Village Life Poland

Another example of 'hyper-realistic' HDR, as I blogged about yesterday. Unlike yesterday's photo though, I did not 'hyper' the sky as well. It's dangerous territory I think to apply a global effect to any post-processing technique (sharpening being another example), but of course there are pictures it will work for.

This is from a village just outside Wroclaw in Poland. My wife does not actually like me taking pictures such as this of her home country, as she thinks it represents Poland in a way (she thinks) most people think of, which is under-developed and poor. Having been several times, I can promise you it is not like that, but in fact I love these old rustic buildings, that are so hard to find in England. They lend themselves so well to HDR, as there is so much detail to capture. Therefore, another good candidate for a hyper-realistic (must stop using that word) look.

Hyper-Realistic HDR

Creating 'hyper-realistic' HDR photographs has not really been a forte of mine. Hyper-realistic means going beyond creating a realistic photograph (HDR or otherwise), and taking it into something perhaps a bit more extra dimensional. Critics tend to cause this style 'over-cooked', meaning they have taken the HDR too far. This criticism is completely justified in many cases, but I think the hyper-realistic look is one of the key looks of HDR pictures, and encourages many photographers to give it a try.

I have tended to go for a look that uses HDR techniques, but still tries to give the photo a realistic look, and not providing an image that was an unrealistic representation of the scene. However, I have tried my hand at more hyper-realistic techniques recently, to give a particular scene more edge, and yes something beyond reality. In another sense, going for a bit more detail in architectural pictures. It is important to note that the hyper-realistic look is not suitable for all HDR scenes, and I will certainly stick to my usual HDR techniques for landscape scenes, away from an urban environment.

This picture was taken on the Oxford photo walk recently, and the idea as stated above, was to give it a look perhaps beyond reality (even though of course all the details were there when I took the picture). 

I hope you like it, but in any case, let me know what your thoughts are on 'hyper-realistic' HDRs.

Meat Specialists

I had planned to blog some pictures from the Oxford Photo Walk (part of the Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk) sooner, but there has been a new addition to mine and my wife's household; a little Cockapoo Puppy called Chester. We bought the little fella a week ago, and he has given me a very exhausting week. I have never had a dog before, so this is all a new experience for me, but am thoroughly enjoying being a dog owner. Naturally, everyone who meets him falls in love with him, so we can't wait until we can take him out walking in the big wide world (in less than 2 weeks after his 2nd vaccinations).

Back to the Oxford Photo Walk though, and this easily qualifies as my first photo walk with a large group of people. It was led by Glyn Dewis, and he organised a fantastic walk and event in general, and though it is perhaps a cliché, I can honestly say I met a great bunch of people. Meeting other keen amateur photographers, plus the opportunity to visit sights in Oxford I would not have thought of myself, made the day very worthwhile. Looking forward to going on more!

One part of the Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk are the competitions, and though I am not really motivated by these things, I decided to enter the picture above nonetheless (taken in the Covered Market in Oxford). Whether it is the best picture I took on the day, I don't know, but it is one of the few HDR's I took that day, and ultimately, that's what I do.

Sticking my neck out a bit now, but I have so many photos to post that are fully developed, that I do anticipate being much more active on this blog from now until the end of the year.

Should the Krakow Bubble Burst

Been too long again since my last photograph, but hoping to post a few times this week in anticipation of the Worldwide PhotoWalk next weekend, of which I shall be participating in from the city of Oxford, led by Glyn Dewis.

There is no tedious link I can state from Oxford to Krakow, but never mind, here is a photo I tried hard to get while I was in Krakow last month. The city square is indeed a beautiful place, and amongst the many musicians and artists to be enjoyed, there were a couple of people blowing these enormous bubbles, which inevitably led to many children chasing after them to put them out. I was chasing after them too, but that was so I could capture a picture like this, with the city in the backdrop to a picture of these great bubbles.

This was created from a single RAW image, and indeed I put quite a lot of work into retaining the colour and detail of the bubble, without going too far.

The Wroclaw Saxophonist

Taking a mini break from the southern most part of Poland (and HDR processing) to the south-western city of Wroclaw. It was near this city that I was based for most of the recent 2 weeks I was in Poland, as it is the nearest city to my Wife's family in Poland.

