hdr

panoramic

I’ve always been partial to black & white photography due to its stark reality and its simplicity. And because I can usually make a partially OK shot look more than acceptable when in grayscale.

For class I was forced to use an old photo, taken without any of the knowledge obtained in class. However, due to the daily assignments and lack of free time (oh ho! it’s called motherhood) and the shoddy winter weather we’ve had, I was a bit pinched to make my deadline.

This rose is even more beautiful in its original state, as I’ve posted below for you to enjoy. But even more beautiful was its local…more to come on that later (if I maintain my momentum and not totally flake like I have throughout my life on numerous girly diaries….)

HDR was a whole ‘nother monster. I had seen photos in HDR by my brother (world traveling photographer Matthew Taylor! and here follows a shameless plug… https://www.matthewtayloroutdoors.com/)

Anyways, as I was saying before I fell victim to nepotism, the HDR I have witnessed before was always otherworldly. As I had neither the time nor the experience/equipment, I settled for very natural looking HDRs. We shall not discuss the unfortunate failing of my battery during my planned shoot on Garland Street during the perfect evening light….

As for panoramics….there is currently a dearth of attractive city skylines sans snow and ice this winter. I drove for a mile and another mile and still found nothing of the city to shoot…so I became creative.

I knew Photoshop could knit together a number of consecutive photos and so long as I could shoot someplace that enabled a wide image, I was golden.

So I knew this place…..I’d driven past it numerous times. I only needed to finagle my pissy aluminum tripod (borrowed from the school and the 70’s), four lanes of traffic with nary a median, and a six year old prone to gamboling about. No prob, Bob.

As you can see below and from the lack of mourning, I got the shot without losing lives or limbs. But I felt called to remove the house and signs…practice I call it, for my not-so-mediocre Photoshop skillzzz….(can you taste the sarcasm?)

Below you can see the original steps with its house…however I felt that it needed something less…