Upde Designs

This was something I’ve wanted to do for years.  When we first moved to Dubuque in 1979 the pastor of St. Lukes (I don’t remember his name) found out that I was into photography and wanted to know if I would like to shoot the sanctuary.   He lamented that because of the vast amount of dark wood you couldn’t really represent the rich beauty of the sanctuary because flash would wash out the colors.

I’ve thought about that a long time and so about a year ago I started experimenting with HDR photography (High Dynamic Range.)  HDR simply put is taking a series of images at the correct exposure and then over and under expose other images by 2 stops.  Then you compress or composite all the images together to get the full dynamic range of luminance.

It takes some special software and a fair amount of time but over all I’m please with the image above.  I spent an hour and a half in the church and shot close to 200 images.  I’ve been working on them for most of yesterday and today.

Like any learning experience there are several things I would do differently the next time.  I didn’t set my white balance correctly, (which is okay because I was shooting in RAW format) however I had to change the white balance in each image, which added a lot of extra work.

Jeanne asked me if I had gone to the balcony to shoot the sanctuary – Nope didn’t think of that either.  I was so proud of myself for taking my time and getting the shots composed so carefully but still make a ton of mistakes and or lots of things I would do differently.

Still in the main I am pleased with my first attempt.  I could spend a whole day in the sanctuary, as there are that many things to see and that are worthy of making an image of.

I think these are pretty good representations of the actual windows, however I’m sure that some longtime members of St. Lukes will tell me no they are not.  I’m going to try it again after some more practice with the software.  I think the actual HDR photo technique with the camera is pretty close.  It is all the tweaking you have to do with the software that creates the discrepancy.

The above window is actually in the balcony.   Yes I might have gotten a little better shot from the balcony but then again  I’m happy with this image.  Up to this point I didn’t even thing of the balcony.  I was just focused on the HDR technique and camera sittings to think much outside the box.

My wife tells me that this is the only window in the sanctuary that is not Tiffany.  So for those of you who care I’ll give you the technical specifications.   I shot these images with a Nikon D700, which is a full frame camera.  I shot at ISO 100 and used a Tamron 70-200 mm F2.8 lens.  I tried to shoot (when ever possible) fully racked out to take advantage of the compression factor of the 200 mm focal length.  I auto bracketed  for 7 images at 1 stop over/under per image.  Then I used 3 images for the composite.  I tried to get images that were at least 2.0 stops above and below the right exposure.

Okay enough of that stuff.  Anyway I hope you like the images.  For more images check out my web site on Monday at Upde.Net.  Thanks for stopping by.  I love your comments (good or bad), they help me get better.

Cold, windy, and gray tonight so I didn’t get a chance to shoot anything.  I was busy at lunch so no time to shoot then either.  I was browsing  through my images and came across the folder that I did when I was planning the Worldwide Photo Walk this Summer.

This is the old Security building, which I believe is now called the Butler Building.  Named after the owner John Butler.  I actually worked in this building in 1990.  A few years ago Mr. Butler had it refurbished to its current state and it is a wonderful looking structure.

I took several photos of it but couldn’t capture the look I wanted.  Then tonight as I was looking through my images and I decided it would look good as a black and white.  Sure enough, at least in my eyes it looks pretty good in B&W.

Thanks for stopping by, hopefully tomorrow will be a better shooting day.

I’m in a rut.  Seems like the only thing I shoot lately are barns, churches and some sunsets.  Don’t get me wrong, I love shooting those but I am wanting to shoot other things as well.

I would love to shoot some more portraits.  Two years ago Jeanne gave me some studio strobes for Christmas and I’ve used them a total of 6 times.  Hard to get good at lighting when you only shoot with lights six times.

So today after work I headed home and saw this church off in the distance.  I took a county road to it and the sun was sinking fast.  I got one profile shot of the church and then the light got too dark to shoot.  I was heading to my car when I noticed the sun was just at the right angle to shoot a silhouette of the church.  So I walked back to the church and looked for the right angle but the sun was too low for me to get anything but a common right angle.

Then I noticed that there was a cemetery behind the church with a large cross at the rear of it.  Mindful of all the graves I walked back there to shoot a silhouette of the cross in the setting sun light but the cross was way too high.

Now I’m really disappointed because I cannot get the church nor the cross in my composition so I started back to the car and then came across this tombstone with this big cross on it at just the right height.

