Tag: HDR

Old Train Bridge

Living in small town doesn’t afford that many opportunities for landscape photography, but it can provide an old bridge or two to shoot. Actually, in this instance, there are two bridges directly beside each other, but the one you don’t see in the picture isn’t very interesting. This old train bridge was built in 1912. It is cut into the steel at the top on both ends, so it seems pretty obviously accurate to me. I wonder if anyone had a celebration for it. I didn’t see any festivities.

Well happy birthday old train bridge.

Old Train Bridge

Old Country Store

What is it about seeing an old country store that makes people want to stop and take pictures? Well, anything old for that matter. Every time I see something like this as I’m out and about I’m am just completely drawn toward it like a moth to a light. Perhaps it’s just me that likes this sort of thing so much. I suspect part of it is my love of history and digging around in the past. The future is unknown and as yet unexplored, but the past is known and can be very much explored through the remnant of what once was.

This store in the central Idaho’s Camas County has probably been photographed thousands of times. It is right beside a well traveled highway, en route to a very popular birding wetland. But whatever, the Grand Canyon has probably been photographed BILLIONS of times, but I don’t see that stopping any new shooters giving it a go. Here’s my take on the old country store.

Old Country Store

Idaho State Capitol

A few weeks ago I decided to do a photo walk in downtown Boise. I was all by myself, but I had a good time anyway. I did get a few decent shots, but nothing to write home about. However, because I am practicing HDR photography. I decided to share a couple of my images here just for the fun of it. Isn’t fun what it’s all about anyway? I did get a neat shot of the moon and a concrete plant on the way home, but that is beside the point. Enjoy the Idaho State Capitol photographs and be sure to let me know what you think it the comments.

Tree of Life

Since I am just beginning to explore the realm of HDR photography, I continually find myself trying to push the limits of what it can and cannot do. What that tends to mean is that I shoot into the sun a lot. Since we’ve been having a record dry summer here in Idaho, that means there aren’t any clouds to photograph. What then? Well, I just make the most of it. On this occasion I saw this cool tree gracing the hillside and knew that I had to at least try and make a photograph. Facing away from the sun meant a rather flat and boring scene, but facing into the sun brought those nice long shadows and also gave me something to use for framing and reducing the glowing sun. And so we have something that looks like an oxymoron, a dried up and dying tree of life.

tree of life

Skyway

I’m beginning to play with HDR. My goal is not to create images that LOOK like they are HDR, but that have a nice range of tone that is visible to the human eye. Because current camera technology is limited, the only way to do this is to combine several images into one. This can produce some very crazy results. This image looks closer to normal than it started out. Surprisingly, it takes a lot more work to get a natural looking image using HDR processes, rather than a crazy psychedelic scene. This little view is just outside my driveway here in Idaho. It is one of my first attempts at capturing and processing HDR and I hope it is a pleasing skyway view.

skyway in Idaho

Payette River “Beach”

This is a prime example of almost doing it right, then trying again. And getting it very wrong
 on the second try.

I first decided to shoot the little beach and when I thought I had it, I moved on to doing a “backup” shot of it with the sky. Well, both shots were sub-par. The first is mostly a cropping issue (save the lack of light, but the sun doesn’t shine here for more than half the year). The second has a better crop, but in trying to create and HDR shot from 4 exposures I really ruined this one. Not to worry. I’m showing it anyway. This is a blog, after all, not a portfolio.