Going to the Dogs!

I hate being sick. It puts such a crimp in your plans. I'm reminded of my grandmother's expression, "if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans". OK, my grandmother never said that but it sounds like something she might have.

So getting the flu (again! Twice in one year. Damn) last week messed up a dental appointment, and more to the point, the field trip to Niagara Falls (slowly I turned. Foot by foot... I had to say that. Knee-jerk reaction. If you don't know where it comes from, Google it. And tell us which version you like best!). I haven't heard back from any of the participants, but it had to be a great trip: hotel suite for a weekend, lots of stuff to photograph, good friends, good food... FWIW I was able to re-book the hotel for mid-February but not a suite. At least I didn't lose my payment.

The flu also slowed me down. I really didn't do anything for a week. I spent a lot of time napping in the computer chair or bundled up in a blanket in front of the fireplace. By Saturday I was bored out of my mind and although I was still congested and coughing, I had to get out. Then I remembered that the Niagara trip had conflicted with another event: the Haliburton Sled Dog Derby. So I bundled up warm in my down jacket and snow pants, and went out to see what's what.

I didn't stay all day, although I shot from 3 vantage points: the staging area, the start/finish line and out on the course. I shot a bunch of images of sled teams running away in the distance, into the setting sun but I didn't like any of those shots. One thing I DID do was to stick to one lens (except for a brief swap to my 70-200 because I wanted to use the shallow depth of field). All of the other shots were with the 120-400mm lens and all at 400 mm.

For you technical types, I set the camera to shutter speed priority because I don't get good results with that lens over 1/500 second. Keeping the ISO at 400, I was able to shoot at f/5.6 with one stop of exposure compensation dialled in (snow should be white, not grey). I was using a monopod which helps but if I'm going to use one, I need a better one. The issue I'm having with that lens is that I like to focus, then recompose the shot, but shooting in continuous focus mode (moving subjects), that messes up the focus and the exposure as well.

In talking to a friend who shoots birds and wildlife and action, he says the trick is to stay on the subject with the focus point, don't worry too much about composition and re-frame the image (crop it) later. That goes against what I've been trying to do, so I need to practice more. He did tell me one encouraging thing: he (and other action shooters) bang off a lot of frames and have a much lower success rate. I have to learn to hold down that shutter release and bring home 800 images instead of 200.

Why am I telling you all this? Because I'd like to hear back from others about how to shoot this stuff.

Anyway, here are some pictures from Saturday. I hope you like them. None of them are HDR's, they're all from single images but they've all been toned and sharpened in post processing.

This is that one shot with the 70-200 at f/2.8. It's cropped and toned. I find the extreme effect of the toning makes it interesting.

He's one of the race organizers. Toned again, of course. I use Topaz Adjust 5, mostly.

Team on the last leg to the finish line, about 1 km to go. These dogs are exhausted and the driver is encouraging them to run. But they're athletes and you can tell they love doing this. Picture a human athlete in a race, totally pumped!

Sometimes they don't make it. This dog collapsed in the harness a couple of hundred meters from the finish and was being dragged along on his/her side by the rest of the team at full speed. The driver had to stop, unhitch the dog and load him/her into the sled for the rest of the way.

This dog was running in a ski-joring event: two dogs harnessed to a cross-country ski racer. Wild eyes! They actually looked like that but I had to clean them up because they were too noisy.

The dogs are gorgeous. I shot this in the staging area just before the dogs were harnessed up for the 8-dog team race. The Huskies and Malamut's sometimes have such compelling blue eyes!

This was my favourite shot of the day. Again in the staging area, you could tell that this dog was aching to get out there and run!

The races continued on Sunday but I thought it was a better plan to stay indoors and continue to recover from the flu. I did have a good time and I was glad I was able to get out for at least a couple of hours over the weekend.

— 30 —

Winter marches on...

I was in Toronto last week and the temperature broke 10°C. You could see brown grass. Not here!

When I woke up this morning it was -28° and it's warmed up to -9° at 3:00pm. The sun is shining through broken clouds and everything is covered with a blanket of fresh white snow — we got about 10cm (4") yesterday. There was also a brief freezing rain the other day so the trees are coated with crystallized ice. It's really beautiful out so you may ask, why no pictures?

