HDR That Looks Real

I don't know how much you all know about HDR, High Dynamic Range. They are images that have a high range of tonal values present that still retain detail. If you were to do a google search of HDR images you would find a bunch of sureal images that do not look life like. Those images have given HDR a bad name. HDR is a great way to multiple images of the same thing to get them to look how they are to the naked eye. Digital cameras are limited on the spectrum of light they can sense at any given time. Film is much better and our eyes are even better at capturing wider ranges of tonal value.

I took some photos at Montezuma Well (part of the Montezuma Castle National Monument in Arizona). I took these photos at varying exposures. As you can see from these photos they are too dark in some places on some and to bright in places on others. I took them and combined them together automatically and manually using Photoshop.  The entrance in the background of the photo was hard to see even to the bare eye but not impossible. I wanted and image that went beyond what my eyes could see but that looked natural.

Here is the final product of my work. If you look at it you could not have been able to tell that it was HDR unless I told you or you have been trained to see it. Not bad eh?

So when people are head over heals for HDR or against it you can know that it is useful, and can look completely natural.

New Panoramas!

It has been a while I know. But here are some panoramas that I have been meaning to put together and get up here. Some of them are from places that I have other panoramas of but these are new. I hope you enjoy!

Grain fields east of Pullman, Washington

Trail to Delicate Arch, Arches National Park, Utah

 The Tetons and Jackson Lake, Wyoming

Somewhere between Ferdinand, Idaho and Cascade, Idaho

Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Rexburg Latter-day Saint Temple, Idaho
(with smoke from INL/Jefferson County fire July 2010)

Lewiston, Idaho and Clarkston, Washington
Clear Water and Snake Rivers

Arches National Park, Utah

Recent Black and White 35mm, 120mm, 4x5

Here are some recent black and white photos that I thought you all might like to see.

Here is a view of snow and the shadows of a tree. I am excited to not see so much snow. The Snow is mostly melted here but even today it snowed. The weather wants to remind me that I am in a place with the word "burg" in its name. Today's snow special was of the dip-n-dots variety.


Though it snows I have found a nice greenhouse that has tropical plants that helps me take a mini vacation. I think everyone should have a green house! It just goes to show how much you can do with a little global warming. There are just some places that can use more warmth. Here are some photos from with in the greenhouse. There is a swirling tropical cactus-like plant, sugarcane, and a banana tree. Sounds like it could make a great drink.

The first image was taken with a large format 4x5 camera while the other two photos are taken with a 35mm camera.

Sugarcane

Banana Tree

Here is a little something from near the Wind Cave from my last post. This is a leaf that is smaller than an inch (2.5 cm) in diameter. The interesting thing about this image is that I used the leaf as a negative when printing it in the darkroom. The leaf had been out in the snow all winter and it had become quite translucent. So what you see here is the reverse of what the leaf really looks like.

This shot was taken at a wood mill just south of I-90 in Livingston, Montana with a Hasselblad medium format camera. My wife and I were heading to Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone to try out a large format camera (4 by 5 inch film). The image at the bottom is one of those 4x5 photos I took. It was my first time shooting with a large format camera. It was quite exciting!

Livingston, MT 45.640497,-110.573469

Mammoth Hot Springs 44.966734,-110.704739

The Wind Cave in Logan Canyon

Just so you know, the hike to the Wind Caves in Logan Canyon is not that hard. Sure you are climbing but it is quite a nice hike. At the trail head it says the hike is difficult. It would be if you were on crutches, anything is hard on crutches, but you could still do the hike. I highly recommend this hike.

On Saint Patty's I was in Logan, Utah and I was able to take a short hike up to the Wind Cave in Logan Canyon. If you head east on US-89 out of Logan City you are a short drive from the Wind Cave Trail Head. When you get to the trail head make sure you have good shoes on. In my personal opinion the trail is easy but I must be wrong because the sign says that the hike is difficult. When the trail is only 1.9 miles long and much of that is shaded I would not consider it to be hard. I would not even call it steep compared to other trails I have been on.

This photo is a view from the trail of Logan Canyon. From the trail you can see one geological feature that is called the China Wall. Yes there is snow on the ground but most of it was from the previous night. Most of the snow covered ground was free of snow on the way down.

