Highly Defined Reality
A daily photo blog by an aspiring photographer and IT student. Mainly focusing on HDR High Dynamic Range photography with subjects such as Landscapes / nature , old / abandoned buildings , travel , monuments , statues , or just whatever looks cool to me. All my photos are for sale, if you are interested in purchasing them just send me a message. If nothing else leave a comment and tell me what you liked about them.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ON FACEBOOK:............... http://www.facebook.com/HighlyDefinedReality-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Highly Defined Reality - Life in HDR (High Dynamic Range) Photography
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Tink
Took this one a few weeks ago with the G15. I like using the G15 for indoor shots because its lens goes up to f/1.8, which is much faster then my current 5D lenses.
This is Tink, taking a nap under the coffee table. If she’s not up and about, you can usually find here here. -
Let us build us a city, and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven…
I took this the same night I took the Houston Panorama. I was fascinated by the orange glow of the JPMorgan Chase Building, so I stowed my 24-105mm and whipped out the 70-300mm for a close-up shot before I left.
JPMorgan Chase Building is a 37-story 130 m (430 ft) Art Deco skyscraper in downtown Houston, Texas. Completed in 1929, it remained the tallest building in Houston until 1963, when the Exxon Building surpassed it in height. The building is the Houston headquarters of JPMorgan Chase Bank, and was formerly the headquarters of Texas Commerce Bank.
The title quote is from the Book of Genesis, 11 verse 4, concerning the tower of Babel.
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For the Birds
Here we have a couple Black-bellied whistling-ducksenjoying the scenery at Hermann Park in the Museum District of Houston.
They breed from the southernmost United States and tropical Central to south-central South America. In the USA, it can be found year-round in parts of southeast Texas and are some times known to vacation in southeast Arizona and along the Louisiana gulf coast. -
Water drops
These are a couple of my first attempts at reverse lens macro photography. Just some droplets of water on a CD surface.
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The object of Art is to give life a shape
Bryan wraps up the street art that him and Wiley worked on that day at an old gas station across from Station Museum of Contemporary Art in Downtown Houston, Texas.
This is in preparation for a street art exhibit at the museum on May the 25th, 2013.
This photo may look like it was taken with a extreme wide angle lens but it was in fact taken with my usual 24-105mm set at 24.
It is another stitch made up of 12 or so portraits I panned across the top for about 6 shots and then across the bottom for the same.
I had intended to straighten out the distortion but when I did, the photo took on a bow-tie shape so I left it in. I don’t generally like the fish-eye look but for this scene I think it looks pretty good.
I finally learned a good sharpening technique using a duplicate layer with a high-pass filter in use which I learned with the help of a fellow photographer’s blog: http://hdrphotographer.blogspot.com/
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Night on the town
Here we have a panoramic photo of Down town Houston. It’s roughly 180 degrees. Made up of 12 portrait HDR shots. To see it in all its glory click here: http://gigapan.com/gigapans/128389.
I got lucky that the Astros were playing that night, adds something to the scene I think. I had mad this trip to get some sunset shots with the Houston skyline but I didn’t leave the house early enough.
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Light seeking light doth light of light beguile
This was my first attempt at photo stacking and layer masks in Photoshop. The light trails and road are 17 long exposure photos stacked. The sky and everything else is a single photo that I layered in after the stacking.
I was up there attempting to get a shot of Comet PANSTARRS, but nothing turned up. But it turned into a pretty decent sunset while I was up there.
Shot from the top parking deck at Town Center in Sugar Land, Texas.
The title quote is from “Love’s Labor’s Lost”, Act 1. scene 1, 72–79
By William Shakespeare -
Baby False-Map Turtle
I’ve been playing around with the reversed lens technique. To accomplish this I held the lens backwards up to the camera body. They do make adapters that will free up a hand for focusing, I plan to buy one one of these days.
You focus by moving closer to and further away from the subject, it’s very tricky stuff. Since the depth of field is only about a millimeter, you have to maneuver around to get the photo just right.
About a week ago we had an incredible rain storm. I haven’t had much time for photography lately and I thought I’d get out and check things out, see if there was some interesting scene. I nearly step on this little guy trying to escape the rain. I brought him in out of the mess. He obviously didn’t like all the attention, because after this shot he wouldn’t stay put, so I took him back outside.
