June 30, 2007 HDR Thriller (now in the back)

Reach for the skies, originally uploaded by H!ghTower. Click on pic, see it in Flickr.

Perhaps nothing illustrates the photographic meaning of the word "capture" more intensely than a sunrise/sunset. They are so dynamic, and then they are gone. My friend the connoisseur of sunrises over at SPOD will really appreciate these fiery crespuscular rays. GOTTA SEE IT IN LARGE ON BLACK. While HDR processing rarely adds much to the fire portion of a good sunrise or sunset, it can bring out detail in the dark foreground, as it does here. Bravo on this shot.

June 29, 2007 HDR Thriller (spiral)

Initiation Well, originally uploaded by antonioVi. Click on pic, see it in Flickr.

My sister has been in a downward medical spiral since May 9, and I can't do anything about it. That's not true because I can pray about it, but I want to do more. She needs pain medication to take the edge off, but she needs so much that it's causing other serious complications. God, please help her.

This blog (and yours) have been a bright bit of mental recharge during a very difficult time. But it's getting to the point where it's physicaly all I can do to post these...they may become intermittant...and please know that I appreciate your visits here regardless of my hiatus from yours.

As for this pic, it is essentially a large well with staircase access (here it is in large). It's located at an interesting castle in Portugal (Quinta da Regaleira)...it may have been used in masonic initiations. Click on the pic and there's more info about it on the Flickr page.

June 29, 2007 HDR Thriller (broken)

ROMPIENDO LAS OLAS, originally uploaded by Antonio Bellón. Click on pic, see it in Flickr.

I am stunned by this one...such movement in the shot. More on it later. Gotta go! But here it is IN LARGE ON BLACK.

June 28, 2007 HDR Thriller (illuminate)

Seeking Distant Plateaus, originally uploaded by James Neeley. Click on pic, see it in Flickr.

It's that "low evening light"...it does wonderful things sometimes. The layers and the complimentary colors are really just so soothing here...something I need today. STUNNING IN LARGE ON BLACK.

June 26, 2007 HDR Thriller (element)

Seen or sensed, originally uploaded by LynchburgVirginia. Click on pic, see it in Flickr.

Staring deep into this one. Amazing how far back it goes in such dark conditions. Another LynchburgVirginia special...really special. ENJOY IT IN LARGE ON BLACK.

June 25, 2007 HDR Thriller (laundry!)

Skinny dipping. Originally uploaded by _uncommon. Click on pic, see it in Flickr.

Great shot and composition here. Any photographer has to appreciate the way HDR brings out the detail of the side of the house, even though its in shadow. That's neat alright, but then look at the detail inside on the ceiling...that's amazing. To really see this you GOTTA SEE IT IN LARGE. I can hear the water lapping now, but this was not what I expected for this search word...was expecting something more like THIS (which I like too).

June 24, 2007 HDR Thriller (looking up)

looking out, in HDR, originally uploaded by fervus. Click on pic see it in Flickr.

It took me a while, but I eventually figured this one out. Very neatly done. MUCH BETTER IN LARGE ON BLACK. There are some real lessons in this shot.

June 23, 2007 HDR Thriller (structure)

Glass Vortex, originally uploaded by DanielKHC. Click on pic, see it in Flickr.

A real study in lines, color, and reflection. HERE IT IS IN LARGE ON BLACK. Looks for all the world like you are in a surreal hallway with a highly polished floor, but the picture is actually taken straight up inside the atrium of THIS BUILDING (Singapore National Library). Great stuff.

June 22, 2007 HDR Thriller (dragon)

Dragon Pool, originally uploaded by /\ltus. CLick on pic, see it in Flickr.

Taking a break fom the landscapes, and found this remarkable shot. Dragons symbolize luck in the east but take on a menacing connotation in the west. Says a lot about the cultural differences I guess...exactly what it says, I don't know. Here is this shot IN LARGE ON BLACK. For what its worth, this is a working fountain as the stream is running out of its mouth rippling the surface.

I did recall that /\ltus has had at least one other great shot that turned up as a Thriller. It was one was one of my favorites...May 14, 2007...But you really have to SEE IT IN IN LARGE ON BLACK.

June 20, 2007 HDR Thriller (lake)

Peyto Lake, originally uploaded by NY_Doll. Click on pics, see them in Flickr.

Now this is a Lake!! I've not seen water this color in a lake before...maybe in tropical marine waters, but not a lake. It looks like an opaque piece of the sky toppled over onto the ground. Just add the Canadian Rockies to my list of places to go (uhh, this list is getting kinda long). GOTTA SEE IT IN LARGE ON BLACK.

