Day 71: Uptown, Downtown and Some Things In Between

Boy oh boy are you all in for a treat. I have six, count 'em SIX photos to share with you today! Well, two of them are different versions of the same shot, but it's still six photos. I felt bad that I haven't been shooting as much lately, so I took a stroll around town after work today.

The first photos, though, were taken from the roof of the Book Nook today during the parade. They are HDR composites, but the parade was really lame so there wasn't much to photograph.

Photo composited in Aperture using Photomatix HDR Plug-In.
Click image for larger version.

Photo composited in Aperture using Photomatix HDR Plug-In.
Click image for larger version.

I don't know why, but I like the sepia one. It's anachronistic. It looks like it should be an old photo, but it's full of very modern objects. They are the same HDR composite; I just made the second one into a sepia tone after it was composited.

The next one is of the same intersection, but from down on the corner after work. Also, it's pointed back towards where I was standing on the roof of the above shots.

Photo composited in Aperture using Photomatix HDR Plug-In.
Click image for larger version.

The clouds that started rolling in the late afternoon were amazing. Lots and lots of texture. I like how this photo came out too. The HDR really makes certain photos look much better. The clouds have a depth that wouldn't have been there otherwise.

The next two photos are of a church/steeple on 7th St. in Indiana. Same basic thing though; I really love the way the clouds looked this afternoon/early evening.

Photo composited in Aperture using Photomatix HDR Plug-In.
Click image for larger version.

Photo composited in Aperture using Photomatix HDR Plug-In.
Click image for larger version.

This last photo is not an HDR composite. As I was walking back to my car, I noticed a few birds up on a telephone wire. I got underneath and pointed up and took this shot.

1/40 sec. exposure at F/8. ISO 100.
Click image for larger version.

The clouds don't look as cool because it's not composited, but I like the small patch of blue near the birds. I also like that they were close enough to the transformers so that both the birds and the transformers could be in the shot. I brightened this up a bit in Aperture and I cropped it down some.

It's supposed to be a bit warmer, but mostly cloudy tomorrow so I don't know what I'll be getting myself into. I think I'm going to go back to some random shooting for the next week or so, mostly just to break up the monotony of shooting the same stuff over and over, but also to get back to shooting things that don't need to be tweaked in Aperture. I want to get some shots that turn out good just from the camera, to get better at actually shooting good photos, instead of making them look good with my computer. Stay tuned, listeners. I mean readers. Whatever.