Christopher C Larson

Well, it has been a little while since I’ve posted.  Much has happened, probably most importantly my new 1.5tb harddrive to help out with the massive storage issues that have been plaguing me recently.  That said, I’ve finally gotten my photos edited and posted of the 1972 Plymouth Barracuda that I did a shoot with a little over a month ago.  Thanks to Eric for giving me the opportunity to do my first shoot with a muscle car.  I’m quite happy with how they turned out.  Here are a few favs, and the rest can be seen here.

Last weekend, I went on a group trip to Martha’s Vineyard, MA. This trip was a fantastic opportunity for some great photos. From a foggy evening in Cape Cod, a perfect sunny day in Oak Bluffs at the lighthouse and on the beach and beautiful landscapes such as The Cliffs and empty farmland, it was difficult to make it to my next stop without stopping for more pictures.

Most of the photos are posted here, and there are several panoramic photos also posted here.

Recently, I have been playing around with a new technique (new to me):  High Dynamic Range aka HDR.  It is a technique that has been around for some time now but only lately have I given it a try.  The underlying idea is to take several shots with a range of exposures and merge them together with HDR software.  Your end result is a photo that has a much higher dynamic range of luminance and color than a single photo can capture.  Over the decades, many have tried a wide range of techniques to take what the human eye can see, and capture it in a photograph.  The human eye, being incredibly more advanced than our current image capturing technology, is much more adept at viewing the very dynamic world we live in.  With HDR, you are able to produce an image where the shadows are seen in detail and light intensive areas aren’t blown out.  Often these images look fake, too vibrant to be real or as if they were somehow painted onto the screen, but I assure you, they are real.

Spending the last few days playing with this technique, here are some photos I have taken.
HDR Photo Gallery

Keep in mind, this is less than 7 days of trying this out.  According to Dr. Daniel Levitin, “ten thousand hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert — in anything.”  So, it looks like I have some work to do.  I have also recently purchased Complete Guide to High Dynamic Range Digital Photography.  I am hoping this will give me some insight and ideas for some impressive shots and help me to expand my collection.

There are also many sites boasting the best HDR shots around.  Here are a few to see what other have achieved:

1. 35 Fantastic HDR Pictures
2. Flickr HDR
3. 24 Stunning HDR Photographs of Abandoned Places

Now you may be wondering, “How the heck could I possibly do this?”  Here area  few good tutorials to get you started, the first being my favorite, due to its simplicity:

1. Basic HDR Photography Tutorial
2. How to create professional HDR images
3. HDR Tutorial

A few weeks back I happened to be driving on the freeway next to the Connecticut River and noticed the park on the water was completely flooded. The next day I went back with my camera, parked at the roadblock and walked in. The entire park was blocked off, boat ramp was closed (as it was completely underwater) and most the park, picnic tables, play equipment and adjacent soccer fields were entirely submerged.

Here are a few favorites, and the rest can be found here and here.

For the last week, the weather has been amazing.  And so, I decided to take a drive to Elizabeth Park.  Here are some photos taken from around the park and the tulip gardens (which were in full bloom).  More photos are posted here.