Experimenting with HDR

Posted by Dan Mitchell on January 2, 2011

HDR, or High dynamic range imaging, has been around for a while, but has gained popularity with the advent of digital photography. High-dynamic-range photographs are generally achieved by capturing multiple standard photographs, often using exposure bracketing, and then merging them into an HDR image. For these images, I used 3 and 4 standard photos respectively, and combined them into the two finished images you see here.

I was going for a more natural look, but HDR is often used for a more artistic effect.

I was used a trial of Photomatix from HDRsoft: http://www.hdrsoft.com/ .

What do you think?

Snow On Four Peaks

Posted by Dan Mitchell on January 1, 2011

From Wikipedia:

Four Peaks (Yavapai: Wikopa[1]), at 7657 feet (2335 m) in altitude, is a prominent landmark on the eastern skyline of Phoenix, part of the Mazatzal Mountains. It is located in the Tonto National Forest 40 miles (64 km) east-northeast of Phoenix, in the 60,740-acre (245.8 km2) Four Peaks Wilderness. On rare occasions, Four Peaks offers much of the Phoenix metro area a view of snow covered peaks, and is the highest point in Maricopa County.

The name Four Peaks is a reference to the four distinct peaks of a north-south ridge forming the mountain’s summit. The northernmost peak is named Brown’s Peak and is the tallest of the four at 7,657 feet (2,334 m).[2] The remaining summits are unnamed, and from north to south are 7,642 feet (2,329 m), 7,575 feet (2,309 m) and 7,524 feet (2,293 m) in altitude.