I have visited Wroclaw several times now and thoroughly enjoy it each time. I have written about it plenty of times on my photographic blogs, but it always springs up new sights for me to photograph.

This wonderful scene presented itself as we were walking towards the Wroclaw Cathedral, a saxophonist playing his heart out to the numerous tourists visiting Wroclaw. It was a great place to ply his trade, against the back drop of the cathedral, and it was only right that I gave him some (well deserved) money, for the opportunity to take some pictures.

I always envisioned this picture as a sepia/black & white image, as I feel it gives an authentic and historical feel to it.

Revelations

Going back to the theme of mountain climbing from one of my previous blogs 'The Mountain Hut', today's picture was taken on the same day, not too long after that picture. I had already been and walked around these lakes and by this time I was heading for the next lake, some 2 hours walk away.

As I spoke about in that previous blog, the visibility was not great when we got to these lakes, so high up in the mountains, but there were moments when it just drifted off (or drifted 'around' would be more appropriate) and gave glimpses of the magnificence of the surrounding landscape. I had no time to set up a tripod for this shot, so this is a hand held HDR taken from 4 exposures.

I may try this as a non-HDR as well, as 1 or 2 of the shots were able to capture the dynamic range of the scene within the exposure, but I wanted to make an HDR out of this first and foremost, to bring out the texture of the clouds. Plus of course I always like that arty look, that HDR brings.

Old Krakow Town

Having visited Zakopane at the very edge of southern Poland, I was also given the opportunity to visit one of Poland's most famous cities, Krakow. Krakow is indeed a stunning city and was once the capital of Poland (up until the 16th Century). With so much culture and history there, it is also a wonderful place to capture some photographs.

This part of Krakow is what the locals call 'Stary Miasto' which literally translates as Old Town. Krakow has many historic churches but aside from them, the Old Town is the place to find some authentic architecture. The second building on the left (the yellow one) was the home of Karol Wojtyła later known as Pope John Paul II, between the years of 1951 and 1967.

On a photographic note, I deliberately did not 'de-ghost' the crowd outside the the Pope's home, because I felt like it lost its 'feel', it just became to static an image. Therefore, to give the impression of movement and life, I left the slight ghost movements within the picture.

Mountain Hut

The 2nd offering from my trip to Poland and today's picture remains in Zakopane. I am by no means a mountain climber, but as you climb these high mountains there is a feeling you get which asks yourself if it will be worth it when you reach the top? This was taken on my first day in Zakopane and generally the weather was ok, but as we got near to the top of our planned destination, the visibility got less and less.

Having dodged Brown Bears, Wolves and Lynx's, we got to these lakes we wanted to see near the top of the mountains in this region, to see nothing much but the clouds right in front of us. However, rather magically, the mist began to clear after a short while at the top and suddenly we could see many spectacular sights all around us. One of my favourite 'revelations' was this little mountain hut, which I'm not sure what purpose it had (there was a visitor cafe hut just a little further away). It gave me all those wonderful mountain images in my mind though and was an obvious choice for an HDR photo.

Zakopane - A Photographer's Dream

There are not many places that can be called 'a photographer's dream'. Certainly Paris and Venice would be obvious examples, but normally the photographer has to work hard in any location to produce a worthwhile result. Certain locations though, give you plenty of 'raw material' to help you produce those great shots.

Zakopane is a well known beauty spot in southern Poland, and I was very lucky to get an opportunity to visit this special place, having spent the last 2 weeks in Poland. I have been interested in photographing Zakopane (officially called the 'Tatra National Park') since I watched a video of Charlie Waite, one of my favourite photographers teaching a class of Polish photographers. Here is a link to that video. In particular, after watching his video, I wanted to get close to the fast flowing streams that flow down the mountains of Zakopane, of which the picture above is the result.

It is an HDR taken from 3 images, and luckily I had the 'blurred stream' effect on all 3 RAW images. This was achieved by shooting at F/22 and ISO 100, but was helped by the misty and cloudy weather, keeping the light level low.

I returned from Poland very early this morning and have had my most enjoyable and (I believe) rewarding photographic trip of the year. Lots of photos to come...