Need a twofer? Here's another by the same photgrapher, Peyto Lake, that gives a closeup of a stony bottom....and HERE IT IS IN LARGE. It actually kinda makes me thirsty.

June 19, 2007 HDR Thriller (magpie)

Storm Front, originally uploaded by rovingmagpie. Click on pic, see it in Flickr.

Kim's recent PoeARTica post and comment inspired the search word for today. Magpie? Turns out it's the photographer(!), but it has certainly led to a great shot. Here it is IN LARGE.

I love weather when you can see it in action. For me, it puts things in perspective in terms of scale. Looking at weather like this gives me the sense of earth as a planet (and our living space). As large as it is, it is finite within a certain scale. The earth is 8,000 miles in diameter and the atmospere is just 60 miles thick. All of the clouds that we see occur within the first 15 miles. That's equivalent to a thin coat of paint on a cue ball. We need to take care that coat of air, because their is less of it that we think.

June 18, 2007 HDR Thriller (dream)

Gonzales Dreamscape, originally uploaded by lightgazer. Click on pic, see it in Flickr.

Wow. This is in Victoria, British Columbia, I think. HDR processing really brings a painting-like quality to this shot...the kind you can stare at for a while. GOTTA SEE IT IN LARGE ON BLACK.

June 19, 2007 HDR Thriller (Helsinki)

Hernesaari, originally uploaded by mylhainen. Click on pic, see it in Flickr.

Hope everyone had a happy Fathers Day. My father passed away two years ago. Thought about him today. His parents came through Ellis Island from Helsinki, Finland (location of the photo above). My grandfather was just 18 when he came over...a shipyard worker and carpenter. He came to New York and then Pennsylvania to work for the railroad. Lost his leg in a horrible railcar accident. His friends and expert machinists at the railroad presented him with a custom prosthetic leg that he used the rest of his life as it was much better than the one he had gotten from the doctors. He went back back to New York and became a violin maker.

My father learned those skills and made sailboats instead of violins. Built his first small sailboat in a east side Manhattan tenement building when he was a teenager. Transported it piece by piece on the the subway to City Island with his friends and younger brother and reassembled it there. Three of them carried the mast the same way, late at night when there would be nobody around, holding onto it outside the subway car through the window. They sailed that boat up and down Long Island Sound as teenagers and beyond, and built several more.

I try to remember all of this when I have some difficult task ahead. Thanks, Dad.

The photo above IS LOVELY IN LARGE ON BLACK.

June 16,2007 HDR Thriller (mountain)

Drei-Zinnen-Hütte, originally uploaded by leicaview.

GOTTA SEE IT IN LARGE. And no, this is not Middle Earth. It's an Alpine rest lodge in the Dolomites. The sense of massiveness is almost overwhelming. I need to go there...after Iceland...well, maybe before Iceland. Note the trail that cuts across the foreground mountain. Not a trail to be taken lightly. Had to post ANOTHER FROM THE SAME AREA, oh and what the heck, its the weekend...HERE'S YET ANOTHER. If you look in this last one, you get a sense of scale from the pair of tiny hikers on the lower left.

June 15, 2007 HDR Thriller (ocean)

hdr ocean sunrise, originally uploaded by ts_scoobysnax.

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Love this shot. The right combination of factors really came together in this capture. MUST SEE IN LARGE. And below I have posted the sepia version. Gives it a bit of a different feel...

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June 14, 2007 HDR Thriller (sleep)

The Lion Sleeps HDR. Uploaded by D e e v a . Click on pic, see it in Flickr.

Sleep. I need some, and nothing inspires sleep better than a cat. This search word brought out so many many shots of sleeping pets (go figure), but the above non-pet was meaningful to me as I have always been fascinated by lions...must be my Leo coming through. A picture of relaxation IN LARGE ON BLACK. I am going to turn in right now. Of course, first I could bring one out of the archives for all you dog people out there too...April 9, 2007 HDR Thriller (dog).

June 13, 2007 HDR Thriller (friend)

antro (the cemetery of fontanelle). Uploaded by valpopando. Click on pic, see it in Flickr.

This one is both creepy and sad...
These photo are pretty good, but the place they are taken is the real reason for this post. The pictured cemetary is in Naples, Italy.
LOOK AT THE TOP PIC IN LARGE
and you just might make out what I am talking about in the trough along both walls.

and now THE BOTTOM PIC IN LARGE.