Well because I'm trying to get past this nasty flu that I picked up somewhere. I ventured out today to clear the snow (and my snowblower broke. Bad, this time I'm afraid!), bundled up really warm and I have to admit I enjoyed it, but my congested lungs did not.

A couple of days ago, I had to go into Minden, to drop something off at the post office and because I ran out of Advil. Now there's a spot on Highway 35 where you're driving directly into the setting sun, so oncoming traffic, trucks more so, are surrounded by a backlit halo of white spray. Every time I see it, I want to stop and try to take some pictures, and I gave into temptation. So there I stood, outside the car, in -10° C or lower temperatures, alternatively hacking away, wiping my runny nose, and hoping a Northbound truck would appear. I was there for almost half an hour, waiting for the sun to peek out. Probably not wise, given how I'm hacking and coughing.

I did NOT get the shot I pictured in my mind. I wanted spray coming up, backlighting... but I did get this one. I have a less extreme version of it but I really like how this looks like a painting.

By the way, I did NOT get the dog I pictured last week. Someone else adopted her. Also I'm missing the camera club outing to Niagara Falls this weekend due to this flu but i rebooked the hotel for mid-February so I'll get there.

TTFN...

— 30 —

Ice Fishing in Northern Ontario

It's been warm up to now, and open water abounded until a few days ago. Still, there were foolhardy souls who ventured out onto the shifting, thin ice to try their hand at catching lake trout, smelt, whitefish in the Highlands lakes.

I was in Toronto and it got cold on Friday night — so when I drove back North on Saturday, I knew the ice fishing huts would be out on the new ice.

Not without problems, though: the Inn across the road, who put 7 huts out every year, had two of them stuck halfway out in the slushy surface, and two more still staging on the shore waiting for harder water.

Last year I saw some portable huts out there, this year there will be more. Costco sells a 6-man shelter for under $300 which is very well thought out. It's a pop-up and one person can put it up in a minute or two. The red one in the pictures below is a 2- or 4-person version.

Here's a visual story of a group of two guys and two girls who took one of these out on the ice and set it up. Too bad this doesn't end with a picture of a caught fish!

It was cold. The overnight temperature dropped to -24°C and it felt damp and chilly as well. I dressed for it — snow pants, down jacket, fur hat. I wasn't cold because of the exercise hiking out about 1 km across the ice.

Here they are on their way out to a spot over deep water.
The shelter is in that red bag.

Ice fishing means drilling a hole in the ice with an augur. By the way, it turns out that there was already about an 8" thickness of ice today.

Setting up the shelter. That's a propane heater in the milk crate at left.

A minute later, the pop-up is ready to go

Now to drill the holes. One's already done and one of the girls is fishing. They didn't all go in the shelter, as you can see they're dressed warmly.

With the shelter set up, you can see the effect of the heat rising from it on the background across the lake. That's not a Photoshop effect, the long lens accentuates the heat mirage effect.

Here they are, enjoying their afternoon on the ice. These people spend every weekend and otherwise free day out on the ice. I have to admit that I don't see the attraction, but there are hundreds of them out there all winter!

I ventured out again late afternoon but everyone was gone. It was too cold to hang out and shoot more pictures so I did the right thing: scooted back inside and threw another log on the fire. Watch for more additions to this story later in the season.

— 30 —

A visit to Bala

Bala is a small town in Muskoka cottage country North of Toronto. Here's a picture I took yesterday in the centre of town.

Bala is known for its cranberries. It's also significant for me because one of the best motorcycling roads in Ontario ends there, Muskoka Road 13. I haven't been there in about 5 years, though. I was there yesterday to visit a yellow lab that was rescued from the Sudbury pound a few days before her scheduled demise and I'm considering adopting her. I probably will.

The Bala River runs through the town and is criss-crossed by bridges. I'm not sure what this building is, but I'll find out next time I'm there. Winter is the only time, I think, that you can get this shot because of the trees. It's fast water, and judging by the lawn signs that abound, Hydro is looking at building a power station, something many residents don't seem to favour.