South Beach, Miami

Just wanted to do a quick blog post today. The pictures above and below were taken from my trip to Miami in June. There are still quite a few pictures I have taken this year that I haven't posted yet, but posting (almost) daily on Facebook has helped me go forth and just publish pictures, I may have overlooked for this blog.

These picture as you can tell don't really look like photographs or HDR's, and that I would accept. Miami is of course so wonderfully unique and has a culture all of it's own (as most cities do right?), that I was inspired to create more 'arty' pieces out of these, rather than straight photos (plus it helped eliminate the heavy noise on the picture below!). This was largely achieved in Topaz Clean.

The first picture was taken outside the Art Deco centre along South Beach. The 2nd picture was taken in the Delano Club, which was once owned/part owned by Madonna. Not the cheapest club I have ever been in ($500 a table) but then I was with work, so all costs covered!

Time to Go Hard or Go Home

Perhaps it is a little lame to reference a Black Eyed Peas song on this blog, but that sentiment matches how I feel. After a few months of indecision and uncertainty, I have a new plan with my photography to keep me busy and focused.

After only a few posts, I have decided to revert from my decision to use borders. It may seem to make my words a few weeks ago a little hollow, but after using the borders a few times now, I just don't think I like it as much as the pictures without the distractions, such as borders and watermarks. Having blogged recently about my experience of having my work copied and uncredited to myself, I know this new direction of the borderless pictures again opens me up to internet image theft, but I've decided I'm prepared to take that risk now.

The only thing I ever needed was a copyright to put with the pictures. Most top photographers have this, and it ensures that you can blog and post your pictures away, knowing that if anyone was to make any commercial gain from your pictures, you can take action. I am  now registering all my photographs with the UK copyright service. This makes me much more secure about posting them online. Yes some people will still claim pictures as their own, but they could not gain much from it, as eventually they would be found out. I do not say this out of anger, it gives me a great sense of freedom now to post pictures without worrying what someone else might be doing with them.

More importantly though, I need to have a direction to take my photography in general, and as I said in my blog 'Coming Back to what I Know' the focus will continue to be HDR photography. It is simply the type of photography I enjoy creating and I want to find my way into some of the most amazing places in the UK and abroad, to fulfil my love of HDR photography. It's not lost on me that my output this year has in general been quite low, and I'm trying to ask myself why as well.

One of the reasons I think is because posting pictures online seems to be such hard work. There seems like a new social media website to become apart of every week and it is demotivating to decide which images to post on which side, and to follow that up with all the writing that goes with it. I have written on Twitter recently how I dislike the new looks to both Flickr and Google+ and I stick by that. I never had that much of a problem with Flickr in the first place (contrary to popular opinion) but now I find the changes unfocused and an eyesore. There is simply too much going on now when you view Flickr or Google+ and I have no desire to post on these sites.

Therefore, it may surprise you to learn that I am going to focus now on Facebook, where my following is only currently 44 people. The reason I want to focus on Facebook now though, is because the image quality of the photos you present online has vast improved and of course on Facebook is where you will find not only the biggest social media audience, but also my intended audience, non-photographers. I say that because although of course I love discussing photography with my photography friends, I love the reaction non-photographers have to new digital art forms such as HDR, they just really seem to love it. And of course you don't get the cynical anti-HDR attitudes as you do on specialist photography sites.

I have decided for the time being that I am going to post a daily photo everyday on Facebook. Now most of these will have been pictures I have already posted over the last 3 years, but again, the aim is to keep me busy in the photographic media world while also working on new images. If you want to visit my Facebook Photography click the link HERE. You will find another new picture there today!

I will continue with Twitter, and occasionally Google+, simply because despite my grievances, it seems that it is continuing to grow in popularity. I have finished with Flickr though and other social media sites.

