It’s late winter here, what to me is the hardest time of year. I had an unexpected day off in the form of a snow day this past week. I was up early as usual, but didn’t have to stick with my usual schedule. I took advantage of this change by taking photos of the storm that was blowing outside:
ISO 800 50mm f/7.1 1/100
This week’s photo challenge is to choose a photo that reflects your state of mind, and I chose this one. It’s pretty dark here, but what drew me to create this image was the light, the almost ethereal glow of early morning in a snowstorm. This photo is actually an HDR image, One of the original exposures is just below. I used HDR to bring out the definition of the house and the trees. I also think it helped the photo glow a bit more. That to me, is the strength of HDR, you really can bring out a lot by using even just three exposures and combining them into one image.
ISO 800 50mm f/7.1 1/100
It’s not all doom and gloom here, it’s just the start of Spring, so this day was followed by a very warm and sunny day, but for me, this was the image that reflected the mood of the week.
How are things where you are, is the weather turbulent there as well? What do you think of my edit? are you a fan of HDR, or not so much? Feel free to leave a comment below.
Cheers!
Photography Journal Blog 
oh wow it really came down good for you huh? we barely got any in the city 🙂
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Yes, probably 6″, it was gone pretty quick though because it ended up being a pretty warm day.
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How I would love to have some already 🙂
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You did a wonderful job with the photo, we do need to work on your state of mind.
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Thanks, and I agree!
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Brilliant gloomy brooding picture, made by the low indirect lighting.
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Thank you, that light was really something else.
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Well done! I haven’t tried HDR yet…
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I think there is a lot that you shoot that would lend itself to it.
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Amy, we had a 41C (105.8F) on Thursday, which was close to a record for late summer, We are entering autumn with a string of 30+C (86+F) days forecast this week. The climate warming deniers may have cause to rethink! I use HDR on the iPhone as the norm, and continue to be surprised with some of the photos I snap. Of course, your work continually raises the bar 😉
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I think the weather pretty much everywhere should give us pause to think.
So, is that setting on your phone, something that you set up and it does it automatically, or do you take the photo and then apply it like a filter?
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It is a setting on the phone, the choice being HDR – auto, on or off. On auto, the phone decides whether to use or not. Flash is off if HDR is on. There is another choice in “Settings” to keep normal as well as HDR version (or not which is the default). I haven’t played with this but maybe now I will 😉
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I find it interesting that saving both isn’t the default. Interesting what we discover just by looking at “settings”
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Yep, learn something every day 😉
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Lovely sepia toned photo. Looks like the middle of winter there for you. It is the end of summer here in Australia but it’s still warm 🙂
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Agreed, it did look like the dead of winter, and the next day it looked much more like Spring. That is this turbulent time of year for you!
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I like what you’ve done with the HDR. I don’t use it much, but I think that’s because I don’t really understand it 🙂 I should practice with it more.
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Yes, I really enjoy playing around with it. Like most Photoshop things, it can be tweaked a lot of different ways, or you can just pick a simple setting and leave it at that.
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That’s true. I think I just need to experiment more with it.
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With photo editing there always seems to be something else you can experiment with 🙂
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That’s very true!
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Pingback: WPC: State of Mind (The Eye) | Chris Breebaart Photography / What's (in) the picture?
Oh wow, what a beautiful winter wonderland ! I’d love to have some snow here !
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It certainly was pretty, particularly in the early morning light.
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I can’t believe you still have snow ! Here spring is definitively here, we can see crocuses and daffodils a bit everywhere. It is cold, but we it doesn’t rain most of the days so it’s quite lovely to be able to see a bit of blue sky after such a wet winter.
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Oh, my daffodils are coming up too, some mornings I feel like yelling “retreat!” at them though.
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I’m really glad I found out your blog! Great job 😀
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Thanks for your kind comment and visit.
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Pingback: Weekly Photo Challenge: State of Mind – mvm2907
Excellent photos. I love lights and twilight.
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Thank you very much.
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Amazing photograph..I am seriously inspired to click nature. Though we don’t have snow here, I would try my hands on lovely spring season.
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Spring does certainly provide a lot of photos!
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I rarely see snow and often think it looks pretty in pictures. Your dark scene reminds me of just how morose winter can be with dark skies, short days and gloom surrounding your home. Makes me glad to be in a sunny country – even if it means complaining about the heat 😉
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I often joke with my friends that I will complain about the weather regardless of the season 🙂
The reality is though, that all of the seasons are beautiful in their own way.
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Your photos are gorgeous, very creative. I don’t know what HDR stand for, or what bracketing is.
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Exposure bracketing: Is taking three or more of the same photo but at different exposures. You can do that for a bunch of different reasons, but one would be to create an HDR image. Here is a link explaining bracketing further:http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/2013/11/13/exposure-bracketing-how-to-do-it-manually-and-how-your-aeb-button-can-help/
HDR: Or High Dynamic Range refers to a photo that shows a lot of detail because it is typically at least three exposures that have been combined into one. Here is a link to how that works: http://www.stuckincustoms.com/hdr-photography/
Thanks for your comment 🙂
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Thanks for the tips! I will check out the info and see what I can do with my little Sony, which is pretty basic…takes nice shots, but no fancy tricks.
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