The Ontario Historical Society has put a few plaques in Bala. One describes the Pre-Cambrian Rock geology of the area. There's also the Lucy Maud Montgomery museum in Bala. Apparently she visited the town in 1922 and wrote a book called "The Blue Castle" based on that visit. It's a bit of a stretch, it seems to me, to have a museum for LMM there, since she's best known for her book "Anne of Green Gables" and is PEI born and bred. She did live in Ontario, but nowhere near Bala: in Leaksdale which is some 200km away over in Uxbridge township.

Enough history lesson? I think I'm going to do more of this background research, telling the story behind some of my pictures.

A couple of technical notes (I know, I'm running on at the keyboard!): 5-shot HDR processed in Photomatix with saturation turned completely off and the shadow saturation turned up. Interesting effect. I wanted to emphasize the building so I used lens distortion (horizontal) in LR to change the perspective and I cropped and straightened it a bit before syncing the 5 images and exporting to Photomatix. I used Nik Sharpener on the building and grounds and Dfine to reduce noise in the sky. I turned off de-ghosting in Photomatix to retain the detail of the river. I used the Vignette preset in Nik Color Efex Pro to focus the scene a bit more. I think this would make a good watercolor subject if I ever get around to picking up a paintbrush.

PS: here's a shot of Miss Dixie, the dog I'm considering adopting:

Her name is "Dixie" and the foster parents have dubbed her "Miss Dixie". She's a "she" despite the blue collar (that's all the foster home had). Apparently she was picked up wandering in Sudbury and they traced some history. She's about 6 years old and she was used for breeding in a puppy mill. The number tattooed in her ear implies she's a pure lab. She has a great disposition and really needs a new "forever home".

— 30 —

A bright light is gone

My dear friend Frances Goodman Pellatt passed away last night.
She was 65 years old.

Fran was a bright light in my life and I'm really going to miss her.

My thoughts go out to all of those she loved and touched,
especially to her family. She leaves a very big hole in our hearts.

Bye, Fran. Love you.


— 30 —

This is about FACES

On Scott Kelby's blog today, the topic was, "I've got nuthin'". Me too, sort of. Nikon announced the D4 today, so that's newsworthy but this blog isn't about that. People will still be reading this down the road when the D4 is not big news, so I don't really want to focus on that kind of info. If you do want to read about it, here's a link. The features on this camera are incredible. Sure wish I could afford one!

Faces
I uploaded my "Faces" images to the Richmond Hill Camera Club a couple of days ago. The club runs half-a-dozen competitions a year and this one called for people or animal faces with interesting expressions that connect with the viewer. I keep saying that I'm a "Rocks & Trees" photographer but I actually had too many "faces" pictures to choose from! I'm only allowed to submit two. I chose two of the following shots, but I thought I'd share the group with you.

Question is, which two would YOU have submitted? Remember, pictures are not only judged for content, but also for technical quality. The only time technical issues are not really considered is in journalism categories. So here are the 5 shots I considered for the competition:

What are YOU lookin' at?
I'm finally learning how to use the 400mm lens. I did do some post-processing (ya think?), primarily with Topaz Adjust 5 which you can purchase here. The image is cropped quite tightly, it's only about 1/4 of the frame.

The YaBaby's in Concert
This is a composite of two images shot under wild concert lighting at an outdoor event last July. I was contracted by these guys to shoot the concert but they refused to pay me so I guess the images belong to me! Toning was done with Topaz Adjust 4 (not 5, it wasn't out yet).

You want me to do WHAT?
At Humber College, we teach motorcycle riding to all kinds of people, young and old. This gentleman was, I believe, 86 years old and he took and passed the motorcycle course. Can you say "Bucket List"? Again, toned with Topaz Adjust 4. I guess I like the grungy look!

You are what you wear!
I took this candid shot at the Byward Market in Ottawa last May or June. I love how the facial expression matches the shirt. Too bad about the bystander, although it adds some mystery and colour to the image.

Yahooooooooo!
In the open canoe competition on the white water at the Minden Wild Water Preserve during the Ontario Championship series in September. Do you think they were having fun? I actually shot this with a borrowed lens: Les and I swapped lenses for a short time. This is almost full frame with a 300mm lens, no post-processing to speak of.

So which two would you have entered? I'll tell you later which ones I did, and how they fared when the competition judging is done later this month.