Here is the KICKER....a detailed view of WHAT IS ALONG THE WALLS and in many other places in this "cemetary".

Learn more about this place HERE and HERE.
But essentially here's the key part...

"used like an illicit cemetary, then used as a cemetary for the poor and under privileged, thereafter used as a cemetary for those suffering from a plague and finally used as a human remains site: these bones were either recovered in the numerous diggings around town and from thecleaning of the holygrounds within the churches.The canonical De Iorio tells that "...at the end of 1700s, all those that could economically afford it,wanted toe buried in a church, but there was no more space available in churches. So, the salmatari(undertakers), after the morning burial, hey would dig up the body late at night and place it in a bodybag. They would then carry it to the area of the Fontanelles (pictured abve), no longer in use at that time. As a resultof an unexpected flooding of one of these galleries, the corpses were exposed and dragged out in the open.The bones were then put back and secured behind wall, an altar was built soon after and the area remained destined as a final resting place for these remains."

I suppose that its just historical confirmation that it has always sucked to be poor, even in death.

June 12, 2007 HDR Thriller (wave)

Noche Mágica en la playa, originally uploaded by Antonio Bellón. Click on pic, see it in Flickr.

Mar de Sueños. Originally uploaded by Antonio Bellón. Click on pic, see it in Flickr.

Though both are dark, both are still detailed with great depth. You need to SEE THE TOP ONE IN LARGE to get the full detail. Now the BOTTOM ONE IN LARGE as the sister pic by the same photographer. The blue and earth colors counter each other and would hang great together.

June 11, 2007 HDR Thriller (faces)

Calf Creek Falls - Escalante, Utah, originally uploaded by Farol's Fotos. Click on pic, seee it in Flickr.

Very nice shot but also interesting because of the rock face, literally, on the extreme left just below the green algae/moss. The face, complete with gritted teeth, is seen more clearly IN LARGE ON BLACK.

June 10, 2007 HDR Thriller (memory)

HDR Memories from Past. Originally uploaded by roger taylor 85. Click on pic see it in Flickr.

Love these colors, detail, and depth of this shot. SEE IT IN LARGE ON BLACK.

June 9, 2007 HDR Thriller (cafe)

Milford Sound, originally uploaded by awooster. Click on pic, see it in Flickr.

Plain and simple...I wIsh I was here....SEE IN LARGE.

June 8, 2007 HDR Thriller (rough)

Rough Hewn Stone and Glass, originally uploaded by Stuck in Customs. Click on pic, see it in Flickr.

You never know what is going to come up when you choose a search word (but that's, in part, why I do it this way). "Rough" yielded this fantstic piece of work. GOTTA SEE IT IN LARGE. Churches are often great HDR subject matter (both inside and out...like this favorite from a different church back on April 12, 2007)...but this one above really caught my eye...that expanse of high rough wall...quite unusual, and I really feel like I am looking upward, even when I'm not.

June 8, 2007 HDR Chiller (rough)

rough morning, originally uploaded by Jason "pyro" Putt.

I think this is a coffee shop sign...but is it out of focus on purpose or is it just taken from the gutter after a rough nite?

June 7, 2007 HDR Thriller (lava)

HDR: Glacierlake, originally uploaded by Dirk Paessler. From Iceland

Charco de los Clicos. Uploaded by Doblonaut. From Lanzarote, Canary Islands.

See Top pic in large
See bottom pic in large

Yeah, alright, somebody is going to think that I chose the word "lava" because I've missed Iceland (it hasn't popped into the thriller list for at least a week). Well, maybe there's a grain of subliminal truth in that because an Icelandic pic did show up (what a surprise). But really, I had a hard time chosing between two pics above...so I am presenting them both. Interesting because they both show green volcanic lagoons. The bottom one is from the Canary islands.

The thought I had when I saw the Iceland pic (Glacierlake) was...what if the next Mars probe snaps a pic like this? Maybe they already have but from a long way away.

June 6, 2007 HDR Thriller (story)

Play Room, originally uploaded by Dan Bollwerk. Click on pic, see it in Flickr.

Indoor/outdoor shots like this are really HDR's strong suit. And this is just a brilliant use of HDR to convey a powerful message. AND HERE IT IS IN LARGE, but that's not all. This series by Dan Bollwerk is doubly interesting because he has put THIS MUST SEE PIC in the same series in order to show how HDR imaging is capable of so much more than a conventional photo could do in this situation. You can see that the conventional photo just can't get the correct exposure of the inside and outside at the same time, but HDR obviously can.

