{HDR}

    Recently, I posted about HDR photography. Well, since then, I've purchased a software program that's designed to process your HDR images. It's called Photomatix, and I LOVE it!!! It's not terribly expensive, and if you use the Stuck In Customs' coupon code, the price drops. Here are some of the pictures I've processed with the program.

Random Things

    Hello everyone!! Sorry I haven't posted any pictures in a while! I've been very caught up in Christmas! While I don't have any pretty, snowy Christmas pictures to post (it was a not-so-white Christmas), I do have a photo that shows a technique I've been working on!

    I took this and turned it into an HDR photo. Basically, HDR is just taking multiple exposures of the same image, and them combining them all together to get a well exposed final image. Of course, there's a lot more detail to that, and if you want to find out more about it, here's a great article on it. I definitely want to experiment more with this technique!

   One last thing. I've been wanting to have another photo contest, but I'm not sure of a theme. Any suggestions? I'd love to hear from my readers!

{Improvements}

    Hello everyone! Sorry for the recent lack of posts! I promise to try and start posting more frequently! To make up for it, I may even do a photo contest! :)

     Anyway, I wanted to share an accomplishment with you all!! This is a picture I took last week, and I love the way it turned out. Now, the picture in itself is not the accomplishment, but the way I took it. But first, I’ll explain what it’s a picture of.

    It’s a large blast furnace. They used to be very popular for melting down steel and coal, but now they’re more or less historical sights. This one didn’t have bars across the opening, and I was able to lay down inside and shoot a picture up, toward the top opening.

    All in all, I think the photo turned out very nice. Somewhat abstract, but nice. This brings me to the point of this post: how far I’ve come as a photographer in these last six months.

    A few months ago, I wouldn’t have been able to take this photo. It was somewhat dark in the furnace, as you would imagine, and if I’d had my camera set on Auto, my photo would have ended up blurry and exposed for the light, not the brick. However, I’ve been stretching myself and trying new settings, and now I take all of my photos in Manual. Because of this, I was able to bump up my ISO to compensate for the dim lighting, and adjust the exposure myself to make the photo come out the way I wanted it.

    I said all that to say this: don’t be content with the photos the way they are. Six months ago, I thought my pictures were good. I’d take them, and then edit them to pieces in Photoshop Elements to get the exposure and color right. Now, I hardly have to edit my photos at all; sometimes I have to adjust the white balance or enhance the colors a bit, but I don’t have to do near the editing I once did and I think it shows in my pictures.

   Thanks for all of the wonderful support that you’ve given through your comments! I enjoy posting my pictures. Any critiquing or suggestions are loved just as much, too! And, like I said at the beginning, I may have a photo contest soon! Thanks for reading!

Camera+ Photos

I hardly ever buy by apps, but when I saw Camera+ I caved and got it. Although not incredibly expensive, it has some really awesome features and edits!! Here are a couple photos that I edited with it!!

Vacation {Southern Style}

   Hello everyone!
   My week is really busy, but I wanted to find time to post about my family's vacation last week; So, I found some time and here I am!
   My family and I normally take a week long vacation once a year, and it's normally in the fall. This year, we decided to go to Charleston, South Carolina! It was so wonderful, and we even took a few days to go down to Savannah. I took a lot of pictures, and I have plenty to share with y'all! (Too corny?)
   Anyway, here are pictures from the wallking tour that we did of historic Charleston. It took us two days to do this tour, and we still didn't even do a quarter of all of the stops that were listed.

  As part of the walking tour, we went down the boardwalk; the sky was SO beautiful, and it was a perfect day!

   After Charleston, we headed down to Savannah, and, while it wasn't quite as fun as the afore mentioned city, we did enjoy the Spanish moss and Tybee Island.

   Tybee was really fun!!!

   This is the view from the top of a lighthouse on Tybee. It was so gorgeous up there, and there was even a wedding on the beach! The view takes your breath away and the picture doesn't do it justice!

   And, to finish it off, a completely random picture, but one of my favorites!!

After A Long Break...

   ...I'm back!!
   I didn't take an intentional break, but it just sort of happened. However, now that the craziness of the first few weeks of school is gone, I've had time to take quite a few pictures to share with you all!!

   And my favorite...

   I have another round to share with you soon!!