HDR Archives - Page 12 of 25 - Just Enough Focus

April 19, 2016April 19, 2016

Water Ride

I was driving to the park the other day with my dog and looked over to see these horseback riders going the other way. It’s not everyday that you see a bunch of horses swimming the other way, but there they were. Actually this is well known in my area. Along the causeway in Bradenton people come to ride horses in the water. It’s a fun thing to watch and many times I’ve pulled over to look at the horses, but this is the first time I saw them all in the water at once so I couldn’t resist taking a photo.

My dog is so funny, he’s normally so quiet, but when he sees horses or cows he loves to bark. I’m not sure what it is but I think they might be big dogs to him. Whatever the case, it’s hilarious since he’s so quite otherwise. Suffice to say he got in a few words as these “big dogs” passed us by.

The big puffy clouds seem to make the whole scene surreal. This is my favorite time of year in Florida, the weather is perfect in every way. Of course that’s why so many people come here to get a break from the cold and snow. In another month we’ll start getting humidity and thunderstorms and then there is a completely different type of drama in the skies. Also, I think once it gets hotter the horses really like coming here to cool off. Not a bad way for the big dogs to spend the afternoon.

More images from my county in the Gallery

April 15, 2016

Clay Gully

Clay Gully is a little creek in Myakka State Park. One of the claims to fame here is the alligator population, this is a sanctuary for the Florida reptiles. I’ve been here at this exact spot during the rainy season when the banks were flooded and the alligators were not just in the water, but along the path. However when I took this a couple of days ago they were all the alligators where in the water, it was a little less nerve wracking than the last time.

The green vegetation is very much like a jungle. As I walked along the path I could hear all kinds of animal noises from within the trees. Of course it only gets louder at night when many of the nocturnal creatures come out.

Spring is a relatively dry season here, but as summer approaches we get the afternoon showers and storms that keep these waterways alive and vibrant. This creek is full of fish as it opens into Myakka Lake where Eagles, Hawks and Osprey can catch as many fish as they like. Often enough the eagles will wait until an Osprey catches a fish and then swoop in and steal it. One of the benefits of being at the top of the avian food chain I suppose.

Check out my gallery on 500px

April 14, 2016April 14, 2016

Through the Weeds

I live next to this abandoned housing development, I can see it out my window. The development was abandoned before the houses could be built so there are roads and a harbour but nothing else. Sometimes I’ll head over to take photos, especially if the sky has nice clouds. This was early on a Sunday morning and its safe to say there was no one else in sight.

I’m always a little cautious when I come here since it’s basically a wild area save for the construction remnants. I’ve seen alligators in the creek and we found a fourteen foot snake skin on the fence. At night I’ve seen a fox and we hear the coyotes as well. Given the lack of human traffic here it’s likely I could startle a creature as I walk around, so just being aware of my surroundings and keeping my eyes open is probably a good idea.

Gallery images from my hometown of Palmetto

Anyway, this is an HDR image that I processed in AuroraHDR Pro. The way you can tell is that I not only can we see the sun but the green color of the plants from the perspective of the camera. I combined five images (-3, -3,-1,0 and +1) to get the full dynamic range into the image. I didn’t have a lot of great composition choices so I just started playing around with the idea of the sunset from behind the weeds. I can’t tell you why but I like how it turned out. Maybe one day there will be a house right here and this is the view someone wakes up to each day, minus the weeds of course.

Check out the Landscape gallery on Flickr

April 13, 2016April 13, 2016

South Jetty

This is taken In Venice Florida at a jetty leading into the intercostal waterway. This is the South Jetty, the other side is the North Jetty. I’ve always gone to the North Jetty to take pictures, it’s a little hard to find but I know the way and it’s one of my favorite locations. I’ve always looked across to the South Jetty and wondered how to get here. I’ve tried a few times and always ended up in dead ends. So a couple of weeks ago I finally figured it out and I couldn’t be more embarrassed. It’s way easier to get to than the North Jetty, just drive through Venice, take a right, and you’re here.

How did we get ever along without a GPS. Does anyone read maps anymore? They still sell them but I think map reading is becoming a lost skill. Pretty soon we’ll just talk to our self driving cars and Siri will drive us. I could have said, “Hey Siri, drive me to the South Jetty” and I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t have ended up in a dead end.

Follow me on Instagram

That day when Siri does the driving is coming soon. I think all the technology is in place and it’s now just a matter of the laws and regulations catching up. Our cell phones are extensions of ourselves, why not our cars? Hey Siri, drive me to the map store. I wonder if she knows what that is?

See more images from Sarasota County

April 12, 2016April 12, 2016

Castle Hallway

The Banff Spring Hotel in Alberta is one of the more amazing places I’ve stayed at. It was built to resemble a Scottish castle as it sits within the majestic landscape of the Canadian Rockies. The inside spares no detail and I spent hours walking the hallways taking pictures of the architecture.

We started in Jasper and drove down the Columbia Ice Fields Parkway which is probably the most scenic highway on the planet. Everything about this area is so beautiful that you gladly forget the world you came from, at least I did. I am glad I took a ton of pictures to remind me of that trip. I’ve been itching to go back ever since.

See more from the Canadian Gallery

This is a tricky image produce. The hallways were basically dark except for the lamps along the way. I ended up combining five different exposures in AuroraHDR Pro to bring out all of the shadows without blowing out the highlights. I then processed in Tonality Pro for monochrome and then back in AuroraHDR for some finishing touches like radiance and glow. I never know how the image will turn out and I ended up doing about three versions, in the end I preferred the monochrome. It seems to be a good balance of all the detailed aspects of thus scene. Now with all that behind me, time to start thinking about a plan to come back here.