It was a little tricky trying to keep the sun in front of the cross and I got some really weird colors but it kind of interesting in a strange sort of way.  The lower part of the cross that looks like light is coming out of the side is really just cobwebs reflecting the sunlight.  The black looking stuff coming out of the top is a tree that was off in the distance and because of the depth of field it is blurry.

By the way I received some comments that I should also post the technical information so I was shooting a Nikon D300s at 200 ISO in RAW format at F8 with 2/3 -EV to compensate for the brightness of the sun.  I was shooting with a Tamron 18 – 270 mm 3.5 lens.   I really like this lens because it gives me so much versatility in focal lengths and it is super sharp.

So I did get one shot of the church.  Not a very good one but still a shot.  The colors were nice but of the shots posted tonight I’d have to say the one of the  grain bins is my favorite.  I was actually headed back to the highway when I spotted them and thought they would make a nice image.  I really like them.

Well thanks for checking in.  Feel free to leave a comment good, bad or indifferent.

Upde

One of the great things about this time of year is that you don’t have to wait too long for the soft light.  I left work today right at 5:05 pm and decided that I wanted to take a picture of something on the drive home.

I went past two nice barns (that I’ve been thinking about photographing for the last month) but traffic was too heavy on US 61 so that didn’t work out well.  I traveled what I call the “back way” up past the Monastery looking for anything that would be interesting to shoot.  As I got closer to the Monastery the sun was sinking fast and it was turning a beautiful bright orange in the sky.

I wanted to take a church as a silhouette against the setting sun but I couldn’t get the proper angle on the little church by the Monastery.  So very disappointed I decided to just head for home because the sun was already setting below the horizon.

However, I decided to take the  Sundown Road to see if it was on higher ground and hopefully I could still catch some of the setting sun.  I was really rewarded as I got close to Peosta I came across the above farm perfectly silhouetted  against the orange sun.  When the sun went down too much to shoot the farm I went up the road about a mile and found the trees below, which also produced a great looking image.

So what looked like a dry run came up being far better than I have even hoped for.  Thanks for stopping by.

My original plan was to go to early church and then between first and second service there usually would be  no one in the sanctuary so I thought it would be a good time to make an HDR image of St. Lukes.  You cannot get the true feeling of the beauty of St. Lukes with artificial lighting and in my mind HDR would be the way to capture that beauty.

Then my wife reminded me that I hadn’t talked with the Pastor about my plan and the more I thought about it the more I knew she was right.  So I decided I’d do that next Saturday and then I looked out the back kitchen window and saw an early morning sun inter dispersed with a lot of low hanging clouds and I thought perfect shooting light.

So I grabbed the Nikon D300S, my Tamron 18-270mm lens, the tripod, and headed out.  I decided to just drive around Asbury (actually around the outskirts of Asbury) and see what lent itself to making some interesting images.

The image above is one of my wife’s favorite views and just a short piece from our house.  Actually when I’m riding my bike this is my normal route and it is at the top of a rather long hill, so I usually stop here and get a drink and catch my breath before continuing on.

This is a stream at the bottom of Twin Springs Hill, which is a popular spot for picking up the Heritage Trail.  I took this image in HDR using a tripod on a bridge and making five images.  Then I used the 1st, 2nd and 5th image (exactly 2 stops over and under exposed) to make this HDR image.

These great looking barns are just a few blocks from my house as well.  I didn’t even know they were there until today.  You have to take a side road to get to them and I was actually looking for some shots of the Meadows Golf Course when I came across these barns.  They were too good to pass up.

Speaking of the Meadows Golf Course, this was just 4 blocks from the barns above.  I wasn’t really looking to take images of any of the holes, but I liked the way this pond was framed by trees.   By the time I took this image the sun was just getting too high for the type of images I wanted to shoot and it was pretty obscured by some dark clouds so this was just about my last image.

Just a little past Asbury is the small village of Graf.  I happened into Graf and was going to turn around when I saw this lumber mill.  They had thousands of logs stacked up and I thought it would be great in black and white.

Finally coming back from Graf and just after the golf course I saw this silo (or what’s left of it) sitting off the main road down and the end of an abandon road.  I turned around and went back for this image.  I’ve live here 20 years and never saw this before, even from my bike.   Just goes to show that you have to take time to see what is around you.  Kind of a “stop and smell the roses?” Perhaps so.

Thanks for stopping by.

In October Thunderhills Country Club drops their guest restrictions and in town people can play as a guest through the month.  So my friend Mike Stoll invited me to play at 8:58 am with the temperature at a coolish 41 degrees and a slight wind.

