01-10-12 The Promise

Most photos of sunflower fields show them in full bloom. But I found that sunflowers about to bloom photographed at sunrise have an amazing character and beauty.

12-31-12 Seeing Blue

This is the pool at the resort we stayed at recently. And this is yet another HDR photo (3 in 1) that has also been adjusted a bit with Nik Color Efex Pro 4 and OnOne Photo Suite 7.

12-16-12 Country Road

I spend a couple hours driving out in the country looking for something suitable to photograph. It had snowed last weekend and today was foggy so I figured I'd find something interesting involving fog and frost. This photo is one of several I took.Once I had the images, the next challenge was taking what turned out to be very low contrast scenes into something worth sharing. Thanks to Aperture and a couple of software plug-ins, I got was I had imagined I might. I should say, incidentally, that this is an HDR photo - there are two exposures layered here to help me get a good overall exposure.

12-05-12 HDR in B&W (Variations on a Theme)

Yes, I repeat myself. But it isn't because I'm being lazy today. It's because I couldn't decided if I liked the color version of this photo (yesterday's post) or the black and white version. So I offer both.

12-04-12 Magical (HDR)

This is another HDR photo taken on the same outing as "Back To Lonesome Lake." This one was taken 15 minutes before the Lonesome lake photo. At sunset, a minute or can be significant in the look you get. And, as I think you can see, 15 minutes can be worlds apart as far and the light and cloud cover are concerned.

12-02-12 Back To Lonesome Lake (HDR)

It has been more than a year since I have photographed near Lonesome Lake. That session resulted in the photo I donated to the "fireplace room" at Lake Area Technical Institute in Watertown, South Dakota.On this occasion, I told Deb around 4:15 yesterday afternoon that I was going to go looking for a photo opportunity. I wanted to see if I could get something in HDR at sunset that would look good. Then, I invited her along for the ride and she said "yes." What a treat!I started heading north of our town, all the while watching the sun and clouds off to the southwest. My vision for the photo involved bare trees and a beautiful sky just before or just after sunset. I also didn't want any clear signs of civilization. If you go 20 miles north and a few miles west of Watertown, that isn't hard to do.After one other stop, I ended up at Lonesome Lake. By that time, the sun had set, and the clouds weren't all that interesting. But I thought that I could at least show Deb the location. It was getting dark but I decided to try to take a series of photos, knowing that the camera sees light in ways that I don't. I also knew that if I put my camera on a tripod and bracketed the exposures properly, I had several software tools that might produce something worth sharing.And here's the result. There is a surprising amount of texture in this photo, especially given that this (click here) is much closer to what I was seeing when I took the series. Pretty interesting, isn't it?

10-25-12 Variations On A Theme

It was on this day in 2009 that my mother died. And it was on the same date years before that that her mother and my grandmother died. So these roses are for Bernice and Ida. The "roses" are really the same rose with 4 different HDR treatments.

10-24-12 The Voice

Behind the altar and looking the opposite direction of yesterday's photo, is the choir and above that are these beautiful trumpet-like pipes of the pipe organ of the Basilica of St. Mary. I couldn't resist posting a third, and final, hdr image from my shoot last Saturday.I have never been in this church during a service. Generally, I've been there on a Saturday morning and it is, well. . . , quiet as a church. But I imagine the sound of the organ and a full choir in this space would be enough to inspire, even if the architecture didn't.

10-23-12 Behind the Altar

I took several HDR photos while I was in the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis. The photo I posted a couple days ago was my attempt at a photo that shows the whole dynamic range of the Basilica from shadows to highlights.Today's attempt used the same software (Photomatix) but I've chosen the "Surreal" filter. Why? I don't have a good answer except that it's trendy right now. And, like other trendy things, it will no doubt look outdated and odd before long. Some will say that it does already. . .

10-21-12 The Basilica of St. Mary

My original post was to be a black and white photo, but I just found a new HDR processing tool and I am thrilled with the results. As far as HDR goes, I would say that this photo is a very pure example of what can happen when you take three exposures for varying degrees of light and shadow and put them together to show a photo of a room the way our eyes would see them.Heres a version that stretches reality a little bit.Canon 5DIII 1s f/8.0 ISO400 16mm

10-03-12 A Few Explorers

I am posting this to break the endless monotony of colorful fall photos. And today I am taking you to the Monument To the Discoveries in Lisbon, Portugal. I think that's Prince Henry the Navigator taking the lead. Vasco da Gama is third in line. And, if you want to know more, check this out.

09-17-12 Golden (HDR)

I was cruising the backroads of Iowa with my good friend BZ looking for one of my favorite subjects - an Iowa cornfield. The cornfield wasn't hard to find, of course. What is a little more challenging is finding other things that make the corn a little less run-of-the-millIn the case of this photo, the sunrise helped and so did the built-in HDR processor my Canon 5DIII has. I shouldn't point this out, but I think there is a compositional flaw in this photo in that I think it would be better if A) the sun lined up with the rows of corn or B) I had given a little more room to the right of the sun when I framed the shot. But, as they say, "It is what it is." And, to paraphrase the Rolling Stones, "It's only a corn field but I like it."Canon 5DIII 1/25s f/18.0 ISO320 200mm