As such, my photographs will never win an award, never be touted as worthy of a magazine, or any such nomination. However, I take pride in my ability to resist the temptations of Photoshop and being a self proclaimed ‘purist’. Though, this line of thought has severely limited my appreciation of my own Photographs, I am a digital photographer, as such, I have a panoply of tools at my disposal to make my photos something far more than what the digital algorithms are able to calculate, as that is just it, they calculate, they define the world we capture as a series of ones and zeroes, there is nothing more cold and distant from human emotion than this. In my efforts, I have always attempted to lend some sort of human emotion and influence into my photographs to alleviate that distant feeling when they are being viewed through a brightly lit monitor.

This is my first ‘real’ attempt at Photoshopping an HDR photograph and allowing others to see it. So please do comment and critique the end result. Personally, I think it has a bit of a Tilt-Shift feeling to it, like I am looking at a model railroad track and this is the river that the train goes over…

So, there are in effect two stories behind this photograph, one is the instance with which it was taken, and the other has been told, the process of my venture into editing. This photo was taken during my recent trip up to Cook, MN with my dear friend Amy. I went and visited my wonderful host and dearest of friends Lisha and her husband Jeff and their three beautiful little girls. We had gone up to Vermillion Falls and did a bit of hiking, which on the way back, I led us into the forest and off the path, at which point everyone had to be helped over a fallen tree, which was lame, because I was the one helping, and even Anya was a pain to lift over. I take that back, Amy is apparently too prideful to accept help over said tree to which I was mildly offended. Not really though. Anyhow, when we finally made our way out of the mosquito infested forest, I walked over to the bridge of the river, to get some photographs. It was wonderful, because it was raining, and due to the fact that my camera is very well sealed I was not terribly concerned about it, plus it was not really raining so much as misting. I have gotten many compliments on this photo in a not HDR format, so I decided to process it and give it a little bit of an extra touch.

Can you see what has been edited?

This photo was taken back in August of 2008, I had just dropped my girlfriend off at MSP International so she could go to visit her Grandmother in Phoenix, AZ. Afterward I decided to stop at the Fort Snelling National Cemetery. I will tell you this, never in your life, unless you have been to Arlington, have you ever seen so many headstones. It is just incredible. It is literally a sea of white, and you know that each dot in the distance represents a person that was once alive. It makes me wonder about all those people, what were they like, their aspirations, their goals, their weaknesses, their loved ones, all their mistakes, all the things they had ever been proud of, then it reminds me of how insignificant we are as people. All the wars, all the arguments, all of the hatred and anguish, and for what, a small plot of land on this tiny speck of a dot in space, we as a race, as a people, regardless of skin color, language, nationality, are so insignificant in the end. Having said that, why not cherish what we have, fight for love instead of land or oil or pride, do all that you can to remind the people you love that you do, in the tiny blip on an existence that we have, that is the world we should fight for, the people we care for and love.

So, the photo… It is made up of some ten photographs, having said that, ten equals thirty because each one has to be taken three times, so yeah, it took some time to stitch this together and map it correctly, it is still not up to my standards, but to get it where I want it I would need to go back and re-take the photographs…

Anyhow, I saw this parabolic mirror and was reminded of how everything (Specifically the sky) looks like it is HDR when it is compressed into the small space of these mirrors, I say, if your automobile has one of these mirrors, look at the clouds while driving, only briefly though, as it can be distracting and dangerous.

“So good to see you,
I’ve missed you so much,
So glad it’s over,
I’ve missed you so much…

I stick my hand into this shadow,
To pull the pieces from the sand,
Which I attempt to reassemble,
To see just who I might have been,
I do not recognize the vessel,
But the eyes seem so familiar,
Like phosphorescent desert buttons,
Singing one familiar song…”

Anyhow, this is one of the most beautiful of the set, and I am posting it immediately, and, unfortunately, there will be more coming in the following days, something I do not generally do is post photos from the same trip next to eachother, or even within the same month generally, but all of these are just so spectacular and grandiose, that I just have to.

I took this photo when (Again) out with my buddy Steve. I have been to this place many times, and never been satisfied with the photos I have taken of this large device, for the first time I was satisfied, which is weird, as I processed this one in front of three people, and that makes me a bit uncomfortable, nervous, and generally more likely to make mistakes, as well as having only taken a very short (Relative to other photos) time to process this one. In some ways it may appear substandard, but I don’t care, I think it is almost just right…

This one was taken while we were both still relatively warm. Steve had forgotten his gloves, so later on I let him use one of mine, so we shared gloves… Yes, sharing gloves with another man is a sacred thing, so Steve and I are pretty much blood brothers now.

Back to the photo, I really like this one, however, I used my (cheapo) wide angle lens, and sadly I discovered a severe flaw in the unit. I will give extra awesome brownie points to the first person that is able to identify the problem in the photo, and the distortion which caused it. I will give you a hint, My D90 has a setting that (either on or off) attempts to reduce this effect.

So, for everyone reading, do not buy cheap equipment with an expensive camera, it will only leave you sad, and wondering why your expensive camera is taking terrible photos, until you see the edge-bending effect of your wide angle lens and realize what the problem was, or maybe that’s just me…

I also think it is probably prudent to adjust the photo size I am posting, as much as I love the large size photos, it seems to give a feel closer to being there, since your eyes kind of scan around, much like they do naturally. It seems that many people are running lower resolution monitors, so, if you are unable to see the full image in the window without scrolling (Please make sure your browser is set to full screen view), please just leave me a note here, so I can do things to make it a better viewing experience for everyone…

Thanks!

Thanks Everyone!

“And in the end, we find that we are back to the place we began, fetal and weeping, for no better a reason than fear and selfishness.” ~Jacob W. Crosby