HDR Photography
Dublin in late autumn has a damp energy that I found unquestionably intriguing; the optical artifacts from shooting into the setting sun do a fair job of approximating the feeling that every bit of asphalt and brick have some eerie effect taking place beneath them.
And a bonus Piper shot from just about the same moment as we explored the city.
Brown concrete, orange late-afternoon light on late-summer clouds, and a general mid-(twentieth-)century vibe.
A couple of months ago, I published what I anticipate will be my final pictures of St. Lawrence University, and with this post, I believe I’m releasing my final pictures from St. Lawrence County more generally. They’re an interesting pair, because I feel they capture the dichotomy of the area.
The first image is a high, dramatic drone shot into the Adirondacks, taken near Colton. Nature! Topology! Wilderness! (Clicking through to Flickr, you can see this shot was even featured in their Explore page.) This was perhaps what I was expecting when I moved to the North Country. This was the last such picture I captured on a rare quiet weekend while preparing to move out.
The second picture is one I took on the last day of classes at St. Lawrence. A charming view of our small town, I suppose, but also a vast, flat landscape with a few too many parking lots and strip shopping centers to quite constitute rural life. This was perhaps a better depiction of everyday life in the North Country, and a strong contrast with the drone views that I get now.
Last weekend brought me to the #GRIDLIFE Circuit Legends event at Lime Rock Park. I finally finished processing pictures from the event. Today’s post features some of my favorites from the event, but there’s definitely more to come.
Let’s start with this BMW M3. This was my first time trying longer exposures with moving cars to get serious motion blur. I’m honestly thrilled with how it came out and can’t wait to try more.
#GRIDLIFE was also remarkable for the access available to the pits. Enthusiasts were just roaming around as mechanics got to work on their cars.
That provided opportunities for even kids to get to see the cars up close.
The bucolic nature of Lime Rock added some chill vibes to what would otherwise be a pretty high-adrenaline setting.
Nocones Garage built this race car from a Subaru 360.
The red Honda S2000 in the background wasn’t even part of the team with the two red Subaru BRZs, but they were all kind enough to keep their cars in a line.
I like the array of tools and materials in front of this BMW M4.
While the Acura RSX’s team worked aggressively on their car, the BMW M2 team in the next stall looked on.
I spotted this Toyota Supra by the gates coming into the show.
The owners of that BMW M2 earlier got their beast out onto the track.
Shots like this, with huge amounts of motion blur, are the kinds of dramatic moments that really got me excited to go through with the wasted shots necessary to capture the perfect ones.
This show wasn’t just a chance for me to expand my shooting abilities; I also practiced some new photo-processing techniques. I don’t normally do a ton of color grading, but shots like this one really feel richer with some amped up forest green.
Speaking of forests, this trio was stopped by the gate, too.
From a forest of trees to a forest of people surrounding an FD Mazda RX-7 making its way back to the pits.
I had a chance to look into some pretty nuts engine bays.
A Honda S2000 looks the part out on the track.
Beneath the Boss S14 body kit, this drift monster is still a Nissan 240SX.
As is this less-disguised example. Just look at those sparks!
Watching four cars drift in parallel was really something…
But this shot of bonkers tire smoke from an 86 really got me attention.
A cliff face may not seem the optimal spot for a tree, but there will always be specimens that go against the grain. (I couldn’t help myself.) The lights of the granary barbecue across the lake almost makes me think that this particular tree is pining (again, I’m sorry) to pick up its roots and go join the party.
“Coachella Valley was just battered by Hurricane Hilary.” — What an odd sentence to write. Today, we’re looking back to times when the idea of this dry lake bed being hit by a hurricane sounded like science fiction.
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Every town between the high peaks of the Adirondacks and the low point of the St. Lawrence River seems to have its own modest hydroelectric dam to capture their slice of the accrued aqueous kinetic energy.
A big dramatic sunset sky and lake reflections provide great context to the wall of stone that is both Mohonk Mountain House itself, as well as the cliffs on which it rests.
Holiday gatherings with palms in place of pines are out of the ordinary to this northeasterner, but the strangest modification remains the outdoor dining.
Though there’s chaos in the turbulent flows of rapids through Stone Valley, I like the rhythm in the repeated lengthscale between crests. The long exposure smooths out the water, but the trees remain sharp and spiky.
Movies are filled with imagery of high castle walls holding off hordes of attackers. I suppose this picture of Colton, New York’s dam is a bit of the opposite: the chaos is caused by the wall, rather than the wall being constructed to protect from the chaos.
Though a photographer might briefly visit many locations, actually staying in a location means being present at the moment when the light is just right. In this case, sunrise pouring into Coachella Valley lights up the mountainsides and the rooftops, but not yet the valley floor itself.
Being there to capture the sunrise picture is great, of course, but being on location in this case also meant being able to follow it up with a sunrise dip in the hot tub.
Thanks to the local students working summer jobs who make relaxing afternoons possible.
The dry seabed that is Coachella Valley provides a very flat surface for construction; as a result, modern constructions mostly fall on whatever pattern/array is convenient to the developers. In a few places, however, interruptions in those arrays stand out in an aerial view.
The palms on this golf course, for example, are on a clear grid, with the fairways and greens cut into it. Was this a palm plantation before the course was build?
Here, the green lawn of a larger home stands out, covering multiple grid positions, while neighboring homes cluster into smaller, more regularly arrayed lots.
Though this subdivision isn’t itself on a grid, the clubhouse nonetheless interrupts the pattern.
Like a less-pointillist “Un dimanche après-midi à l’Île de la Grande Jatte“, a flat body of water covered in boaters on a sunny afternoon conveys placid vibes.
Decaseconds 