AuroraHDR Archives - Page 15 of 15

February 3, 2016

Brisk Morning Walk

These people are on a brisk morning walk along the river a couple days ago. We don’t get a lot of cold days in winter, but when we do we wear sweatshirts and jackets that sit in the closet most of the year. Having endured the long hot seasons of Florida, you won’t hear me complain about a spell of chilly weather. Bring it on baby.

This is taken in Bradenton and that’s the Manatee River. It’s a half mile wide here and a couple miles downstream it empties into the Gulf. It’s not uncommon to see dolphins or manatees around here.

I live on the other side of the river in the little town of Palmetto. Locally the towns across the river are known as north river; simple enough eh?

I was walking my dog this morning as I took this image. He sits patiently as I crouch down to get this low angle and perspective of the brick walkway. I take my camera on many of our walks and he’s gotten used to my stopping at the oddest times. But come to think of it, this is probably the same view that he sees all the time. Hmmm, maybe I’m on to something.

February 2, 2016

West End Evening

This is a west end evening in Vancouver a couple of weeks ago. The lights in the sky are fading and the lights of the city are beginning to glow. This is a popular spot because hundreds of people walk along the shore here in the evening, perhaps ending up on Denman Street for Sushi. I’m standing on a pile of rocks, and about 30 seconds after I shot this I managed to slip and fall. Camera was fine, ego not so much.

Sometimes I get questions regarding how I processed an image to today I thought I’d relate some of the steps.

I used a wide angle zoom lens for this at about 14mm, that gives the sky and water that zoomy effect, basically it causes everything to converge on the middle. I love the effect for landscapes, especially when the main subject is at the center of convergence as the city is here.

I combined three images into AuroraHDR Pro to get an overall dramatic effect to the image. I then applied a texture in the sky and did some final tone mapping in Lightroom, warming it up a tad.

The thing is I never do the same thing twice, every image is unique and the effect is non-repeatable even by me. That’s because there are a hundred other little things that I did that I could never hope to remember, it’s like painting with a brush, on one level it’s completely freeform and one of a kind.

So there you have it. Click, slip, fall and process. That’s my process from start to finish.

January 31, 2016January 31, 2016

End of Lake Wakatipu

This is the end of Lake Wakatipu in Glenorchy. I was here a couple of years ago on a Trey Ratcliff photo adventure. I had just switched from Nikon to Sony and so was still struggling with the placement of the buttons and menus. Sometimes I go back and look at my settings and wonder what I was thinking, like this one, my aperture was f10; seems a bit high. Maybe I should just forget about that and just enjoy the scenery. Forget I even mentioned it.

I was going back to look at my New Zealand photos and found this sitting in the bit bucket. I started working on its just out of curiosity and then got carried away. All the while I was thinking I’d seen this before. Sure enough, I’d processed and posted this same picture. My techniques and eye are constantly changing and this time the result was different. So maybe I should have titled it Glenorchy Part 2, …or some such thing.

Boy, if I could go back in time and make different choices. Well, just a few. Like buying a certain company stock when it was really cheap. Oh well, until I invent a time machine I’ll just live in the present, learn from the past, place one foot in front of the other, you know the drill. Actually, I’m kind of glad I can’t go back, it seems the longer I live the less confused things are. So going back and buying that stock might just put me into a place I don’t want to be. Hmmmm, … tis a bit of a conundrum.

January 28, 2016January 28, 2016

Random Beach Shot

This is a random beach shot I took last year at Bradenton Beach, Florida. I was standing alongside this old broken down pier, one of several which has since been demolished and removed. I don’t know the county’s plans but it would be nice if they built a new one so I could take pictures of that too. It’s all about me.

I work during the day and spend much of my time at a computer. So when I write my blog I get to stare at something other than documents for a spell. I remember back when I took this I was standing in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. That’s about as far away as I can get from meetings and status reports. This picture shows where and how my batteries get recharged so I can do the stuff I have to do.

I think that looking at photos at the end of the day activates different centers in my brain. I have no idea which ones, just that they have nothing to do with computers. It has more to do with where I want to go. Wouldn’t it be cool if I could just look at a photo and then enter a dream of that location? I’ve heard that some people can do that, and for all I know so can I, the only problem is I rarely remember my dreams. I’m going to hope that when I go to sleep this evening this is where I end up. Whether I remember it or not.

January 28, 2016

Foreshore Trail

The Foreshore Trail follows the shoreline around UBC in Vancouver. I walked several miles of it recently and took my time while I was at it. According to the map it was only three miles, but it took me two hours. I can be real slow when I have a camera in my hand. It’s a good reason to go it alone.