— 30 —

Happy New Year!

How does that expression go? A day late and a dollar short? You still have 365 days to enjoy because 2012 is a Leap Year, so get with the program!

I had an enjoyable holiday. Rosa was here and I spent less time than usual Behind the Camera and In Front of the Computer (™ and ©. Can you sense a book title coming?). So I missed my 50 blog posts in 2011 by one. My bad!

The photo above was taken early in December, just as the sun broke out of the clouds and illuminated some of the trees, as you see. When I wanted to participate in a thread on the NAPP site asking about your best photos in 2011, this is one of the two 'finalist' shots I decided upon. The other one was the aluminium boat with the red stripey design that I posted here last time. I couldn't choose, so I posted them both.

What's interesting about this picture is that it's almost exactly as it came out of the camera, with no photoshop edits to speak of (I straightened it and tweaked the exposure a bit). When I put the text on, I noticed some power/telephone lines that I got rid of but didn't really need to. I did try an HDR of this scene but the original single photo is more powerful. I hope you like it as much as I do.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

As I said, I spent some time enjoying the outdoors in the last week or so. Although I'm bothered a little now by the cold, winter is really a nice time up here in the Highlands. As I said last time, it would be nice if winter would make up its mind, though. We got about 12cm (5") of snow one day and it was enough to unlimber the snowblower.

I felt like Tom Sawyer. You know, the 'whitewashing the fence' thing? Rosa begged me to let her blow the driveway, so I reluctantly allowed her to, while either taking pictures or sitting in a lawn chair watching (I love work: I could watch it for hours!).

Now I ask you: does she look like she's having fun?

This is what I was shooting behind my house while she was working! An HDR, of course. Some might consider it overdone but I love the texture and detail of the foreground especially.

I even let Rosa use my camera! She took this shot on Saturday morning when we were enroute to Toronto for New Years.

I took this picture a couple of minutes later from the same spot. By the way, the first picture (the New Year's one) was shot about 200m down this road, where Scotch Line Road meets Highway 35. It was taken a few weeks earlier, though.

Sunday morning was a lot warmer and when I drove back up  it was about 4°C (about 40°F) and everything on the trees had melted.

I think this is a Asiatic Lily but I'm not 100% sure. It was in Valeria's kitchen at her house near Bancroft — Rosa and I spent one night visiting there. I tried to focus-stack this shot but it didn't work so this was manually blended.

Here's another shot, with Rosa looking a the same flower

I should have taken more pictures of it. The backlighting produced a great effect. By the way, for you budding photographers out there, ambient lighting from a window is the best you can get! A North-facing window would have been better (this one looks East, and it was still morning) because the light is gentler. I will be talking a bit about how to use it in my book, which is on Chapter 4 right now, thanks for asking!

So up until yesterday's thaw, it was a winter wonderland up here. It's snowing again today but it's too cold and the snow isn't really sticking to the branches but the clean, bright white blanket of snow is so invigorating: that's why I moved here from "The Big Smoke".

See you next time! Feel free to comment or share some pictures with us!

— 30 —

Procrastination

I want to start an online group for people who can't figure out how to connect to the Internet. I've also been meaning to write about procrastination, but somehow I never seem to be able to get around to it.

Sort of old jokes, but "many a truth is said in jest". It's the time of year when people think about their New Year's Resolutions which is another name for a list of to-do items that you'll write down again 12 months from now because you won't do them. But it gives you that warm and fuzzy feeling that at least you're thinking about them.

I've given up on some of them. Take weight loss, for instance. Today I spoke with a friend who said, "I'm going to lose 40 pounds in 2012". And I said, be careful because next December you'll look down and say, "I still have 35 pounds to go" and of course you won't make it. And he said, "funny, that's exactly what I said this December". I might lose weight this year. But only if I really want to because you can do anything if you really want to. I lost about 15 pounds this year, we'll see what happens in 2012.

But that's not why you're reading this blog. By the way, you're not alone: by the time you read this, the hit counter at the bottom of this page will say more than 10,000 hits! Not bad. No, you're reading this because you enjoy my photography, because it might give you some ideas and because you want to be able to say "I was reading his blog before he became famous!".

