Category Archives: HDR

The Stormy Silo

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Well its official! Ive sold the Canon Rebel and will be upgrading to a new body in a week or so. Until then I have my trusty Canon AE-1 and iPhone 4s to keep me company while out on my photographic adventures. Which needless to say is still enough to create some great pics.

If you follow Nick Exposed on Instagram (@NickExposed) you probably seen a sneak peek image that I put up from todays shooting. One thing I love about the iphone is its ability to capture some rather usable bracketed exposures to put together for HDR either in phone or in Photomatix on the computer as in this case. I use an app called “Bracket Mode” which does an excellent job at capturing the scene as over exposed as the iphone will allow, and under exposed in the same manner. Even without the regular exposure the results are quite pleasing. A few tweeks in photoshop and lightroom and you start to forget that this was captured on a camera phone (a badass camera phone… well phone in general.. at that)

Ive mentioned it in the past, but I think its so funny that as photogs we so often feel that we need the best of the best cameras to make great pictures. Now i wouldnt go shooting a wedding with my iphone… however it would be funny to see the look on the clients face… well besides the part where the bride turns to bridezilla lol. But the iphone or any other current camera phone is still capable of capturing some pretty stunning pictures.

Its going to be fun and interesting over the next week and a half as I work these two cameras and try to make due without my beloved dslr.

Mystic Creek

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ISO200 18mm f/18 2.5sec

Mystical and fairy tale-ish. Thats how I felt when I was tromping through the water to get this shot.

Yet another fence hoping photographic adventure as I made my way into the local parks little ravine here. I loved how the light was just breaking through the trees as it settled its way down to the earth signaling the days end. The calm cozy characteristics of the prospering foliage around lent to a mystical feel, as if at any moment a fairy or leprechaun could come breaking into the scene.

As I dug my tripod into the muck below, the only sounds I could hear were that of the wind passing by the park above, and a single bull frog who was probably awaiting his princess amongst this magical stream.

I do wish I could have gotten the camera even lower, however at this point the tripod was maxed out at its minimum height and I was practically sitting in the water as I peered through the view finder. I love the star-bursts that f18 was able to provide, again adding to the explained feel of the scene.

Hot Wheels

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ISO100 25mm f/8 2sec

Given this months community project theme is Long Exposures, I figured Id edit another photo from this weekends “car show”.

When it comes to late night lengthy exposures I tend to lean towards the HDR side, so that I have the flexibility of bringing in as much detail as I feel necessary. Once again I went with an over processed car for this image, different from what I usually do, being when I originally seen this car I immediately thought of the Hot Wheels cars I had as a kid, and wanted to bring the look and feel of that childhood memory out in this pic.

I decided in this instance I would leave a bit of the effect from the long shutter to emphasize the exposure time, for example the ghosted person in the background as well as the light streaks off to the left. If I would have thought of it at the time, I would have liked to capture a scene with some people making their way around the car admiring its beauty.

I always love playing with these late night hdr photos, they can be a good amount of fun to see come together. Its incredible how much detail can be captured due to the lengthy exposures.

I look forward to continuing to dive into the subject of Long Exposures with all of you who are joining in on this months Collab Fun!!

 

Drive-in Classics

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ISO100 25mm f/8.0 2.5sec

I must say, so far this year I have been somewhat disappointed by the quality of cars at our local hot spots. The last couple of years have been a bit dry when it comes to the turn out of friday and saturday night hot rodders, both old and new.

Tonight on the other hand, this was not the case, as our local Sonic Drive In was packed with hot rods, muscle cars, tuners and bikes. It was a great turn out and I definitely took advantage of the vintage settings and rides with my camera. I was a bit nervous about this shot at first. For one it took me forever to get because people kept walking in front of the camera haha (To be expected when everyones attention is on the cars and not the crazy photographer laying on the ground behind them). Next it was the lens flare that worried me, which actually turned out to be a great happy accident, as it added to the dreamy retro background. Lastly as we were packing up and the car was taking off I realized that I had forgotten to turn my autofocus back on during the whole time I was shooting the car, so it was up to chance on whether or not the shot would be sharp or not. Well luck was on my side tonight as it turned out to be a sharp shot with a certain flare to it (get it.. cause the lens flar… alright). Either way I racked another HDR auto shot to add to my collection :)

 

Papa Bear

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ISO200 60mm f/4 1/160sec

Heres the last of the edits from the other days zoofari adventure. I always love the bear exhibit as the large beasts pace from side to side and occasionally take a dip in their bear pool.

I was drawn to this photo because of the motion that it had as the bear had sneezed as it was making its turn to pace back in the other direction, leaving a bit of motion in the paw and head. Last year at the exhibit I seen the two bears (One brown, one black) get in a bit of a brawl, and was sticking round hoping that I would be lucky enough to capture a similar quarrel through the lens. No such luck this time around.

As you can probably tell over the last few posts, Ive really enjoyed shooting and editing these “wild life” shots, and its made me kind of excited to go on some actual wildlife photo adventures in the future. Im not one for hunting and killing animals, but I am down to do some big game shooting with the ol’ canon!

Monkey’n Around

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ISO100 187mm f/5.6 1/250sec

I decided today would be a good day to take a brake from all the constant working, and took my Sister and Niece to the Zoo. Its still spring hours so we didn’t get a whole lot of time to make it through, and ended up skipping one of the larger exhibits as we had already managed to squeak by the zoo staff and got an extra 30 min in after close. he he Continue reading →

Coffee Wagon

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ISO200 20mm f/5.6 1/200sec

Ahhhh, carnival time by the beach! You know summer is just about here as the ferris wheels and other rides erect overlooking the city/beach. Its quite incredible, a town (Holland MI) about a half hour from me is plastered with all sorts of festivities. No matter where you go in the city there are Elephant Ear booths, kids running around with Cotton Candy (my fav!) with the parents to follow running after their sugar induced preteens that are off to the next ride or attraction.  Continue reading →

Construction & Destruction

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ISO200 50mm f/5.6 1/1600sec

“After a long days work”

One of the tricks I like to do in order to spice up the daily photo walk and keep it fresh is to shoot themed mini series for the day. Its amazing once you think about it at how many opportunities there are to shoot one idea in multiple ways, whether it be geometry, color, composition based there are endless possibilities that will push your creative observation to the next level. Continue reading →

Porsche in the woods

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ISO100 18mm f/5.6 1/125sec

I know I’ve said it before, but I absolutely love this time of year!! As a car guy summer time weather is much appreciated after a long winter season, especially now that I have a new means of celebrating and capturing the beauty of these wonderful automobiles. Continue reading →

Grandpa’s Workshop

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ISO800 21mm f/3.5 1/40sec

This is an image I’ve seen in my head for some time now. I’ve been wanting to create it and wanting to create it, and finally had my opportunity this weekend.

As I mentioned in a previous post, this Easter the family took a trip out to my Grandma’s house for the day. Before we took off I ventured down into Grandpa’s shop to capture this one scene. I knew exactly what I was going for, as I tried this shot once before on our last visit but didn’t like the end results. Ive been extremely picky on this shot as I wanted to ensure it did the scene and idea justice. Continue reading →

Holy Entrance

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ISO200 18mm f/11 1/30sec

This Saturday a good friend of mine and I took a day trip out to Kalamazoo, a city a little over an hour away from our town of Grand Rapids. The idea was to tour an area that was completely unfamiliar to either one of us, without the use of maps or gps, just relying on our instincts to guide us to and through the town as we embarked on this adventurous day. Continue reading →