These people were jogging in the same direction, but as the trail became nothing more than big rocks on the beach they slowed down which allowed me to compose this shot. Soon they were off and I was composing other shots, with other people. If you are ever in the vicinity of me when I’m taking pictures, chances are you’ll end up in one of my images. Placing people in a landscape adds a human element, I find it allows me to project myself into the scene. I still shoot landscapes without people, but less and less these days. With people its like mixing street and landscape photography, two favorites of mine, a cross discipline of sorts. Mixing photography styles gives me more ideas and options with respect to the final image.

There is a very steep set of stairs to climb up to the road from this trail. If you walk straight up it will have you gasping for breath and wondering why your legs won’t move. But of course I didn’t go straight up. I stopped several times along the way and surreptitiously took pictures of the stairway through the forest with, you guessed it, people.

January 24, 2016

Sea of Glass

This sea of glass is the Coal Harbor Section of Vancouver. In the center sits the Olympic Cauldron and all around are the towers of downtown Vancouver. I came down here for a few minutes as my hotel was just a block away. It had just been raining so it was mostly deserted, the perfect time to capture the architecture of the place without the pressing crowds normally found here.

It’s amazing how many people work in these buildings. But if you get on the subway in the morning you’ll see waves of people coming to work and filling these offices. This time of year the daylight is short, so its possible that you never see the light of day unless you work near a window. If you work standard hours from 8 to 5 you’re lucky to see any daylight during the work week.

I’m used to a little more light and so I found it a little disorienting. I was in my hotel one evening and looked out a window to see a gentleman working late at his desk. I thought it was so strange that he was at work so late in the evening. Then I looked at my watch and it was only a little after six o’clock. For some reason I thought it was much later because I hadn’t seen much light that day and it felt late. I’m sure people in Scandinavian countries deal with it all the time. I’ve heard you can even get light therapy to help supplement sunshine.

Fortunate for me I just go home to Florida.

January 22, 2016

Other Side of the Rainbow

For some reason this made me think of the other side of the rainbow. Maybe because we had nothing but rain before I took this, only there was no rainbow afterward, just clouds. The kind of rain they get here in Vancouver in the winter is not conducive to rainbows, the leprechauns get out of town and winter in Florida. It’s too bad, I would love to set the pot. That didn’t come out right.

To create this image I stood on the shoulders of giants. This is an HDR image which means I combined three exposures to get the maximum amount of light, more than I could get with a single shot. I combined the images in AuroraHDR Pro which is one of the latests products from Trey Ratcliff in collaboration with MacPhun. I created four layers with varying degrees of detail, radiance and color enhancement. I then returned the image to Adobe Lightroom where I used one of Trey’s presets. So, final result was a collaboration of sorts with the creative genius of Trey.

When I create images I use a lot of tools to create something beyond the ordinary. Sometimes I have an idea of what that is when I take the picture, other times after. It’s a highly subjective process and I never know where I’ll end up. Sometimes I struggle, other times it just flows. This image is one of the latter. I knew when I took it what I wanted, and then creating the final result was just a matter of sitting down and letting it happen. It just so happened that this time, I used Trey’s software for most of it. It was easy, fun, and I got where I needed to go. Thank you Trey!

December 30, 2015

Watching the Sun Set

People watching the sunset over the water is something I see all the time here in Florida; not just once in a while, but ALL THE TIME. 😉 And it’s a little more organized than you might think. Every evening there are groups of people who have gathered together with fold-up chairs at the beach to experience this event together. Sometimes, like on the evening I took this, it’s just a few people. However at another beach I’m thinking of there could be as many as twenty. This is serious business down here in the sunshine state.

I know of a mobile home park along the water that has permanent chairs set up facing west for just this purpose. I know that because I’ve seen them all line up, drinks in hand, watching the sun set. What a life.

Sometimes when I see these groups on the beach I think they are church groups or maybe a meditation circle, because before the sun sets they’re all in a circle discussing or singing or playing drums. Its kind of like something I’d expect to see in California, not here in Florida.

I’m developing a theory that if you live someplace where it’s warm and has a lot of sunsets you are more likely to be mellow. Okay, so I’m no Einstein, I suppose its just common sense, self-evident.    On a related note, I’ve heard that we Floridians are called stone-slackers. I have an inkling about what the connotation is and I think there’s more than a seed of truth in that.

It’s no wonder so many people come here to retire. After living a hectic life, why not?    Well, I’m probably not a stone slacker yet because I’m not retired, but when and if I do, I’m in the right place. I already have a fold-up chair, all I need now is a drum.