So from a photography perspective, here's what I have on my To-Do list. These are not New Year's Resolutions, I've been avoiding these items for a long time now, hopefully I'll get around to actually doing some of them.

• I love teaching. I was born to teach. I've taught such varied things as Morse Code, Pistol Shooting, Motorcycle Riding, Creative Writing and yes, Photography. Why am I not actually doing photography workshops on a regular basis?
• Many people ask me "why are you not selling your photographs"? They tell me my pictures are better than most they see out there. That's a good question, why aren't I?
• I had such a great time when I went to Newfoundland with the purpose of shooting photos and I brought back so many great images. That was in 2006. It's going to be 2012. Why haven't I done something like that since?
• More than one or two people have commented that I'm really good at writing, why haven't I written a book? Another good question.

So in the next 12 months I plan to run some photo workshops, get some of my pictures sold, take a trip somewhere really nice just for the purpose of taking pictures, and write a book. Some of these are in the planning stages, some are just resolutions and guess what? I'm on Chapter 3 of my basic photography book! I've blocked it out, written abstracts for all the chapters and now I'm writing. Damned if I'm not going to do it.

I'm 65 years old. If I don't do it now, then when?

I've written this down and 10,000 people are going to read it. If I don't get to this stuff, then I'm going to look mighty silly, aren't I?

My intent here was to perhaps push some of you to get off your collective butts and do some of the things you've been meaning to do but never seem to get around to, before it's too late. Stop Procrastinating!


OK, off my high horse, and let's look at some pictures.

I shot these next two images a couple of weeks ago and mixed together some of the techniques I talked about in my blog(s) (tech blog included). They put some Christmas Lights up on the footbridge in Minden and I got a couple of different shots. Here:

5-shot HDR with a little line-art technique mixed in. I painted the details of the bridge back in using layer masks in Photoshop.

Similar technique but more extreme, and I added a vignette effect using Nik Color Efex Pro.

As you know, I got a new lens a couple of weeks ago: a Sigma 120-400mm f/4.5-5.6 with OS (that's 'sigmaspeak' for Nikon's 'VR' or Canon's 'IS'). I'm not that happy with it yet, but I think it's more to do with the nut holding the camera. I get sharper pictures when I'm handheld than when it's locked down on a tripod. Why is that???.

I need to resort to some desktop magic to make the pictures as sharp as I want them. I'll get it, but I need some practice.  Here are a couple of shots from this week:

Once again, I used the line-drawing method of adding in sharp edges. And some Topaz Adjust 5.

This Chickadee on my bird feeder was shot from on the tripod. 1/400 sec at f/5.6, ISO 1000 and it's cropped about 50% of the full frame and rotated. I admit to some enhancements in Nik Sharpener, Photoshop, and Topaz.

So finally, here's a Christmas Day shot of my neighbour's lights just before nightfall. If I were the "Christmas Card" type, and if this were my house, I know what I'd use the image for! But I'm not, and it's not...

Interestingly, I shot a bunch of HDR prep shots, including a few 9-shot bursts but I like this single image best of all. I didn't do much to it, other than toning back everything but the lights. I'd like to make it look like it was snowing (it actually was, but not enough to show up in the image); I'll see if I can figure out how.

That's all for now. I'll try to put one more post up before the year end but if not, well, see you in 2012!

— 30 —

It's Winter (sort of...)

I wish it would make up its mind. The temperature keeps varying between -10°C and +10°C which means we have snow, then we don't, then we do, then we don't... Rosa asked me, when I grew up in Montreal, what was the difference?. Well we had a lot more snow than in Toronto (or maybe it's because I was smaller so the snowbanks were higher!), it was colder and, after some prompting from her I realized we actually had 4 distinct seasons. When it was winter, it was WINTER. When it was spring... even here, up in the Highlands of Central Ontario, spring could be 4 whole days long, then we jump right into summer. Or maybe this global warming stuff really is happening. I'm not thinking year-to-year, I'm going back 50 or more years to when I was a kid. Technically, it's not winter yet, until tomorrow, though.

I saved the best picture for last in this post, so don't go away without scrolling down! Your comments are very welcome: click the word "comment" at the end of this post.

