Category: HDR

10-04-16 Another Day

The sun has risen 22,936 times during my life. I’ve missed seeing most of those sunrises. How about you? (read more)

By Scott Shephard

It just occurred to me that while the sun rose only once in this place on this day it is otherwise always rising and always setting all day long every day. Of course, it’s more accurate to suggest that the earth revolves all day long as the sun stays fixed relative to our point of view on earth.

As a child I remember wondering how fast you’d have to move so that the sun would appear to stand still. Answer: 1,037.5 miles per hour.

But I wasn’t moving when I took this photo. In fact, I was transfixed. You would have been, too, if you had be up on The Rock with me a few mornings ago. The light you see in this photo lasted about 4 minutes. But it was worth the trip. . . .

Canon 5DIII 1/15s f/16.0 ISO200 47mm (5 frame HDR)

09-22-16 Sparkling Harvest Moon

What do you see that I don’t? (read more)

By Scott Shephard

I think a photo is a combination of what the photographer sees and composes and how the camera records it. And while the digital camera is designed to to capture the world the way most humans see it, that isn’t always the case. This photo is a good example.

Van Gogh might have seen funky things radiating from celestial objects (see “Starry Night”)* but I certainly didn’t see rays coming from the moon on the morning I took this photo of the Harvest Moon setting over the Black Hills. I also didn’t see the colors quite as vividly as you see them here. Finally, the clouds had a different look to me.

But my camera “saw” all of this. That’s part of what motivates me when I go out hunting for photos, especially in predawn light such as this. I often can’t wait to open the photo up in my “digital darkroom” when I get back home. I like to see what develops.

On this morning, I took several series of photos for well over an hour. The light and clouds were changing quickly and when I got done, I had the feeling that while I felt blessed just be witness to such a beautiful morning, I felt that my photography was a big FAIL. And while it may seem odd, it has occurred to me lately that my photography is less about results than it is about process. It’s also largely about being in amazing places like this in the dawn’s early light and completely losing track of time and self.

Is this a good photo? You’ll have to decide that. I’m just happy I was there when it happened.

*One theory suggests that Van Gogh’s exposure to lead based paint caused him to see halos around bright objects. My camera has had no such exposure.

Canon 5DIII 6s f/11.0 ISO320 16mm (five frame HDR)

08-19-16 The Earth Is Flat

Have you travelled the Polo Road? (read more)

By Scott Shephard

I am not a member of “The Flat Earth Society” whose credo suggests that the idea that the earth is spherical “is the biggest lie ever told.” I guess I believe that “lie,” though when you drive in parts of my state, it is easy to think that the world is very flat indeed.

This is the Polo road somewhere west of the little town of Polo and there is very little undulation in the landscape. I have driven this road many times but on this day, I was impressed by the clouds and the sun rays that I could see off to the east. 

And so I stopped my truck, kneeled down on the middle of the road to lower my point of view and took several photos. It was dead calm and very quiet. I spent several minutes in the middle of the Polo road and felt like if a car had been approaching, I would have heard it long before I saw it.

But no cars came. The empty Polo road is one of the things I like about South Dakota.

Canon 5DIII 1/1000s f/5.6 ISO400 24mm (3 sequence HDR)

08-18-16 What I Like About Summer

It was a picture-perfect morning. (read more)

By Scott Shephard

Frankly, there are many things I like about summer. But high on the list is being in Mission Creek on a perfect summer morning like yesterday. For those unfamiliar with Lake Oahe, Mission Creek is a tiny little part of a huge reservoir that goes from just north of Pierre, SD, to Bismarck, ND.

A breeze blew all night long while I was at anchor but just after sunrise, the wind stopped leaving the lake mirror-like. Later, when I was heading “home” the wind picked up and since it was coming out of the direction I had to go, I sailed 30 miles to go 12. Such is the nature of sailing. And I enjoyed every bit of it.

Canon 5DIII f/5.6 ISO200 16mm (3 frame HDR)

04-27-16 A View from Our Porch

By Scott Shephard

Deb and I have re-located for a few days and our first stop is a small house above Cane Garden Bay on the island of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. It gets up to 85 degrees pretty regularly here and at night it dips down to 83. Pretty boring, I guess.

