This image pretty much expresses how I am feeling at the moment. Holidays are always tough on me…all the wrong food, not enough sleep, and the go-go-go of everything else.

If you look at “My Equipment” page you will see that I have a Macro lens and a Life size converter. This is an example of what you can do with such lenses…

So my friend Danial has accused me of getting into HDRi (High Dynamic Range imaging). That is partially true, but not entirely. I have yet to actually post a picture here that uses HDR software. I have some HDR software but have yet to produce an image that I actually like. I use multiple exposures to increase my dynamic range but do everything manually. The above images are a good example. The top one is done manually while the second one is done automatically with Photomatix. As you can see they are very different.  I like the colors in mine better, but I will admit that Photomatix did a better job with the water.In mine the water seems a little overblown. Not sure if the overblown water is a big deal though because when I had subdued the water in the manual version I was left with a bland photo. 

The other issue that I had was the surreal colors that came out of the grasses…they are colored for sure, but my manual photo shows the more true colors of the grasses.

If anyone has the inside track on how to use HDR software and can produce great results feel free to contact me and give me an education. I could use it LOL. In the meantime, everything you see is me in “manual” mode.

I welcome comments on which version you like better and why…

Lastly, this photo was taken on a crazy and rainy weekend in Norway. Norway is wonderfully beautiful for those that have not been.

I have no formal training, no university degree in photography; just a few good friends, a cable connection to the internet, and a vehicle that gets me to the bookstore. Along the way I picked up an education, and while I can’t make friends for you, or do anything about your internet connection, I can give you the names of the books that made a difference in my growth as a photographer/photoshopper. I highly recommend that you buy any of these books as 1) they will help you grow and 2) mine are not available to be lent out. You can read about these books by clicking on the “Books for photographers” tab in the right column or by clicking here.

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