In doing my morning reading, I got a twit from François Kidd (@giefkai), saying that he had featured my Flickr “Cloud Hunting” images in his Monday Leisure section!
Needless to say, I am honored that some one in Belgium would take interest in some Storm Clouds in Chester County!
But then again, that is the power of the internet!
Thanks again François Kidd!
As many locals will tell you, the past three days have been filled with some awesome looking clouds, and finally, I got a chance to go out and shoot some…
I had to stop at home to grab my gear, and I also jumped on Google Earth to get a quick idea of areas I wanted to check-out with the clouds being as inspiring as they were!
My first stop, was just East of Shamona Creek Elementary School, which is rather close to where I live, and having just photographed a similar scene just over two weeks ago, I knew that there was a nice overview both North and South.
The biggest thing that you notice missing, is the big bails of hay, which were one of the focus point in the previous Black and White image conversion.
From this scene, I walked across the street and up a small hill to capture the next image, and I am very happy to have been able to capture one of the birds that was out souring with the various up-drafts.
After this shot, I got back to my car, and headed toward the other side of the school, where I set-up and took some more shoots. (Note: I have decided to wait and HDR process those images when there is real snow on the ground!)
Backing up again, I continued West down Dorlan Mill Road to Creek Road (Rt. 282).
For those that have been following my blog closely, yes, this is the same Creek Road I explored on a Friday in the 101°F heat earlier in July, and very thankfully, it is much cooler this time!
As I drove North West on Creek Road toward Glenmoore, I looked at the Brandywine creek, making metal notes of how the water has risen some, and where I want to explore in the up coming months.
I continued through Glenmoore, and as I was driving and looking, I spotted the following cumulus thunderhead developing, and pulled over to the side as quickly as possible to capture this (7) image HDR capture:
I took a couple of different angles on this, and as I was, an adult heron fly from right to left in this image, and disappeared into the woods behind the cat-o-nine-tails.
Jumping back into my car, I continued toward Elverson on Creek Road, crossing Manor Road (Rt. 82), and as I started up the small hill, I noticed a group of cows, laying on the ground resting with wonderful clouds in the background.
I quickly turned around, pulled over, and grabbed my equipment.
My fear as I approached the fence, was that all the cows were going to get up and head toward me.
But alas, the cows seemed content to stay were they were, and I was able to click a few frames before my camera just stopped working.
Damn!
I wanted to continue, so I headed home to grab my AA battery pack, but by the time I got there, and back out my car, the clouds had changed into pending rain, which the area needs, but is no where nearly as interesting as it had been.
I called it a day, and started the process of transferring my images from the camera on to my computer for further processing.
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After working on the second image, “Cloud Hunting hdr 07 – North”, until 3am this morning, I woke up to find that it had been selected as “Image of the Day” by Parkesburg Today!
It has been over two weeks since I have published something to my Photo-Blog…
This is not to say, that I have not been taken pictures, I’m just back logged on processing!
I have also started to take a different approach…
Several Posts ago, I mentioned the HDR work of Klaus Herrmann (farbspiel), and in particular, his post on “The General HDR Workflow“.
“Let the finished file sit on your hard disk for a day or two. Don’t post it right away. I found that when you get back to it a day later, you will discover things that you might want to change, things that you did not discover while you were working on the details of the image very intensely.”
True words to live by if you are doing HDR…
I have also taken to heart Klaus’ idea of doing:
as early in the HDR process as possible.
I wish I had read or thought about this before!
Anyhow, I just finished posting three images to Flickr and Panoramio, and have many ideas for future captures!
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A couple of days ago, I found the link to “HDR Cookbook – Creating 32-bit HDRs the Right Way“, and basically, have NOT left the website since.
Klaus Herrmann (farbspiel) is a photographer out of Germany, who specializes in Interior HDR Photography.
On his main website, “HDR Cookbook“, you will find a wonderful collection of pages, that describe in vivid detail, the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of creating his beautiful images.
Topic include:
Over the years, I have gone through many pages and videos on “How to do…” HDR, but this is the first site that I have found, that goes into ‘in-depth’ experiments explaining why certain steps are needed to achieve the final product.
Seeing the side-by-side effects of software and processing, has caused me to reconsider how I will view and process future images.
Recently, I have been revisiting some of my older captures, and processing them with new knowledge and techniques.
In reading Klaus’ suggested Workflow, which is highly recommended, he makes the following observation:
Let the finished file sit on your hard disk for a day or two. Don’t post it right away. I found that when you get back to it a day later, you will discover things that you might want to change, things that you did not discover while you were working on the details of the image very intensely. If you let you mind do other things and some time passes, you will look at the image more objectively, more like your viewers will. If you’re content with the image now, go ahead and post it.
Needless to say, I highly recommend that if you are interested in HDR, Tone Mapping related photography, and are in search of some advanced tips, techniques and very qualified insights, then you should be rewarded with a visit to “HDR Cookbook“.
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Originally uploaded by Andrew (SDC)
This image was taken last summer, when I was at Longwood Gardens with my Father.
It is 6 shoots at f29 between 1.6 seconds and 15 seconds.
Processed using Photoshop CS5.
Via Flickr:
A small waterfall located within Longwood Gardens in Chester County (PA).