So the final part is my own websites......where does that leave them? I have been searching for the answer to a great photographic website this year and continue to be unsure. You may know that as well as this blog, I have 2 photographic websites, HalewoodPhoto and HalewoodPhotographic. With money tight these days, I find now that I cannot afford to keep both, so have to pick a website to go with. I love the functionality I have with HalewoodPhoto (built using SquareSpace), and though I have stated this as my official site for a long time now, there is a reason I am verging to switch focus to HalewoodPhotographic, and that is simply image quality. On the smugmug based HalewoodPhotographic site, the images simply look better then on any other platform you can find on the internet. Now don't get me wrong, I am not a fan of how to create a website using smugmug and it is this difficulty for non-IT literate people that has kept me from focusing on it. But again, the quality of the images speak for themselves, and I am going to try and push through my difficulties with smugmug and make a permanent home out of HalewoodPhotographic. Watch this space anyway, the final decision is still to be made.

That leaves this blog. After thinking about abandoning it, I have decided this will remain my blogging home for now. I won't be posting here everyday like on facebook, but I will post new blogs on here for discussions and new pictures.

The picture below is an HDR picture I took at West Woodhay House in Berkshire (I think) recently. Last weekend it was the West Woodhay House Garden Show, and though I do not know much about the history of the house, I knew it would be a good opportunity to venture down there with my wife and take some pictures of the wonderful landscape there.

Summer by the River

Well it couldn't last really could it? We had a fairly nice spell of weather in England recently (and hey I'm an optimist but I don't think it was quite as nice as everyone makes out, still I don't complain) and sure enough just as we thought we may get a summer this year, it leaves us again. Enough of the cynicism anyway, I'm sure there is plenty of nice weather to come.

It's one of my missions this summer to capture the British countryside in the summer weather, and while that may seem ambitious, I am a sucker for a photograph of a beautiful sunny day. Such as this scene I pictured recently within the grounds of the Newbury Manor Hotel. The river that runs through it is the River Kennet, and a drink to be had alongside this river on a sunny day is not to be missed.

This is a 5 shot HDR picture, crafted in the fairly typical, Lightroom, Photomatox, Photosho process, though like most of my pictures have these days, there is a subtle touch of Topaz Adjust in there as well.

Away From the Rainbow

This may seem like a pretty obvious and easy picture, and being as I walked about 10 steps out the front door, it's not an unfair thing to assume. But rainbows are fleeting things, and knowing this probably would have gone in 2 minutes, I was not going to jump in my car and try to find a more inspiring landscape. I just wanted a picture of that rainbow!

I do need to get out more though. Not been out much taking pictures, not through lack of motivation, just need the time to find a new inspiring location. I want take lots of pictures of the British countryside over the summer time, give them the HDR/arty look, and see how good they are. I have other plans as well, but hopefully you will see some of that soon...

This is an HDR picture taken from 4 different exposures, and layer masked using the original RAW files, hence the car is not ghosted (people often ask me how it is possible to have an HDR picture with moving cars and such, and it's really not that hard). Some more new pictures coming soon.....

How to add an Artistic Frame to your Digital Photos!

You can see from my last blogpost that I have gone in a different direction regarding posting my images online and I'd like to thank everyone here for the comments and responses contributed. Believe me, I do understand and realise that there is no foolproof way of protecting your images, but this is a way of turning the whole thing into a positive. It's about presentation as well, not just about putting my name on it.

So as promised, here are my steps to making a photo frame such as the one used in the photograph above. In fact, this is a step-by-step guide to making that exact photo frame. At this point I will state that of course all colours, fonts, styles, dimensions etc are entirely up to you, but this is how I do it. And as I have no right to call this photo frame my own, feel free to use it! I should also state that as you may know, I am by no means an expert in Photoshop, and am absolutely sure there are quicker ways of doing this. If there is a step you believe I can compact, please let me know!:

Pre-Step: Make sure all your regular photo processing is done. I do not do any further processing after creating the frame around the picture.

Step 1: With your finished photo, select Layer / New Fill Layer / Solid Color. Call the layer what you want and select any colour you want (it's not important here). Also make sure Mode is normal and Opacity 100%. In the Colour Picker box that pops up, take the cursor to the very top left corner until it is bright white and press OK. So now you have a new layer that is completely white.

Step 2: Make sure you swap the layers, so that your new fill layer is at the bottom and your photograph the top layer.

Step 3: Select Image / Canvas Size. Set your width as 4cm and the height as 7cm. Make sure Relative is ticked and then click OK. Your frame appears!