I have taken my camera out for a walk several times in the past week and especially, I took the new lens out for a trial or two. Since I bought it for shooting wildlife, I thought I'd give it a shot at some rare birds, seagulls at the dump! It turns out that although I was trying to be facetious, this bird is a Glaucous Gull (Larus hyperboreus) which in fact is theoretically a rare bird! I dunno, there are hundreds of them at the dump!

This guy is not in my bird book. Some immature gulls are mottled brown but the book says the babies of this species have dark eyes and black bills, and this one has a yellow bill. Maybe it's a new species, Larus springerensus!

It's hard to shoot birds in flight. I'm going back today to try again.

Both of these shots were taken with my new (new-to-me) Sigma 120-400mm F4.5-5.6 DG APO OS HSM lens. Both were cropped about half a frame, and both were shot at f/8, shutter speed 1/1000 or faster. ISO was 400. I didn't have as much success with this lens shooting in a hockey arena (my grandson Ryan plays for the Uxbridge Stars). In fact the only really good shot that day was with the Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8. The lighting was so bad that I had to shoot at much higher ISO — this excellent goal (the Stars are in white/green) was at 1/800 sec, f/2.8, ISO 2500.

He shoots, he scores! Young Mr. Anderson scored the other goal as well, less than a minute earlier. I did capture that one too, better isolation on the shooter and the goalie, but no puck in the shot. The Belleville goalie kept the Stars off the scoreboard otherwise and won the game 3-2.

In this really badly lit arena, the best I was able to do with the slower Sigma lens was at ISO 6400. Incredible that they came out, but nothing to write home about.

This month, one of the assigned topics in the NAPP challenge rally was "Knifes, Forks and Spoons". I wasn't being very creative, but had fun with this shot anyway:

"One of these things doesn't belong here. One of these things isn't the same!" which comes from a kid's song on Sesame Street, I think. I mixed in some line-art processing to add visual sharpness and merged them into drop-shadowed layers in Photoshop. These pictures were shot in my light tent using ambient light (no flash).

Here's an HDR I shot when out walking.

I like the vignette effect. This is the door latch on an ice fishing hut, waiting for hard water before going out on the lake. Processed with Photomatix Pro, toned with Topaz Adjust 5 and the vignette was done in Nik Color Efex Pro. I do like my plug-ins! I think this image looks best on a white background, but if you're reading my blog with a normal browser, it's black. Click the picture itself to open it in a separate (white) page.

I saved the best for last. The same day, I shot this:

Again, I created the HDR with Photomatix, toned with Topaz and vignetted with Nik Color Efex. I went a little further though, notice how the horizon on both sides is the same. I cleaned up some background and I stretched the image horizontally to give it a more pleasing proportion.

This is a killer shot. I will be printing this as a limited edition art print and if anyone is interested in purchasing a copy, email me. Generally many of my images are available in print, let me know.

Oh yeah: speaking of print! My "Michipicoten River Light" image from Gales of November 2010 was published in Photo News! It's available online as a .pdf, click the link here and scroll down to page 11 to see my picture!

That's it for now. I'll try to get one or two more posts in before the New Year — I actually made almost 50 posts to the blog this year!

— 30 —

Cool Product

Well actually, "warm product"!

I just thought I'd tell you about a good product I found.

Background:
Last January, I paid over $600 for heating oil. I vowed that wouldn't happen again, so (1) I'm burning more wood and (2) I'm keeping the house cooler. I set the temperature back to 64°F (16°C) overnight but it's warm once I'm in bed. In the morning it goes up to 70°F (19°C) but I set it back to 66°F (17°C) during the day.

It gets cool sitting at the computer. Instead of heating up the whole room, I found this radiant heater at Costco for about $60. It heats ME, not the room. It's only 1000 watts but it's only on intermittently so it costs about what a few light bulbs cost to run, and the radiant heat is nice — it's like sitting in front of the fireplace. Here's a picture:

Odd looking picture? I thought you'd never ask! It started as a photo, then I converted it to line art and painted the colour back in by using a mask in Photoshop. Want to know how? Have a look at my technical blog here.

