Gloomy Sunday

Haven’t got a chance to go shoot pictures yet. Maybe tomorrow if it’s not raining. Cleaning day yesterday for company today. Although I dread company, it’s actually a great opportunity to do a good, thorough cleaning of the house. I would not have the motivation otherwise and would rather do something that interests me than cleaning the house. And it feels good afterwards when you know everything is just dusted and wiped, like getting into bed with freshly washed sheets.

So today, I just put the camera on the tripod and pointed it to the lake and started experimenting the f stops and the ISOs and the shutter speeds.

This one was shot at 400 ISO, 98mm, f/5.6 1/320 sec

This one was shot at 400 ISO, 98mm, f/5.6 ad 1/200 sec

Although the second one is lighter and seems clearer on the web site, I like the first one for its color. Maybe that’s where HDR comes in. So I went back to the camera, put it in the bracket mode with Apature priority, used the interval timing to take the 3 shots and threw them into Photomatix and got this one.

Without photoshop, it is already making the color pop. The grass is greener and the overall brightness does not suffer. It could be even better if I do some more post processing in photoshop.

So many variables, getting them just right would take some time for sure. Trey Ratcliff is an expert on this kind of thing. HIs pictures come out artistic and yet real. But he can also paint and draw. So I will never be as good as he. I can be as good as I can be though. And I’m just getting started. Love this means of getting in touch of my artistic side. I know I can’t paint or draw, but the camera can take a snapshot of the pictures I see without my hands getting in the middle. Can’t wait to go out and shoot more pictures and play with them.