Step 4: Select Edit / Stroke. Set your width as 10px and the colour Grey. Also select Location as Outside, Blending Mode Normal and the Opacity as 100%. Click OK and the inside Grey frame appears.

Step 5: Select Text (the big T in the square box). As you can see, I use a medium/dark grey for the colour of my text. Select the font Trajan Pro at 24pt and write your title in the middle of the frame below the picture. Select Text again and select the font as Savoye LET 24pt. If you fancy 'signing' the frame, write this text below the title.

Your frame is now complete!

Optional Step 6: If you use a white frame like me, you may want to add a thin black border around it, so it stands out on websites that have white backgrounds such as Flickr (and this blog).

Merge your layers together and then select Filter / Nik Software / Color Efex Pro 4 (assuming you have it!). Select the Image borders filter and then use Type 13 / Spread -10% / Size -96%. Make sure Clean slider is fully to the left. Now click OK and this will take you back to Photoshop. Save your image and upload it to your audience online! (Please note, again I state I'm sure there is a way to complete this optional step without going into Nik Software, so am open to tips!)

See you all next time!

Coming Back to What I Know

It's been over a month since I have blogged on this website, and though I knew it had been a while, I didn't realise it had been that long! Quite a lot has happened over the last month, and while I can say there are work and personal reasons that have kept me very busy and are true, I think a lot of the reason I have been kept from blogging on this website, is perhaps a little disillusionment recently with photography.

First of all, I think I have been very confused about where I want to go with it. I had aspirations at the beginning of the year to turn photography into a profitable business, and begin doing wedding photography and other commercial avenues, but I'm not sure I have the heart or desire for it now. The key problem I have with going in that direction is that although it would be doing something for a living I love, it would still be that four letter word 'work'. I love creating artistic images and whilst working in photography would still give me opportunity to do that, I am not sure I could maintain my passion for all things photography, whilst meeting deadlines and processing dozens of commercial shots that perhaps don't inspire me. I don't want to burn my bridges here, it's still something I may go into, but perhaps I am still waiting for a different path to inspire me business wise.

At the same time I have been continuing with my online photography course, and though I do recognise the benefit it has given me as a photographer, I again am feeling a little uninspired by it now. The projects keep coming forward that I am not so interested in, and it has affected my desire to complete it. Now don't get me wrong, I will complete it, I am just saying that it too is starting to feel like work rather than enjoying my photography. I have learnt that perhaps the only photography I will ever love is the type where I am inspired to go out, get the pictures and see if I can turn them into digital work that I am proud of. This is why I think that amongst all my soul-searching, I am going to focus on creating HDR pictures more than ever, because I think this is simply the photography I most enjoy doing.

One of the big reasons I have become disillusioned with photography though, is an event that recently took place that has bothered me way more than it should. Without a doubt my most successful picture I have created is my 'Justice for the 96 picture' below. I was incredibly excited at the time I took this picture, knowing it was a unique event and that I was perhaps 'in the right place, at the right time', and spent a long time crafting it when back on the computer, to get an HDR picture that captured the atmosphere and beauty of the event.

My fellow photography blogger Tim Pursall and a couple of other people on Facebook, alerted me to the fact on April 15th (the anniversary of the Hillsborough tragedy) there seemed to be a version of my work that was doing the rounds on Twitter and Facebook, that was a black and white version of my photograph, that I had not created. This version you can see here below:

My brother quickly found who had created this version and emailed him for a response, but as I understand, has never had a response. I have followed this guy's work and can see that he is a graphic design student that takes other people's photos, puts a graphic over them and then claims them as his own work. I'm not saying I don't like what he did with my picture, but what has got to me, is the idea in my opinion, of doing very little work to it, and then putting his name on the picture as if he created the whole work. It is about lack of credibility that I dislike. I have no intention to profit from this picture, and would have had no problems had he contacted me to use it before creating his version of it. He obviously chose not to do this though, and again then claimed the work as his own. Even a simple 'Photograph by Pete Halewood / Design by such and such' would have been ok with me.