STUDIO STUFF STILL FOR SALE

I still have a bunch of studio strobes and stuff for sale that I don't use. It was worth over $5000 new but we all know that means little: the market value should be around $1000-1200, but I really want to get rid of it so I can buy a new lens, so I'm seriously willing to dicker for a quick sale. Everything works. This is your chance to get a complete turnkey setup for next to nothing, so let's talk.

Included are 3 strobes, two with umbrellas. 3 Manfrotto stands, one with a boom arm. A backdrop stand. Two boxes full of muslin backdrops in various colours and assorted other stuff. Even a Gossen lightmeter (twist my arm...). Here's some pictures. CONTACT ME

— 30 —

It's HDR Thursday

For those of you who really hate HDR's, there's nothing to see here, move along.

OK, well just for you, here's a non-HDR shot to look at. I try to have something for everybody.

The lights outside the Red Umbrella Inn, out of focus. I recently participated in a competition where images had to be out of focus and it gave me this idea.

Groupon link
Do you know what Groupon is? They're active in many countries including US and Canada, you get some phenomenal deals from companies who are looking for new clients or to fill quiet times. Often they have to have enough participants to activate a deal, but when they do, you get some crazy prices. The latest deal I read about is $115 worth of printing at Photobooks Canada for $39.

It costs nothing to join and use Groupon. Click this link for more information and to sign up. BTW, I get referral credits if you use that link (nothing but full disclosure here!).

Have you ever used Extended ASCII (ANSI) characters?
So, like, what are they? Well suppose you wanted to put in your 2¢ worth. Or you really want to use the © symbol instead of typing out "copyright" or "(C)". Or you want to write about the temperature outside (it's -4°C in Bancroft as I write this). Get the picture?

It's pretty easy, especially if you're on a regular keyboard (a little tougher on a laptop but do-able, and I'm really not sure if it works on a Mac — someone write me back and tell me if it works.

I wrote up how to do it on my tech blog here. And I created a pdf page you can print out and put it in among the rest of the clutter on your desktop so you can find the codes when you want to use them. I like this one, by the way: ■

Now, it's about HDR's.
I'm stretching my memory to try to recall who used this analogy: it might have been Rob Stimpson, or maybe Dr. Ron, but I can't remember. Anyway, consider that you're a carpenter, and you've just acquired the world's greatest hammer. It doesn't mean that everything you build needs to be done with a hammer and nails — sometimes you can use screws or glue — but from time to time, a hammer and nails is the best solution. So it is with HDR's.

Some pictures scream out to be processed as HDR's. Sometimes, you need to do extreme processing, sometimes you can be subtle. And by the way, I include toning single images with packages like Topaz Adjust 5, or any of the HDR programs that allow it. The shot inside Gwartzman's shop a couple of days ago is an example of a single toned image. Where was I???

Oh yeah. Yesterday, I was driving to Minden (with a stop at the Subaru dealer to fix a slow leak in a tire), and the light was spectacular. There was a freshly fallen silent shroud of snow (song lyric!). Just as you come into Minden, there's a footbridge over the Gull River that called to me. Here it is:

This literally SCREAMED "HDR" at me. I ran it in Nik HDR Efex, then added some sharpening and detail in CS5.

Actually, on the way into Minden, I saw this scene and needed to stop and shoot it.

Although this is technically an HDR (5-shot bracket), I didn't do much to it, I just accepted the default "Compressor" preset in Photomatix. Then I tweaked it with Topaz A5, just a little tad to add a bit more detail.

What's interesting about this shot is that I changed the White Balance from "Auto" to 9000°K and it made the picture really jump off the screen at you (well, at me, anyway. You have to tell me if you agree or not).

At the Subaru dealer, I had some time to kill while waiting for my car. The light was spectacular, as I said. The sunset was golden on the trees and the fresh snow was beautiful (I won't think that way a month from now!). Here are a couple of images I did. This lighting really works in HDR

One last shot. Again, although this is a 5-shot HDR, it really only added the detail to the sky, the trees looked pretty good in a single individual image. The only other thing I did was some hi-pass sharpening to bring out some of the detail. Look how the setting sun hits the ridge in the background! It really did look like this:

So to those who thought I was going off in new directions, I am… but I never said I was going to give up shooting the kind of images I love, especially now that I have a new and wonderful hammer!

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