HDR Photography
This is the imposing Latimer Hall in UC Berkeley’s College of Chemistry. On this stormy afternoon, the sky and the bare tree and the building itself all took on this similar cast, but with such radically different textures and shapes. If you look carefully, the cracks and stains under each balcony level begin to resemble the geometry of the tree.
Today’s image is a shot up a telephone pole on a quiet night. I love the way the lens flare massively amplifies the oranges of the sodium-based streetlight in contrast with the blue-purple hues of the sky. This smeared palette looks particularly interesting against the pattern of cables and wires.
Back in January, when I was visiting San Diego, CA, I had a chance to drive to the top of Mt. Soledad (near La Jolla) to see the sunset. Ultimately, the day was too hazy to get really good sunset pictures, but I was able to shoot these surreal radio towers at the top of the mountain. I really like the way they stand in contrast to the bushy trees around them. Having played a lot of the fantastic Mass Effect 3 lately, seeing this photo put me in mind of some sort of sinister signal broadcast center.
A few days ago, I posted a photograph of an enigmatic pillar in the desert; perhaps today’s image can provide a bit more context to it. Off in the distance, you can see dozens of horse trailers associated with the HITS Thermal show, but other than that the environment is completely desolate. Out in the blistering sun, it was pretty intimidating.
When the weather turns cold and blustery and rainy, a warm place (e.g. library, cafe, bed) feels like a fortress. On this particular day in the Marin Headlands overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge, it was definitely cold, blustery, and rainy, but without a warm place to retreat to while shooting, I made do with a literal fortress, instead.
Brendan and I have both posted before on how fantastic night shots look in HDR. Today’s photograph comes from Grizzly Peak, looking down over Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and the South Campus area of Berkeley; the contrast between these two areas couldn’t be more stark. LBNL is flush with trees and tiny pockets of light along gently curving roads, while Berkeley itself is a foreign grid by comparison.
I spent last weekend in surreal Palm Desert, California at a particular horse show, but had some time to sneak away from the action and wander the desert. I found this enormous, concrete pylon surrounded by desiccated shrubs and was almost intimidated by the whole sight. I kept waiting for the apes to start fighting around it.
This is one of the earliest HDR images I ever took, and though I was still getting a few of the details worked out, I really loved the way that the reflection of the sun from the building’s windows was captured at sunset. The clouds and the soft forms of the hills make a nice contrast with the buildings of UC Berkeley.
This old pump links to an old well, and when I was a child, my favorite part of coming to this forrest was getting a chance to work the huge handle and get our just a little bit to drink. This pump is a water fountain you have to seriously commit to. In the time I’ve known about it, this pump has been repeatedly repainted; most recently, it was a chipped and dull red. When I returned to it as an adult, it was new, bright blue.
The Marin Headlands overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge are more than just a viewpoint to take great pictures of the Bridge. They’re also honeycombed with bunkers and gun batteries that once defended the West Coast. Long abandoned, these solid and imposing structures are now decorated with enormous amounts of graffiti. This small bunker is just the beginning of the incredible art at these batteries.
Today’s photograph comes from the same forrest preserve where I photographed the creek and frozen pond. The setting sun was eclipsed by the trees to my back such that only the branches far away from me picked up that lovely, golden hue. I really liked the way that contrasted with the dull trees and textured grass closer to me.
Walking residential streets at dusk transforms the most mundane environment into a magical place. The incandescent lighting tumbles from the houses along with the smells of dinner. I found this particular house, with its gorgeous jungle of a front yard and perfect proportions, to be the most welcoming.
Some buildings really have a face of their own. This image is from the northern part of Berkeley; I love how obviously the street is slanted. Still, the lobby looks quite warm and inviting (particularly on the night I took this image; the drizzle was a bit unpleasant.)
I’ve previously posted a handful of images from UC Berkeley’s student machine shop. (I even did a recent post for the Berkeley Science Review, where I talk a bit more about why I love this place.)
Today’s photograph is of the wall of that shop with its endless array of bits and blades for the plethora of machines that require them. Clicking through to view the full-sized image is particularly rewarding; each of those little strips of color is a label, put in place decades ago, describing the bit type and size, along with taped-up charts of conversion factors and tiny tutorials on how to use it all. Even a single drill bit is patterned with a mosaic of dents, dings, and damages that tell a story of the countless times it has been used; to see so many together, in one place, tells a story of generations of scientists working their damnedest to convince their experimental apparatuses to cooperate. More than plaques on a wall or papers in a file somewhere, this is the real testament to scientific achievement.
Continuing the Marin Headlands bombardment, today’s photograph shows the northern approach to the Golden Gate Bridge with Angel Island in the background. This was also my first attempt at post-processing to simulate the use of a tilt-shift lens, which produces the illusion of a miniature reality. I think it works quite nicely here to give the bridge a feeling of being part of a model railroad set.
Decaseconds 