I know it perhaps sounds modest to demand recognition for one's own work, but I would stick up for any photographer whose work is being copied, and not receiving the credit they deserve. The time and inspiration photographers put into their work should be duly recognised, and though this is very often not in terms of a financial amount, they should be recognised as the artist and creator of the work, that is the very least recognition deserved.

What went on to bother me more is the extent to which his version (and which he has bragged about) has been copied onto T-shirts and used as the front cover on a fanzine.

Again, I have no wish to benefit economically from this photograph, but I don't like that none of these items bear any reference to the original work I created, and dare I say it, the fanzine is profiting from it. I know too well that in this internet age, it is impossible to get your work out there and not have people copy it and claim it for their own. I have seen it happen so many times, and it indeed is nothing new even in the midst of history. It is in fact a situation that has been paralleled with the sowing of seeds on a farm, i.e. the birds will get some. But what happens when you go chasing birds? You leave the field. I am surprised to the extent that some well established photographers have chased 'small birds' who may have used their work for some purpose, but at least now I understand the annoyance behind it. I have not gone demanding an answer from this individual myself, I really don't want to spend my energy on it. Yes the lack of credit has bothered me, but I can only think about what should I do about it from now.

I also read an online article recently (Here is the link) that said that the government are planning on bringing legislation in, that means that anybody on the net can use any photograph they find for commercial purposes, if credit for the picture is not made clear with the photograph. The article is called 'Is the UK government trying to kill off photographers?' by Edmond Terakopian. Now I do not know the exact facts or truth behind the story, but I see no reason to disbelieve it. As shown earlier, it is a terrible time for photographers to get recognition for their own work. And saying 'where there is no credit' is the most ridiculous thing I have ever read. I used to naively think that if I filled out all that meta data detail on my photograph, then it would be built into the picture forever, like someone walking round with a microchip inside them. WRONG! It is easy for others to strip a picture of it's meta data, and again only takes a second for somebody to copy a picture, strip you of all credit and leave the picture with no credit, or a credit to themselves. I try not let this stuff bother me, but as the title of the article suggests, it seems that nobody is on our side these days, and could not care whether you benefit from your work or not.

So yes I have become a bit disillusioned recently with the photography scene, but I am now fighting back! I don't mean in an angry way, I would much rather create pictures then fight the world for the recognition of them, but still it is simply a fact I have come to realise that the whole thing about putting pictures on the net with no watermark or frame, is making it ridiculously easy for someone to take credit for your work. I have spoken about putting watermarks and frames on photographs before, but now I have had a change of heart. Whilst I have experimented with watermarks recently, I still cannot bring myself to cover any part of the photograph with a name or logo. I'm not going to argue why, it just doesn't work for me. However, I have decided that all the pictures I create and display on the web now, will come with a frame, and titled signature by myself (see new photograph below!). I know this will not make it fool-proof to stop determined people copying the work, but it would take the more devious type.

I have been guilty in the past of creating new ways to present my pictures, and quickly going back to old habits with no frames or watermarks, but this new presentation is going to stay. Check my Flickr photostream for some of my older pictures I have created with my new white frame! I don't expect it to be popular with everyone, but like changes to Facebook, everyone gets used to them quickly. I must state now (for balance) that I know watermarks and frames are ill-advised by some well established and inspirational photographers such as Trey Ratcliff. He has built his success on the free movement of his pictures around the internet (though of course more importantly great photography!), albeit with a creative commons licence, to counter anyone who uses his pictures for commercial purposes. Though I do not use Creative Commons copyright, I have used the same philosophy with my own work, but it's time to realise that what works for other other people, may not be the best for me. It doesn't help people find your work and get the recognition you deserve, especially if you are not an established photographer. I have to say as well, I do like the new presentation to my pictures, in fact my Wife said she cannot believe I did not present them this way before.

I absolutely welcome any comments or opinions on presentation of photographs online, and indeed about being recognised for your own work. Today's picture is one I took in Chelsea, West London, whilst visiting my brother a few weeks ago. I intend to be back on this blog in a big way now, and apologise to everyone for the absence. Next time: how to create a photo frame such as the one I have employed!