More images of interesting architecture from the gallery

April 11, 2016

Hometown Sky

I live in an urban area so landscape photos require a little driving. In the afternoon I watch the clouds and if I think they’ll be favorable for a good sunset I may get in my car in time to drive to a location. However when aIl else fails and I only have five or ten minutes, this is where I go. It’s a little park by the water about two blocks from home. This is my go to location for emergency close-to-home sunsets.

Landscape photography gets me out and allows be to experience some beautiful settings. When I do, it becomes addictive, I want more. And in a way it allows good things to fill my head. Of all the things that can fill my head, I could do worse than scenes like this.

more images from my hometown of Palmetto

The days are getting longer now and sunsets are happening later and later. That makes it easier for me to get my act together for golden hour.

I’m lucky that I live in Florida, there are a lot of scenes like this that include the sky and water. Nonetheless, I think it’s important to be practiced at images close to home. I repeat a lot of local locations and each time I improve a little. Then when I travel I bring all that experience which helps tremendously with all kinds of situations that come up. Moral of the story? Practicing landscapes is kind of like tasting a good wine, the more you do the better you feel.

April 10, 2016April 10, 2016

Queenstown Reboot

This is an image I took on my first day in New Zealand about two years ago. As you can see from the colors it was autumn in the southern hemisphere. If I recall I was so happy to see all the fall colors that I quickly processed the photo and posted it a few hours later.

Now when I look back on that image I realize my tastes have changed. That’s a nice way of saying the other picture makes my eyes bleed. The colors of the original are amped up quite a bit and appear too bright and unrealistic.

And so as I was looking at some of my old photos the other day and I thought to myself, why don’t I reprocess this? Since I have the original RAW files I did, only his time I used different tools and techniques I’ve acquired over the years.

More New Zealand images from the Gallery

This is a three image HDR that I originally combined in Photomatix Pro, this time in AuroraHDR Pro. Last time I wanted the colors to blast so I oversaturated them, this time I wanted it to be a little more realistic. I think both versions have their pros and cons, (I’m being kind again). The old image looks pretty good as a thumbnail or on a phone, this one looks better on a large screen or print.

Each image has its place, but as I continue to evolve as a photographer and artist my taste change and so do my techniques. This is just another example of that. I plan on reprocessing a few more from that trip so stay tuned.

April 5, 2016April 5, 2016

Batlló Light Well

This is another perspective of the central light well at Casa Batlló in Barcelona. Casa Batlló is a grand house designed by Antoni Gaudí which is now designated a world heritage site. It’s hard to describe the artistry of this house which brings to mind organic themes from somewhere deep in the human psyche. Gaudi pushed beyond the limits accepted design over a hundred years ago and has become a source of inspiration for generations of architects.

The genius of Gaudi must be experienced first hand, as for me it was an awakening of sorts. His designs resonate with me in a surprising way; I never thought I could be so moved by a house. He expanded the horizons of architecture and design a century ago and yet I suspect his work is still centuries ahead of its time.

more european images from the blog

Inspiration in whatever form is like a window into another world that can be glimpsed briefly, like hints of another world through a brief parting of the veil. Gaudi’s architecture, at least for me, is a premonition of a future that may one day exist, if not already in another world.

So these are some of the words I clumsily cobble together to describe my own experience and impressions of Antoni Gaudi’s work. Next time they might be completely different, but for this moment, they are for me a fleeting glimpse into another world.

more architecture photography from the gallery

March 31, 2016April 5, 2016

Sunny Day

Island Park in Sarasota waterfront is a spot to chill for a bit, even if it is a hot day. I prefer to take images at dawn and dusk, but this was smack dab in the middle of the day. Even though its spring, the brightness of the image is reminds me of the long hot season ahead. Right now it’s March break and we have great weather and visitors from all over, but in a month we’ll begin the long hot days of summer when everyone goes home and the pace of life slows down a bit.

This is another example of how I like to fill up the frame with abstract content like clouds. In this I’m closer to the rule-of-thirds, a simple rule where the subject is divided in thirds. Rules can be broken, but I think it works fine here. This is also another example of how I mix street and landscape photography. I’m basically out shooting landscapes but noticed this frame and someone in it. Bonus.

By the Numbers

My eye is always in the sky whenever I’m outside. I suppose that’s a side effect of being a landscape photographer. It’s my opinion that clouds are fifty percent of what makes an image interesting. That’s a generalization and there are exceptions to every rule, but ninety percent of the time, clouds are fifty percent of the picture; photography by the numbers.

More cloudscapes from the gallery

Of course I’m being a little facetious, art cannot be divided and multiplied. At least I don’t think so. But I think art gives inspiration to ideas like mathematical theories. It’s a side effect of how we work. We look at something abstract and try to make sense of it. We look at clouds and each see something different. I think abstractions give our subconscious an opportunity to communicate with our conscious selfs, only we don’t realize it so we call it “sub-conscious”, one of life’s little ironies.

Back to the math. In photography we have something called the rule of thirds. Dividing the subjects on boundaries of one-third makes and image more interesting, so they say. Some of my images, like this, are a little more extreme. I’ll call it my rule of tenths. One-tenth of stuff on the bottom and nine-tenths of abstract at the top. That way, my sub-conscious has more room. It’s just a theory mind you, but you never know, I could be on to something.