HDR Photography
After a (relatively) warm weekend, the North Country is set to be entombed once again in winter. Though we’ve been promised by the false weather prophets that this cold spell won’t match the ferocity of January’s efforts, I can’t help but think back to mornings of almost unreal atmospheric thermal energy. On the edge of St. Lawrence’s campus, the sky was clear and the sun rose and cars puttered to work as though everything was normal.
For all of the anecdotal (and statistical) dangers on the road in South Africa, people spend a lot of time there. (Really, you could say the same of the chief transportation modes in any part of the world.) Whether it’s walking, hitchhiking (lots of hitchhiking), or hanging out in the back of an invincible Toyota, people get to where they have to be.
The ceiling of the gorgeous Hearst Memorial Mining Building demonstrates the drama of designing your building to mimic the dashboard of a steampunk tank. (Oh, was that not their intention?) Though I’ve posted photographs from inside Hearst Memorial Mining Building before (the past site of my co-author’s office), I don’t know that I’ve done justice to its ceiling before. That such rigid, “linear” materials as steel and brick and glass can be formed into such elegant, smooth surfaces continues to astonish me.
Johnson Hall of Science is an unusually green building—particularly for one filled with hoods and hazardous chemicals. It also happens to have a truly surreal geometry that messes with your head a bit, if you let it. The ceilings have been sloped to better reflect daylight, reducing the need for electric lighting. The result is this Alice-in-Wonderland-esque lab space.
Today’s photograph comes courtesy of Dr. Piper Klemm.
Alexander Bontemps shows Katie Riddle in the $50,000 Go Rentals Grand Prix at the Horse Shows in the Sun (HITS) Thermal Desert circuit near Indio, California. Katie Riddle is a 14 year old, 16.1 h gray mare who has competed at the international level for the United States in numerous competitions, including being a member of a winning Nations Cup team in Buenos Aires in 2010.
The North Country is still entrenched in winter. Maybe it always will be, for all I can tell. The roads are the salt-bleached bones of the once-living community; all we have left now is snow and storms and road-bones.
I’m fascinated by the effect that depth of field can have on our perception of a scene.
Today’s guest post comes courtesy of Zack Mensinger.
There are a number of places that I’ve seen lots of amazing pictures from and are on my “to-see and photograph” list. Antelope Canyon was very high on that list. I can gladly say it did not disappoint in the least. The canyons (Upper and Lower Antelope) are amazing from start to finish. Around each turn is another amazing scene with delicate light and forms. If you’re going with photography in mind, you should definitely visit both, but if you can only do one, I suggest Lower Antelope. As long as you have a DSLR and a big enough tripod, you can get a photographer’s pass that gives you two hours on your own. I mention a “big enough” tripod because they almost didn’t let me get the pass with my Sony travel model that stands at 39 inches! I can’t recommend Antelope Canyon enough, it’s out of this world.
Another in my very long line of photographs of small structures on beaches: this lone stick, keeping watch over a pool by the edge of the Indian Ocean. A massive storm the night before had filled the ocean with silt and covered the shore with enormous puddles—earth and sea had been mixed in a way that neither particularly seemed to appreciate (not to overly anthropomorphize or anything).
Fauntleroy’s Lincoln park always brings back memories for me of the giants games of capture of flags I used to play in the park.
As you might expect for a charming town on the Indian Ocean, St. Lucia is heavily carpeted with folks ready to sell anything and everything (to tourists, of course.) The waves were crashing just beyond this dune—I could already smell and hear them—but on this little rise, under the shade of the coniferous trees, beach towels and toys were for sale. The brightly colored array, flapping in the breeze in a strangely orderly way, brought to my mind nothing more than some strange local variation on a Shinto shrine.
I was able to grab this shot while traveling from a conference near Innsbruck. That part of the world really is something to see, it is exactly as picturesque as you might imagine.
In the seaside town of St. Lucia, by the shores of the Indian Ocean, markets were filled with souvenirs for tourists from around the globe. The carving and painting and construction that went into this array was astonishing—I can’t imagine how many total person-hours are on display here.
This zebra mare isn’t part of a stallion’s harem yet (she’s young), so she hangs out, grazing and scratching herself on cars, by the tents of Zulu Nyala. Though by no means domesticated, she was remarkably docile (and uninterested in the behavior of the humans going about their daily lives around her.)
UC Berkeley’s botanical garden is one of the best places to go in Berkeley on an sunny day.