Building a Newbury Sunset

Now I had to check I hadn't posted this photo on this blog before but it turns out I haven't. You may recognise this picture, I have had it on other websites such as Smugmug and Flickr for nearly 2 years now, but looking different. You see I have given this photo the remastered process recently, as I have done a few other pictures.

I have probably discussed on this site more than any other topic, the idea of re-processing a photograph. I have traditionally been against it, but I think (as I stated on The Swan Hotel, Bibury post) that if you have pictures that were taken on a tripod, no matter at what stage of your development as a photographer, you should be able to go back reprocess and improve it. I say 'that were taken on a tripod' because these pictures will normally be the ones that are sharp, with no blur, whether you were a great photographer then or not. And when I took this picture in May 2011 I was not a great photographer, but I did take pictures like this on a tripod, giving me great opportunity years later to revisit it.

I believe I have improved it over my original (sharper, less 'irrelevant' detail, brighter, straighter!) and reprocessing old photos this way will help you realise how far you have come as a photographer. I always liked my title for this picture, and being as the cranes in the photo were only a temporary feature, it means that the photo is unlikely to be able to be taken as it is again. My favourite kind of photo!

The Miami Sunset You Can't See

Film critics have often said that what you can't see in a scene, is often more important than what you can. Hitchcock was a master of this, though it was also used to great effect in the movie Se7en (I even wrote it like it is on the DVD). You know the 'What's in the box?!' bit at the end. I would write spoiler alert there, but if you haven't seen it now, well you really should have, it's nearly 20 years old. Now I know it's completely unartistic to point out features like this in your own work, but then I don't really think of myself as an artist, just a guy trying to capture the scenes of the world that capture my imagination. This will probably backfire on me one day, when I insist I want to be treated seriously as an artist, man. I think I'm way too grounded and down-to-earth for that though.

Miami in February is certainly a more attractive place to be than the British Isles, though I'm not an anti-winter person. It certainly has it's charm and beauty, though the typical day here is 9 times out of 10 a dreary, wet, overcast, cold one. I'm not a great fan of Big Brother (the TV series) but I could not help but LMAO (!) when Jermaine Jackson came to Britain a few years ago on Celebrity Big Brother, thinking it would be a snowy, fairytale-like land in the winter. Oh, when will the world learn!

So anyway, the beauty of being in Miami in January/February is the summer-like sunsets you can get, that are months away in Europe. I was lucky enough to be treated to a boat trip around the Miami Bay area the evening of this picture. As a photographer, this means you won't be getting the crispest, super sharp shots, but you can certainly get pictures that would not be possible from other vantage points. The sun was going down way over my right shoulder and was reflected beautifully in these 2 buildings. It took a while to grow on me I think, but it is perhaps now my favourite shot from my Miami trip. It is a single image, processed nearly entirely in Lightroom, with some minor clean up work done in Photoshop.

f/6.3 / 92mm/ 1/100sec / ISO 400

Palestine

The Middle East, one of the most tense places you could possibly be on Earth. I have said on a previous blog post that Palestine is perhaps not a place I would visit again. In fact, I was mocked at work the other day because I said it is not a country I would voluntarily go to, which was met with unsuppressed laughter of "but you did!". As dumb as it may sound, I really didn't! I had no idea that the tour we took from Sharm El-Sheikh to Jerusalem (The Holy Land tour) meant going to Palestine as well. I knew we were visiting Israel, and mainly Jerusalem, but I honestly did not know that Palestine was that close to it. I must state though, that it was perfectly safe to visit Palestine, and indeed if you want to visit the birth place of Christ (Bethlehem, for all you who have forgotten your Christmas nativity stories), then you have no choice but to visit Palestine, because that's where it is (likewise Nazareth, which is also associated with Jesus, is also in Palestinian territory, though we were told that it isn't safe to visit there at the moment).

I have also mentioned on a previous blog post that the tour we took was far from ideal for taking photographs, simply because we had so little spare time. So today's picture is rather like like a tourist picture I suppose (albeit one that took me ages to process), but is still a record of my travels there. This is looking away from the Church of Nativity and into the local town area of Bethlehem. It is a 3 shot HDR picture taken with a Nikon D90, processed in Lightroom, Photomatix, Photoshop and Topaz Adjust.

New blog name.....Again??!

