Generally, I use HDR tools very carefully when I work on photos. I'd like you to see a broad range of darks and lights in my HDR photos rather than an exaggerated HDR effect. I'm pleased that Joe Farace commented on this when he wrote about this blog in the October issue of Shutterbug.So why am I posting an HDR photo that is clearly less than "real?" I don't know. I worked on this photo for 30 minutes when, on a whim, I decided to see what Nik HDR Efex 2 would do to this scene. And this is the version that made the "final cut."Canon 5D 1/25s f/7.1 ISO250 40mm
Plitvice Lakes
The Lakeside Path
If you get to the Plitvice Lakes in Croatia early in the day, you can have a wonderful wooden path all to yourself. But is an hour or two, people are sometimes three wide, which makes the paths a little less wonderful. Crowded paths are complicated by Asian tourists who walk on the left side and westerners like me (except for the British) who walk on the right side.Regardless of all of this, the Plitvice Lakes are amazing, as photos I've posted in the blog might prove.
02-02-10 Another World
This is yet another photo from the Plitvice Lakes. I am standing on the shore shooting down. The clear, blue water is not fancy Photoshop work - it is the amazing work of Nature.
02-01-10 Running Water
This is one of the many waterfalls at the Plitvice Lakes in Croatia. I had no tripod for the shots I took in this beautiful location so the water isn't quite as blurry as I'd like. The striking feature of the the Plitivice Lakes is the amazingly blue and clear water that flows through the park.
06-10-09 Serenity - Plitvice Lakes, Croatia
05-16-09 Croatian Surprise
in Travel
This little village is on the island of Hvar, which is part of Croatia. It was total serendipity that my friend Scott and I ended up spending two great days here. And it turns out that, according to one of the few residents who spoke English, we were the first people from the US to stay in this village. I am not a particularly adventurous traveler and get nervous when I don't have reservations for the night. But this place (down a 5-mile long one lane road!) was a great surprise.
Click here to see this photo's location on Panoramio.
Canon 5D 1/20s f/4.0 ISO400 50mm
04-25-09 Lakeside Path - Croatia
One of the more photogenic places I have been in Europe is a national park in Croatia called Plitvice Lakes. This park consists of 16 lakes of various sizes connected by cascading waterfalls. Because of the high calcium content of the water in the lakes, the lake bottoms are milky white and the water is a milky blue-green.
In this photo one of the many winding paths leads through a tunnel of trees along the shoreline of one of the lakes . My friend and I started our park tour very early and we almost had the park to ourselves. Two hours later, the paths were crawling with tourists and, as I've thought before, I felt that Europe would be a lot more pleasant if it weren't for the tourists. But wait! I'm a tourist, too, aren't I?
Canon 5D 1/50s f/4.0 ISO500 105mm