I hear that snow is forecast for parts of our home state. Unless climate change takes a bizarre turn, we won’t see any snow here. 🙂

Canon 5DIII 1/10s f/8.0 ISO200 27mm (3 frame HDR)

04-16-16 Stone And Light

It has been called by some a “palace of justice” (read more)

By Scott Shephard

As some old timers say, “They don’t build ’em like that anymore.” That’s certainly true of the Codington County Court House, which was built in the late 1920s. Though the building is beautiful, there is talk about the need for something more “modern.” Modern isn’t always architecturally interesting, though I understand the need for space, efficiency and security.

The problem with modern is that it often pays little respect to the “vintage.” In fact, the antecedent to our current court house was destroyed to make room for it, even though the old building was itself a beautiful structure. Out with the old and in with the new, I guess.

Canon 5DIII 1/80s f/4.5 ISO1250 16mm

01-11-16 Big Island Morning

Do you visit the Photo A Day blog once and a while? Thanks is you do. (read more)

By Scott Shephard

First, if you subscribe to this blog via email, thanks. It turns out that I have been sending the daily posts to the wrong group so I think I am welcoming some of you back. I hope you stay. Of course, if un-cluttering your life is a 2016 resolution, you can easily unsubscribe to this blog. But how about attacking that bloated junk drawer in your kitchen first? Or your sock and underwear drawer? Or you car’s glove compartment.

Second, those who are my friends on Facebook will have seen this photo already. Sorry to repeat myself. 

But what about the photo? Well, it’s really 5 photos layered and processed as an HDR. And you’d never know it, but the sun was about 20 minutes from coming up. I shot this in twilight and needed a flashlight to see the camera settings! The longest exposure was 30 seconds and it looks almost like mid-day. There I go bending reality again. 🙂

I will also mention that the waves were crashing onto the rocks but the long exposure makes the water look relatively flat. The only evidence of the waves is the spray, which looks like low fog in this picture. More bent reality!

Finally, look closely and you will see two people in this photo sitting on the far shore by the palm trees. They are waiting for the sunrise, not for me to finish the 1 minute photo sequence. Because they are pretty sharply focused, they obviously sat very still for those 60 seconds.

Hawaiian sunrises will do that to you.

Canon 5DIII f/16.0 ISO200 40mm (5 shot HDR sequence)

01-06-6 So Many Textures

Can you call yourself a photographer when you don’t take your camera out of the bag? (read more)

By Scott Shephard

The most important part of getting a decent photo is getting the camera out of the bag. For me, believe it or not, that hasn’t been a regular thing for the two weeks we’ve been on the Big Island in Hawaii.

And so this morning just before sunrise I told Deb I was going out to look for photos. She asked, “Where?” and I said, “I don’t know. Maybe the lava fields nearby.” But the lava fields didn’t call me. Instead, I ended up at a place called Isaac Hale Park. I got out of the car (without my camera) walked out onto the rocky shore and watched the surf roll in.

I was actually back in the car with the motor running when my inner photographer voice, which I had put on mute weeks ago, asked, “Really?! You’re too lazy to take a photo of this?” I ended up taking many more here but this is the first one I processed.

There’s a lot going on in this photo – maybe too much. But at least I took my camera out of the bag . . . 

Canon 5DIII f/16.0 ISO100 28mm (3 bracketed exposures combined in HDR Efex 2)

 

04-22-14 A Great Place To Study (HDR)

Good architectural design involves good furniture. . . . 

By Scott Shephard

An ongoing project of mine is to photograph various places at Lake Area Technical Institute where a local office store (Office Peeps) has provided furniture. The LATI library is featured in today’s post and as far as I’m concerned everyone involved in the design did a brilliant job.

Years ago, when Watertown High School added a large new wing, there was an open house to show off the new space. One of the taxpayer complaints was, “Why did we waste so much money on color?” The thinking must have been that institutions should be gray and drab since gray and drab is cheaper. Color, light and space have huge impact on how we feel. And as I life-long teacher I can tell you that all of the senses play a significant role in learning.

Canon 5DIII 1/10s f/7.1 ISO320 19mm

 

A few more from the photo shoot:

04-01-14 The Golden Hour (HDR)

The so-called “golden hour” is the perfect time to capture a portrait of a venerable oak . . . . 

By Scott Shephard

The hour just before sunset is called “the golden hour” because the light is soft and warm. Portrait photographers love this time of day but so do landscape photographers. In the case of this beautiful tree in the Maryland countryside, I was there at the perfect time. There was no wind, it was warm and, fortunately, the light was excellent.

Canon 5DIII 1/250s f/8.0 ISO200 105mm