Yes, you may have noticed that I have yet again changed the name of this blog. Having only just changed it to Home and Away (not influenced by the Aussie TV show), I have now changed it to the non-cryptic UK HDR Photography. Why? Well, because I have decided that the travel photography blog idea has been done to death, and I don't want to appear in the same vein anymore. Therefore, I want this blog mainly to be about what it mainly contains, which is HDR photography, whether from Britain or abroad. Of course, not every photograph will be an HDR, but this would be stated, and otherwise the blog name would just be Photography, which is unlikely to get me up in the Google rankings.

The Swan Hotel, Bibury

Something a bit closer to home now....Amidst the plenty of pictures I still have to post from Miami and Egypt, I wanted to post this picture of rural Gloucestershire, that I have been working on recently. The picture was taken almost 2 years ago, during the summer of 2011. I was staying at this fantastic hotel in the village of Bibury, and had the evening to walk round with camera and tripod (something I did not use a lot back then), taking pictures of the local area.

I know it's been said many times, but using a tripod I think is perhaps the single most simple advice you can give someone for taking better pictures. Having used a tripod on the evening I took this picture, means I can still get great sharp images from them now, and come back to them with post-processing skills I have developed over time. I did create an HDR of this back then (not published on any website) and though I was already well into my HDR journey, looking back it was still probably over-processed (too saturated) and not at all well cropped!

This is a standard 3 shot HDR picture, processed in Lightroom, Photomatix, Photoshop and Nik Color Efex Pro. Most adjustments, dodging and burning and stuff was done in Lightroom, with some spot-healing done in Photoshop. When using Photomatix these days, I would recommend turning down the Luminosity slider (I used to always have this fully to the right by default). A lot of HDR pictures these days are presented as more realistic, rather than the over-cooked HDR look there used to be, and I think that has a lot to do with turning down the luminosity slider.

New post coming over the weekend!

Jerusalem

Jerusalem, perhaps the most famous and legendary city to ever exist. Wars have been fought over Jerusalem for thousands of years and continue to do so. It has been completely destroyed and rebuilt twice during it's long history, and of course is a key pilgrimage sight for followers of Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

With my Wife and I's holiday to Egypt recently, came the opportunity for an excursion to The Holy Land, with the main focus being Jerusalem. We sacrificed a trip to Cairo in favour of Jerusalem, which given the instability of the Middle-East region, was perhaps a sensible thing to do. Jerusalem is not always a safe and recommended place to visit. Despite the recent Revolution in Egypt, the Cairo tourist spots such as the Great Pyramid and Sphinx are unaffected by these troubles. Although we were delighted to visit Jerusalem, we were not big fans of the tour we went on. We were prepared for the hard work, as we were picked up in Sharm El-Sheikh at 9pm and returned midnight the next day (meaning a bus trip through the night), but we were disappointed that there were hardly any opportunities for free time to explore the old city of Jerusalem.

Of course, excursions and tourist tours are not the ideal way to get great photographs, but our experience from previous tours in Greece was very good. They gave us various explanations at places we stopped, but at the same time gave us plenty of time to explore and take pictures. Now we did pack quite a lot into our day in the Middle-East (Jerusalem, Palestine, the Dead Sea) but it was still a bit annoying that any photos taken were pretty much standard ones everyone else could get. This should not take away from the fact though that visiting Jerusalem was a very special and fascinating experience, that if times are good, I thoroughly recommend.

The picture you see of Jerusalem here is taken from the Mount of Olives perspective, which gives a wonderful view over the old city of Jerusalem. I do not want to call this an HDR, if I could invent a term for it, I would call it a semi-HDR. This is because my original picture is a standard single RAW image, but I created an HDR out of this single RAW file, to bring out more colour and detail. The final picture is the original image, with the HDR elements masked into the main architectural and old city parts. The picture was completed by eliminating the many cranes and other distracting features in the background.

Quick note: This is my first picture from the continent of Asia. Having visited as well Egypt (in Africa) and Miami (in North America), I now have pictures posted in 2013 from 4 different continents (including Europe of course)! Despite my fairly low output so far (this is going to change rapidly), I'm very chuffed with that fact!