive even if part of it had died. It clearly struggles to survive in this challenging environment, but very beautiful.

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This was just awesome. Looking up into the dome of the massive St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. I felt you could get lost in the detail of this ceiling and the picture belies the sheer size of it.

You can go up into the dome (550 steps) and walk around the circumference. Huge number of people there too and no tripods allowed so this was shot hand held (hard to do when pointing straight up).

The second picture below provides some context. At the top of the picture you can just see the writing that runs around the bottom of the dome. The picture itself gives you some idea of how large this church really is. If you look closely, you can see Linda standing right in the middle, waiving at me.

We came here on our first day in Rome. Our hotel was just a short bus-ride from the Vatican. Figuring out how the bus system worked took longer than the ride itself. Turns our the buses are a really good way to get around – and inexpensive too. We heard that a subway never really took off in Rome as every time they started digging, they struck some ancient ruin and all work had to stop until it was properly excavated and assessed for its historic value. I can imagine them never getting anywhere that way. So. . . . riding a bus works great!

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Who can visit Rome and not visit the Colosseum? It is such an iconic monument! It represents everything the old Roman empire represented. The grandeur, the architecture, the awesomeness and of course the gladiators.

Linda and I decided to make our first visit at night and organized our day accordingly. We were not disappointed! This place is just awesome and BIG. We knew it was large of course, but seeing it for the first time, up front gave me a new respect for those Roman builders of the time. The Colosseum was built in 72AD so we’re talking almost 2000 years ago.

We walked all around and got various shots from different angles. I found this one to be the best even though it is a common point of view.

We went back the next day and took a tour inside which was equally awesome, but I’ll show a shot of than in a future post.

About this shot:

Taken with a tripod, three exposures, 2 stops apart. Blended into an HDR using Nik HDR Pro and finished with some toning and contrast settings in Lightroom.

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