When you first arrive at the cave you will not know it because you will be on top of it. As you walk around the destination you finally realize that the cave is beneath you. If that happens you might have to walk around one of the holes of the cave to be able to get down in the cave. Because of the melting snow and the colder night I encountered ice covered rocks as I tried to go down in with my camera equipment. I was a little nervous on my way down I must admit, but the view is worth it. I also have some god personal memories of this place as well.

The Ice was beautiful... but hard to walk on.

Where the cave opens to the south the sunshine comes in and makes for a stark contrast of all the ice I encountered on the north entrance of the cave.

The Cave has arches within the cave and in one place you should see a fire that someone had made to keep warm (or cook their lunch).

As I was leaving The snow was melting and the ground was mostly exposed and I saw this small tree and I thought it was very beautiful. I can feel spring in the air!

Studio Samples

I have recently just started taking photos in a studio setting. Here are some of the photos that I have taken that I wanted to highlight.

This first one is of a snowman that has met his match as the warmer weather arrives. I have spring fever and I am excited for the warmth of spring. So when I took this photo I wanted to give the idea of nice warm spring from the point of view of the snowman. Spring is not something that a snowman would look forward to. If you are wondering, yes that is real snow in a studio.




The focus of this photo is supposed to be on the texture of this pineapple. I love fruit and veggies and, well, just food. I printed this photo on matte paper and when looking at it I want to just stick my hand in the photo and pull out the pineapple. Enough said.



When you see this photo what is the first word that comes to your mind to describe it? If the word that you think of is "line" then I succeeded with this photo.

Scan-O-grams

I am in a photo class where we recently had an assignment where er had to use a flatbed scanner as a camera. Here are the things that I came up with for it.



This first one is unedited. I just took the objects seen and just put them on the scanner. Though they are just on the scanner thought, trial and error went into making this. There is plastic in the scene that catches the light from the scanner and refracts it and causes some interesting effects. Some of the objects are in front of the plastic and some are behind. There are even some objects and go through the plastic. One little detail that I would like to point out on the watch. The second hand was going and because of the slow speed of the scanner the second hand is fractured and in different positions. This detail gives a little bit of an insight as to how the scanner works.


This last one Used multiple scans. The coral part of this scene was taken from a National Geographic Magazine but the rest is original work of mine. I like it how the texture of the coral is like the peel of an orange if the peel were to be green.

Photo Mosaic / Panograph

This is my first time making these. To make both of these you take tons of photos.

For a Photo Mosaic you stay in one place and take tons of photos. You could take them at different times of the day or year, but you combine them so it is all from one vantage point. You have them proportional to help it look more natural. With this version of the Photo Mosaic I took varying opacity of the photo and combined them to get the result you see here.



The Panograph is very similar except you can take photos from any angle you want or at any focal length. When you bring all the photos together there are part that you might want to be larger than others. By putting the photos and parts of photos together you can get very different perspectives. There could be some photos from within a box but you could also combine photos of the outside of the box as well. The possibilities are endless. This version is not that extreme but it helps you get the idea.

Black and White with a Holga plastic camera

I got a chance to try out a Holga camera. in the art and photo world I find that many people think these cameras are great because of the imperfections of the film. The camera can take photos and you are limited. By being limited it makes it so you have to know better what you are doing to be able to get good results out of it.

As you can see from my photos I was having a problem overlapping the photos. There are some photos that I meant to overlap to try and get a panorama type photo. I enjoyed trying the camera out. I did meter at times using my digital camera but that is when it got dark. There is some interesting textures that arise from the cameras imperfections. However, I would much rather use medium format film in a camera with more clarity.

So here is my first roll of medium format film and my first roll of film from a Holga.

(This is the same as one from above but I darkened it... I am debating the two of them.)

Winter in Idaho and Utah

Winter in Idaho and Utah can be quite varied. Both states receive snow but different parts receive more and can be quite cold. The first two photos I have here are from a small town in Northeastern Utah. The last tree are in Idaho.
Snow is beautiful and cold, however there are limitless possiblities for what you can do with it.