Nothing remains  / We could run / when the rain slows
Look for the cars or signs of life  / Where the heat goes
Look for the drifters / We should crawl under the bracken
Look for the shafts of light on the road
Where the heat goes – bowie

So the idea is to take 3 pictures and sort of mush them together in a way that adds way more data & depth than an average photograph.  Normally this “HDR” or High Dynamic Range photography produces wildly surreal images.  Much of that of course is due to the artistic whims of the photographer who has endless opportunity to tweek the images during processing.  I’ve never really messed with HDR myself. For me most of the enjoyment of photography is in the moment and trying to capture the minds eye as it were (A hopeless task from the start I might add.).  I’ll certainly edit images  in Photoshop, but my joy is camera in hand. Still, I’m also driven to know how things are done, which sent me out to give HDR a go myself yesterday. Only the challenge I set for myself was to make it look well, real.  Then once I got started I totally adjusted my thinking. Yeah, that’s just like me!

hints of an old view camera..

These pictures are my very first attempts at making HDR work for me. As I said, I took these shots yesterday. It turned out to be a classic dark, cloudy, colorless November day.  For my playground I chose a little natural area called Pewit’s Nest which back in the 60s was still on private property and a popular party spot for the local teens.  Here Skillet Creek carved a deep gorge within 100ft sandstone cliffs and flows through a series of water falls and deep pools.  The spot is actually listed on a white water paddling site as a destination… (They’re crazy by the  way).

When I got home and blended the different exposures I found that you could spend hours trying to get the surreal feel blended out of the final image.  They just want to glow and shine.  Brown leaves become bronze,  the water’s reflections become frozen & glassy.  HDR makes it easy to “Go Loud” with your work.  Too easy I think. The challenge it seems is to try to hold it back.

I see lots of possibilities though.  Indoor architecture and low light situations seem ready made for this style of work.   I have to admit, even though it took me quite some time to tone it all down, HDR added a certain mood to the imagery of a dark November day that I couldn’t have captured otherwise.   Oh, well.  I’m certainly going to spend more time playing with it.  If you are interested in seeing larger versions of these shots I have them posted on Flickr.

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