New Loves and Old Dislikes

To say I'm having fun with my new camera would be a bit of an understatement.  I look through the viewfinder and am amazed at how much sharper the images are, even before I take them!  That may not make sense, but trust me it's true.

But before I start blathering on and on about photography and cameras, I want to tell you that Gmail officially hates me!  For the past few months I've had emails disappear, not make it to their intended recipients, or get buried in spam folders all over the world.  Just this morning I got an email from our realtor saying she hadn't found some photos I sent her until she looked in her spam folder!  So if you haven't heard from me lately and you're thinking...sheesh, I sent her a nice message, comment, or email, and even asked her a question and she didn't write me back, well now you know...it's all Gmail's fault! 

I truly love technology (but not as much as you you see) *we'll see who gets that reference,* but I absolutely hate it when it doesn't work the way it's supposed to.  So to those of you wondering what the heck?!  I'm sorry that my email isn't behaving itself!

Ok, now back to the camera chit chat.  Some of you have asked what camera I was using before I bought my new one.  I used the Canon Rebel XTi and I truly love this camera and plan to keep it as a back up.  I've had my trusty Rebel for over 4 years now and it has served me well.  Canon has since replaced it with one very similar, and with better capabilities, so if you are looking for a really nice multipurpose DSLR camera I recommend the newest version of my Rebel.

One of the reasons I wanted the 5D Mark II is because of it's ability to shoot wonderful pictures in lower light settings without a tripod.  Last night I wandered around my yard snapping pictures like a mad woman and trying out all sorts of lighting conditions.  The sun was setting, so it was a perfect time to try things in low light, like the cherry blossom photo above which was in complete shade and very low light.  I was amazed at how sharp the focus was even with the wind blowing and very little light.  I focused in tight on just a small portion of the blossoms and it was dead on...love that!

Along with loving my new camera, I've also taken a liking to something called HDR photography.  It was Mr. Tide who introduced me to this new method of post processing and I wasn't sold at first but I'm learning to like aspects of it.

HDR stands for High Dynamic Range and it is a process where you combine several photographs with different exposures together to create one photo that captures all of the various light levels seen by the human eye.  Now some people love HDR, while others hate it and feel like it gives you crazy almost 3D like images, that don't look anything like what the human eye actually sees.

Although there are some people who take HDR to the extreme, creating very different looking images, there are those that I feel are done well that just captivate you and draw you in, in a way that a regular photo can not.  The first few photos in this post are not HDR images, but from the sunset photo down (including the sunset shot) they are all HDR photographs.

I don't do HDR processing very often, it can be a little time consuming and there is a lot more technical mumbo jumbo than I'm ready to learn in order to create really nice ones, but when they are done right, they are simply amazing!

Take a look at the link I've provided below that will show you some HDR images done the right way!  Be sure to scroll through and look at these amazing photos which I hope to one day be able to create.  And you can also click on the link below each photo to go to that particular photographer's site to see even more great shots.

Digital Photography School -  HDR Done Right

And the funny thing about that post is that it was written by another blogger's son in law!  When I first started talking to Lori from the great blog Katie's Rose Cottage, she mentioned that her son in law was a photographer...none other than the very talented James Brandon who also has a blog.  Mr. Tide and I had visited James' blog and website numerous times when reading about HDR photography!  Such a small world we live in thanks to the internet!

So what do you think, do you love HDR or do you hate it, or are you somewhere in between?!


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At the table on Blackberry Farm