I can remember the many drives from Southern Illinois to Des Moines and how much I would complain that there was absolutely nothing to look at. If you’re not familiar with this part of the country lets just say it is extremely flat and all you see for miles is farm land.
Now don’t get me wrong, I loved where I grew up and wouldn’t change it for anything but when you are stuck in a car for 8 hours, it’s nice to have something to look at.
Until recently, I never realized that Iowa actually is not that flat and has many rolling hills. I took this picture just west of Des Moines, it captures the typical farm land scene in this area.
High Dynamic Range (HDR) Photography has gained a lot of interest in photography. HDR Photography is where you take multiple exposures of a image and then stack them on top of one another to create one picture. By doing this you create an image that often times is very similar to what our eyes see. Most digital cameras can do this by using the auto bracketing function. For best results you need to use at least 3 exposures. If you are shooting in very bright or low light then you often times need to use 5, 7, or 9 exposures. Unfortunately, you typically need a semi-pro or pro dSLR to do this.
After you take the pictures, you then need software to stack the pictures on one another. The best way I’ve found is using Photomatix or you can use Photoshop CS 5. If you want to see some great HDR pictures you need to check out Trey Ratcliff at Stuck in Customs. He does phenomenal work and has many tutorials.
My wife grew up outside a very small town in Southern Illinois called St. Francisville (well known for the scariest bridge to cross in Southern Illinois/Indiana). In March, we were there for my wife’s baby shower. There is a very old Catholic church that sits down town. I decided to take a 7 exposure HDR pic using my Leica M9. Most of the time when shooting in HDR you want to create a color image, I think in this case monochrome works very well.
Last week when I traveled through South Whitley, looking for picture opportunities I came across this old beat up car at a local service store. The car was a dark ugly color and definitely wouldn’t make for a good “color” pic.
Using my 35mm summicron, I was able to easily blur the background and focus in on the car (that’s why I love Leica lenses). Converting the image to black and white using Nik Software Silver Efex Pro 2 allowed me to bring more detail out in the car and made for a better pic.
Yesterday, I was driving through South Whitley. It’s a typical small Indiana town with just a few downtown buildings. For a small town and historic looking downtown, it was busy with patrons at the local bars and restaurants. As I was making my way through town I came across a corner ice cream parlor. It definitely had a retro look and was a great picture opportunity. Maybe next time I’ll stop and get some food.