Mike has been a great friend over the years and he and I are about the same skill level (which is basically no skill at all.)  His only real problem is that he attacks the ball from the wrong side.  I had played a month earlier and was not too unhappy with the way I was striking the ball.  That was last month.

Today was a completely different story.  I lost 5 balls in two holes.  It  didn’t get much better as the day wore on.  I made my first par on the 9th hole by draining a 45 foot putt.  Well okay it was at least 35 feet and downhill.

Here is Bob Rudzianski affectionately known as The Kink (that’s another story for another time.)  He was the medalist for the round but out of respect for him I will not post his score.  Today reminds me how I feel about golf.  I love being with my friends but I could have enjoyed them just as much at the truck stop having breakfast if you know what I mean. 🙂

The things I saw today were in black and white.  I don’t know why but that is just what caught my eye.  I was on my way back from Monticello and I could just see the church bell on this small church from the highway. [Okay I found out that this is not a church at all.  A friend at work informed me that this was once a school in Emeline, Iowa.  She and her husband are on a committee dedicated to preserving this building.  They are called “The Friends Of Emeline.”  She said that its current use is as a community center for some clubs, 4-H and a group of coon hunters.  They wanted to preserve the building but cannot restore it to the original look because of grant issues and qualifications.  She said that her husband went to school there until it closed in 1965.]

When I went down the county road to get a closer look it wasn’t much of a church from a purely architectural stand point but the bell on top and the rural setting made it look interesting.  I thought a black and white treatment might make a good image.

Down the road a bit was this old dilapidated farm all grown over in brush and weeds.  The barn was falling down and overgrown with weeds and even this windmill had vines and brush growing all over it.  I shot several images of the barn but couldn’t get an interesting perspective because of the overgrowth so I  settled for this image of the windmill.

Overall not a pleasing day for a photo shoot.  I didn’t have anytime to take photos and I really rushed these two photos because of the time constraints.  However I guess even a bad shot is better than not taking any photos.

I just love this time of year watching the colors change, the farmers harvesting their crops and dodging all the deer.  Okay that last part about the deer was a bit of a stretch.

Anyway I was on my way to work this morning and was about 10 minutes earlier than normal and the light was just beautiful.  Soft and orange.  I drove by this lonely combine sitting in a half harvested field and thought that would make a great image (even though I’ve already made one like it last week.)  And no they are not the same combine.   They are both John Deere combines but two different fields 20 miles apart.

So it took me two miles before I made up my mind to go back and take a picture and so I turned around and drove past the perfect turn around, then I had to drive another half mile for the next turn around.

Got the car parked and walked about 400 yards down to where the combine was sitting.  Why did I park so far away?  I don’t know (brain freeze maybe?)  Anyway I took the shot and I like it so there it is for you to enjoy or yawn at. 🙂

This is my friend Bob Hanna.  Bob owns and operates a service business called PRIME Benefits, Inc.  Prime is located in Cedar Rapids and handles a variety of benefit plan designs, section 125 & 105 payment plans etc.

Bob is a great guy and has been a great friend.  We had lunch today at the Irish Democrat.   We discussed politics just about the whole time. 🙂

Here is a church that I go by about every day of the week.  It is at the Otter Creek Junction and sits about 400 yards West of highway 61.  I’ve seen this church and have meant to photograph it for sometime but today was the day.

It was very overcast and looked like it could rain about anytime.  The wind was picking up and because it was such an over cast day I decided to make an HDR image.

So I set up my tripod and attached the cable release to the D300S and shot 5 images at 1 stop intervals per image.  Then I used the 1st, 2nd, and 5th image to give me one at the correct setting and one that was 2 stops under exposed and one that was two stops over exposed.

Then I merged them together using Photomatrix Pro and this is what I came up with.  I kind of like it although it has some issues.  It is still a pretty good image.

Okay a bit of a strange image I’ll admit.  I saw this shot in a photography magazine that subscribe to and I wanted to try it for myself.  This is my 2nd attempt at this shot and it still didn’t turn out the way I wanted it to.

I even had the same lens as the photographer in the magazine.  I used a Tamron Macro lens 90 mm F2.8 1:1.  The photographer used a ring flash as I did and I got the same circle of light he did, but the fibers of the pupil did not look nearly as good as it did in the magazine.

I played with this image in Photoshop and Lightroom until I’m tired of it and this is as good as I my skill level will let me get it.  Maybe I’ll try it again another time with another volunteer. 🙂