HDR Photography
Evening is finally rolling around, low tide has rendered the waves gentle, and the beach is pockmarked by the day’s footprints. If you let yourself get lost in the sky and the mild surf, the sights of people disappear and the mind wanders into the sea.
Saturday isn’t a normal posting day, but I was so excited by this shot that I thought I’d bring you guys a bonus. I’m currently in Florianopolis, Brazil, home of (they claim) the best surfing in the world. The waves weren’t quite that impressive yesterday, but they were pretty close. The blue green-ocean, black rocks, and golden barnacles make for the perfect “Royal Surf.”
Walking through the forest with family on Christmas day always has a special crispness to it. The roads are deserted, the days are short, the trees are bare. If the weather is chilly, the whole experienced is sharpened with red noses and warm drinks afterwards. That was the experience on the day I took this photograph.
Today’s photograph was taken by Piper Klemm (who has previously been on the other side of the camera), and really conveys the way quads and paths carved into the trees of Berkeley’s campus. The flow of students between classes gives the image the “campus” feel.
It’s sort of hard for me to believe upon revisiting this shot that it was taken on a college campus, or that beyond this stand of trees is a relatively well traveled street. This is just one of many things that struck me as awesome about UBC’s campus.
Berkeley’s college radio station, KALX, recently had me in the studio for an interview about one of my other projects, the Berkeley Science Review. While I was there, I snapped a few shots of their mammoth 100,000 record collection. The size of it really was staggering; it’s sort of amusing to remember that it could all fit on a couple of cheap hard drives. What would be missing, of course, would be the gorgeous, enormous album art and the feeling of vinyl in your hands.
This little canyon ends at the beach, and its miniature stream flows back and forth with the tides. On this particular evening, it was starting to rain as the sun set through the clouds. The beach was abandoned, and whole scene felt post-apocalyptic.
To finish off my week of playing car photographer, I present a shot of a very pretty Ferrari 328 GTS which is often seen parked around campus. Here I was really playing with the depth of field, and I may have gone a little overboard. Still, I like the effect, it makes the car look fast, even when its parked.
This shot was just taken to test out a new lens and to play with the depth of field, but I like it so much I’m posting it here. There’s something about that lime green that is just asking to be photographed. This is a car that would stand out pretty much no matter where it was parked.
An enormous, moss-covered stone mediates the meeting between pathway and stream, deep within the Nitobe Memorial Gardens at the University of British Columbia. Though the calm pond and the massive entrance have given a broader idea of the Gardens’ feel, I really like the calmer, more compact corners. These little areas seem like the perfect place for a kami to live.
Today’s photograph comes from the lobby of the newly opened Energy Biosciences Building, where I was lucky enough to get a late-night tour. Here, scientists and students focus on the problem of developing next-generation energy solutions, including biofuels and solar power. Though it will soon be bustling with life, the building is presently occupied by empty offices and cubicle skeletons. The modern surfaces, all wood and glass and brushed steel and matte concrete, really convey the mission.
Another shot of the previously captured Nitobe Memorial Garden (here, here, and here), you can see the previously featured 77 Log Bridge but here you can see more of the island that is at the center of the pond central to the entire garden. The water is almost improbably still here, considering its proximity to a large university campus. The contrast of light and dark (and hot and cool, though this is harder to convey in a picture) was what I found appealing about this vantage to begin with, and the trees offered a nice frame for the sun drenched water.
Tower cranes are, without question, the coolest pieces of modern construction equipment. In order to reach these heights, the cranes actually lift and build themselves! This particular crane is working on building the replacement to Campbell Hall (which we’ve previously photographed being demolished.) On this particular morning, the clouds aligned in just the right way with the arc of the crane and produced this composition.
Everything about BC is gorgeous in early August, including the swanky condos near UBC’s campus. Walking through this development I wondered how far I’d strayed from campus, but this is basically directly adjacent.
Today’s photo, taken just as the rain started to pick up in the Marin Headlands, is one of my favorites. The alignment of this little bridge to the Golden Gate itself, the harbor, the construction equipment, with Angel Island and the rest of the North Bay off in the distance: it all provides a sense of scale and perspective. The way the warm sodium lamps contrast with the colors of the evening bring your eye to the bridge and its gorgeous structural steel. Rigid geometries contrast with the fuzzy plants of the hillside. This is a picture I want to crawl inside.
Decaseconds 