This guy, I’m pretty sure, is a false-map turtle. His shell had pronounced ridges down the middle and a serrated edge. His face and neck had bright orange stripes. -
Winged Victory of Samothrace
Back from a bit of a break from blogging, decided to put it aside while I focused on school.
I recently dropped my old iPhone 3G for the thousandth time and finally cracked the screen so I picked up a new SIII. I was going through the old photos on there and doing some interesting but simple editing in Picasa.
This is a mobile shot I took of the Winged Victory of Samothrace, also referred to as Nike of Samothrace, at the Louvre Museum in Paris, France.
It is a 2nd century BC marble sculpture of the Greek goddess Nike (Victory). Since 1884, it has been prominently displayed at the Louvre.
The Nike of Samothrace, discovered in 1863 on the island of Samothrace (in Greek, Σαμοθρακη — Samothraki), is estimated to have been created around 190 BC. It was created to not only honor the goddess, Nike, but to honor a sea battle. It conveys a sense of action and triumph as well as portraying artful flowing drapery through its features which the Greeks considered ideal beauty.
The sculptor is unknown.
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First Attempt at Star Photography
Had a little free time after dark the other night so I decided to attempt my first star photo. I headed down I 59 South until I felt it might be dark enough, stopped in the little town of Beasley, Texas.
This one is processed with a tweaked Lightroom preset created by Dave Morrow, an experience star photographer.
I had hoped to get a shot of the milky way but it was still too bright. I referenced a light pollution map more recently and apparently west Texas is saturated with light pollution and I’m right in the middle of it. -
My God, it’s full of stars!
At this abandoned rock crushing facility on the outskirts of Searcy, Arkansas.
I love the monolithic quality of this… thing.It just occured to me that this would be a great place for star photography, to bad it’s eight hours away.
Huh, according to the map, this is in Gray, Ar. -
I have been one acquainted with the night. I have walked out in rain — and back in rain. I have outwalked the furthest city light.
The skyline of Downtown Austin, Texas as seen from atop Mount Bonnell.
I had planned on doing some star photography for the first time but mother nature thought other wise, it was thick with clouds the entire time I was in Austin that weekend. Maybe next time.
If you’re ever in Austin, make sure you check this place out, it has great views of east and west Austin.-Acquainted with the Night-
I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain — and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.
I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.
I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street,
But not to call me back or say good-bye;
And further still at an unearthly height,
A luminary clock against the sky
Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night. -
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On our way back to Houston, I had to stop again at this old farm house, if only long enough to take a few pictures.
I decided to include the power plant in the background and I’m so glad I did. The new perspective hives it a completely different aspect.Taken in Fayette, TX.
Click here to see the same farm house taken by my old CyberShot about six months ago:
Old Abandoned Farmhouse - When children’s voices called, Where grasses now stand still
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In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present
Still in Austin, Texas.
I was just starting my walk back to the car from the South Congress Ave Bridge cutting through the back lot of the Hyatt and I saw this scene. The light from the Hyatt was reflecting off that window on the building to the right and it just kinda demanded my attention.
This photo is a composite HDR/fusion of two long exposures, it wasn’t nearly this bright in the alley way. I’m not completely happy with it, I may play around with the original images in Lightroom later on when free time is a bit more free.
Title quote by Francis Bacon. -
May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out
This is a composite of 5 separate 30sec exposures taken as a cruise ship eased it’s way down Lady Bird Lake in Austin Texas.
I was heading back to my car and I saw that a restaurant/cruise ship had left out of it’s dock so I hurried down along the shore of the lake to see if maybe they were going to turn around and head back this way. And to my luck they did. So I sat there and waited patiently for them to make there way into my line of sight to take these shots.
Technically not the whole photo is a composite. The buildings and water are a composite of the last 4 of the 5 photos. I did this because after looking at the photos on the computer screen, I realized that the first photo was blurry, so I only used the light trail from that photo. Also the sky is a single photo, I used photomatix’s natural/fusion to do the composting but I didn’t like how gritty the sky looked so I selected the sky of one of the original photos. This is also how I took only the streak from the first photo, once I had an initial composite of the 4 photos, I used that composite and the blurry first photo in the photomatix process again and selected all but the streak and use the original composite and
voila…
Title from “The Fellowship of the Ring” by J.R.R. Tolkien.