I think that part of HDR's innate ability to astound is that we are not used to seeing photos that mimic our human vision in this proper exposure aspect. I think there's some "neuroscience of perception" at work with this type of thing...sort of a breaking down of previously built-up archetypes in our mind of what a photograph is...but I digress. Mainly this is just really nice work!

June 7, 2007 HDR Chiller (story)

Bunge. Originally uploaded by K e v i n. Click on pic, see it in Flickr.
Oy. This is the type of twilight zone result that drives some people to rail against HDR processing. And judging from his Flickr caption ("My high dynamic range skills need some serious work."), the photographer knows it.

UPDATE...I must apologize to K e v i n for posting the pic above, because he has let me know of its experimental nature and he has updated it. Here it is below....

Bunge (remix)

It's now downright fantastic. You should check it out in LARGE ON BLACK.

June 5, 2007 HDR Thriller (home)

Home sweet home. Originally uploaded by _uncommon. Click on pic, see it in Flickr.
Not the tone I was expecting when I searched with "Home" but definitely a great textural HDR pic. SEE IT IN LARGE ON BLACK. The angles and perspective of all of the elements make for terrific composition.

June 5, 2007 HDR Chiller (home)

Hallway, originally uploaded by Alphafish.

Maybe its just me, but hallways "decorated" in (as he says) "Chinese style" just aren't my cup of tea.

June 4, 2007 HDR Thriller (extreme)

C O M P L E X I T Y, originally uploaded by bhophoto. Click on pic, see it in Flickr.

This is how chemical engineers earn their pay. Imagine the plumbing design involved in this. Fortunately, all we have to do is stare at it. GOTTA SEE IT IN LARGE ON BLACK. This is a very good example of how HDR techniques can enhance fine detail through optimizing exposure in every lighting condition simultaneously.

June 4 2007 HDR Chiller (extreme)

Extreme Highland HDR, originally uploaded by alllyballly. Click on pic, see it in Flickr.

Ahhh, what might have been!? Looks okay in this size, but to see why this is a Chiller you have to view it LARGE ON BLACK. When you do, you'll know what I mean, and you may feel the urge to get a new prescription for your eyeglasses.

This pic shows why you really have to use a tripod for HDR....combining multiple exposures without having the camera conmpletely steadied is a recipe for eye trouble.

Best of May 2007 Thrillers Slideshow

I have been hearing from friends that they are really enjoying these photos a lot, and that they want to go back into the archives and see a bunch of the best photos without too many clicks. So I am attempting something new here that might help with that...I hope this works. Here is a link to a slideshow of the Best Thrillers of May....

Let me know what you think. If this works, I will periodically post more slideshows from deeper in the archives. And thanks for viewing!!

June 2 HDR Thriller (darkness)

Leave the Light on, originally uploaded by LynchburgVirginia. Click on pic, see it in Flickr.

Lynchburg really knows how to capture mood and feeling. Hard to beat this one. This is very cool IN LARGE ON BLACK. Really expertly executed...look at the detail in the stream boulders. The perspective of the bridge, the light on the post, and the red shed are just amazing composition.

And two Thrillers today instead of a Chiller, both from Lynchburg. See the next one in the post below.

June 2, 2007 HDR Thriller (darkness)

light and darkness, originally uploaded by LynchburgVirginia. lick on pic, see it in Flickr.

This really is another terrific shot. Lynchburg again captures a lot of feelings with this one, GOTTA SEE IT IN LARGE ON BLACK! Sure its eerie, but I see hope in it instead of creep. Must be because of the caption on Flickr....“When journeying down the long dark road, we must continue on and never give up faith we’ll one day reach our destination – no matter how ugly that road appears before the naked eye.”
- Reed Murphy

June 1, 2007 HDR Thriller (mind)

toll keeper, originally uploaded by LynchburgVirginia. Click on pic, see it in Flickr.

It's funny how a simple picture can make such a strong connection. This is really well done...rivets your attention and is so easy to just stare at. Here it is in IN LARGE ON BLACK.

Coming soon...the pic of the month for May, and its going to be hard to select one, so I need some time to work on it.

June 1, 2007 HDR Chiller (mind)

Coke Zero in HDR, originally uploaded by phuzz_ott. Click on pic, see it in Flickr.

Repeating the gist of his Flickr caption..."Saturday afternoon, beer in hand, HDR on his mind." ...and zero in this shot.