Yesterday was a great day! While I was working over the pictures and blog posts for the Bluebonnet Expedition a few days ago, I decided I needed to go farther afield to find some new locations to shoot. And, with bluebonnets still on my mind, I got into Google Maps and worked out a route for a Hill Country field trip.
I was up at 5 o'clock and out of the house by 6 - yeah, I know - planning to pass by Inks Lake about sunrise. I missed one photo opportunity right off the bat when I looked up and saw the full moon working its way the western horizon. Alas, by the time it was ready to set and I could pull over to get a shot or two, it was obscured by clouds. Oh, well.
I got back to the apartment about 3 o'clock (in time to watch the third round of the Masters), filed the hundreds of images I'd brought home, and began to work on them. This post is going to be a comparison of three subjects I happened on yesterday; three subjects that I shot with both the "big" Canon (the first of each of the sets) and the "little" Canon (the second). Of course, that also means three regular images and three HDR pictures.
Please keep in mind that I'm still learning (every day) things about both photography methods and post-processing tools, so none of us has to love everything about any or all of these shots. Hopefully, there's something in each of them that you do like.
One of the biggest problems for a roadside photographer like myself is finding a place to pull over when you see a subject you'd like to shoot. Sometimes, you find a likely spot with but little of interest, once you've checked it out. But occasionally you find a surprise, and this time I pulled off for the Bluebonnets I could see from the highway and found this serendipitous barn. The composition was easy, with the Oaks and Mesquites and, of course, the Bluebonnets. My biggest problem with this picture is the blown out sky. I'm facing east and the clouds between me and the sun can do nothing but defuse the light. How nice it would be to have a Carolina blue sky scattered with cotton clouds.
I still have a problem with the sky in this HDR image, but at least there's something here to add interest, even if I haven't yet mastered the tools that would make this a "great" shot. I like the low camera angle; I used the tripod without extending the legs and could frame the picture because the little camera has an articulated LCD. (Pictures taken with the big camera are basically shot from whatever level my head happens to be.)
This next pair of shots was taken at the same roadside stop, only a few steps from where I shot the old barn. In the picture above, the sky was completely blown out so I gave it a pale blue gradient sky after-the-fact. I do that occasionally, when the blown out sky annoys me sufficiently. Manipulation of images by photographers has long been controversial, but my position on the matter is that it's a manufactured controversy. Ansel Adams spent a lot more time working each picture in his photo lab than he ever spent with his camera in front of Half Dome or Yosemite Falls. . . I rest my case.
I'm not crazy about the sky in this either - hell, for that matter, I wasn't crazy about the actual sky when I shot the pictures! But what I really like in this shot - besides low camera angle - is the detail in the flowers and every twist of wire on the barbed wire fence. Remember: look for the stuff in each picture that you do like.
This pair of trees, which certainly have seen better days, caught my eye because they stood out so well from their dark green background. Yeah, I fixed the sky, but we already talked about that. The composition of this shot leaves a bit to be desired too, but it was taken towards the end of my 9 hour sojourn and I didn't have the energy or inclination to back up 50 feet (it would've entailed moving my pickup and wading across a creek). I included it in this post because I had a corresponding HDR image with which to compare it.
You may not like the sky in this one (I don't - the color's horrid), but it certainly is dramatic! With some practice, perhaps I'll be able to coax a satisfactory sky out of the elements involved. But again, the detail of the foliage, shadows, and the awesome colors of the lower two thirds of image I find awesome.
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