After the second post about cross-processing I thought I’d make second post about HDR to even things out. So here goes. Victim this time was the old church in Uusikaupunki, Finland.

No auto-bracketing or anything, just two straight-forward exposures. One for the church, one for the sky. Manually merged in Photoshop (CS3). I’ve never been too impressed with the auto-merge in Photoshop. Just upgraded my system to CS5 and I have yet to test those features there (I’ve heard they’ve improved a lot, so I’m curious to give that a go).

Left: D700, ISO800, 1/350 sec @ f/13, Nikkor 50mm. Right: D700, ISO800, 1/1500 sec @ f/13, Nikkor 50mm.

The above two images merged in Photoshop CS3. Levels, curves, contrast and saturation adjusted.

See there’s no halo around the church (sure, go ahead, click image to enlarge)? That’s one of those typical things you see when HDR exposures are merged together automatically using software. It’s one of the reasons why I prefer to do things manually (still). Then you’re sure that things are looking more natural, and if you HAVE to cheat, you decide where you cheat and how you cheat. Of course I’m cheating. Do you really think I’m masking around branches and leaves in the trees? Of course not. I cheat. But I make sure you don’t see it, unless I want you to see it

So not to confuse with HDR, because this hasn’t seen any HDR (and no, it’s not just about dragging the saturation slider to +100) 
If you’re intending to over-do it, with pictures that are suitable, it’s actually quite fun…

D700, ISO200, 1/1000 sec @ f/11, Nikkor 50mm, and some serious Photoshopping...

Tenerife

Although tourism hasn’t really come through to this part of the island (thankfully!), there are some places that are showing a bit more of a commercial attitude already. There are some small shops and musea where you can get your hands on some of the local cuisine like mojo, wine, gofio (which I started referring to as goofio, because it’s seriously weird stuff!) or some of the more standard touristic stuff that no one in his/her right mind would actually buy

D200, ISO100, 1/125 sec @ f/9.5, Tamron 28-75mm

D200, ISO100, 1/90 sec @ f/8, Tamron 28-75mm

D200, ISO100, 1/180 sec @ f/9.5, Tamron 28-75mm

D200, ISO100, 1/125 sec @ f/9.5, Tamron 28-75mm

D200, ISO100, 1/125 sec @ f/9.5, Tamron 28-75mm

Tenerife

La Orotava is another one of those exceptions. It’s absolutely worth a visit, almost like a trip back in time. It’s a picturesque little village with cute colorful streets with cobblestones and probably the cutest little hotel ever, called Silene. If it hadn’t been in the Lonely Planet book we were carrying around, we probably wouldn’t have found it. It’s an old family home, recommended, I must say. He personally hand-made our breakfast in the morning. Took him forever, but it was worth it

D200, ISO100, 1/90 sec @ f/11, Tamron 28-75mm

D200, ISO100, 1/125 sec @ f/11, Tamron 28-75mm

D200, ISO100, 1/125 sec @ f/11, Tamron 28-75mm

D200, ISO100, 1/90 sec @ f/5.6, Sigma 10-20mm

D200, ISO100, 1/125 sec @ f/8, Tamron 28-75mm

Tenerife

Ever thought of doing your groceries in a church? Oh no, stupid, that’s not a church. The Mercado’s the place to go when you want fresh stuff. Fwesh fwuit, fwesh fish, fwesh whatever! And some actually spoke English (the people, that is, not the fwuit or fish )!
That was one of the things that struck me most, really. You’re in a touristic place like the Canaries, Tenerife at least, and you can count the people who speak English (or sort of) on the fingers of one hand.

D200, ISO100, 1/250 sec @ f/9.5, Tamron 28-75mm

You could of course also try El Corte Inglés, but there they primarily sell overpriced bad quality bags at heavy discounts (ask my better half about that *grins* )

There’s quite a big contrast between what’s maintained and what’s not quite… Nice houses with kind of… less nice garages or storages, or whatever they are… Nice piece of graffity right out front the Auditorio…

D200, ISO100, 1/180 sec @ f/4, Tamron 28-75mm

D200, ISO100, 1/125 sec @ f/4.8, Tamron 28-75mm

D200, ISO100, 1/350 sec @ f/8, Tamron 28-75mm

And just because I can’t get enough of it:

D200, ISO100, 1/350 sec @ f/11, Tamron 28-75mm

D200, ISO100, 1/250 sec @ f/11, Tamron 28-75mm

Tenerife

I must honestly confess that Tenerife didn’t do much for me. I didn’t find it all that exciting. Of course it has its places that are nice (El Teide, now THAT was an adventure, but more on that later), but overall I don’t necessarily need to go back there.
Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the capital of the Canary Islands, has a couple of nice spots worth documenting. My favorite by far was the Auditorio, a futuristically designed (music) theater which is supposed to have great acoustics. Unfortunately we didn’t get to listen to any performance there.

D200, ISO100, 1/250 sec @ f/11, Tamron 28-75mm

D200, ISO100, 1/250 sec @ f/11, Tamron 28-75mm

I probably shot close to 100 pictures of the building. Really photogenic, it was

There were some other things, too. Not many, but some… The Monumento de los Caidos for example. A monument to those who were killed in the Spanish civil war. Taken from… well… quite a different angle, I guess

D200, ISO100, 1/180 sec @ f/6.7, Tamron 28-75mm

And there was Iglesia de Nuestra Senora de la Conception. It’s supposed to be a “cathedral”, but although I’m not quite sure what sets a cathedral and a church apart, I thought it more a church than a cathedral. It’s a pretty building, nonetheless.

D200, ISO100, 1/180 sec @ f/8, Tamron 28-75mm, 3 images stitched together in PS

Museums are often in very old or very modern/abstract buildings. They provide great opportunities to make some great pictures.

The other day we were in the Zoological museum in Helsinki.
The outside of the building isn’t particularly beautiful (at least I don’t think so), but the inside is absolutely great! The stair cases there (among others) have some great curves that come out beautifully in black and white.

D200, ISO100, 1/4 sec @ f/11, Tamron 28-75mm

Every year I look forward to winter.
Being from Holland originally, where winter officially ceased to exist in the early 80s (with the occasional exception to the rule every decade and a half or so) I haven’t really had the pleasure of enjoying a good pack of snow and temperatures so cold that your eyes get sticky. Until I came to Finland, that is.
And the first years were great. Massive amounts of snow, freezing cold temperatures, and great great opportunities to photograph.
Unfortunately, call it global warming, or whatever, it looks like in the southern part of Finland where I’m residing, winter’s going on holiday now too in winter… There was a bit of snow in November, but since then it’s been just dramatic. Just like in Holland. Rain, rain, rain.
So what’s left to do for a photographer then? Traveling up north would be an option, and I WILL do that some time. But right now the only option is to retreat underground… Into the tunnels under the city.

D200, ISO200, 1/2 sec @ f/5, Sigma 28-200mm

D200, ISO100, 8 sec @ f/19, Sigma 10-20mm

Some people say that construction workers don’t have it…
But really… When  you look at this construction site and you notice the Christmas trees all over the place, even on top of the cranes, it’s really only a myth, isn’t it?

Merry Christmas!

Myeah… when you live up north and most of the day is dark, you get quite some opportunities to shoot during the “night”.
We went to an old part of the railway area and there’s lots of stuff to shoot. If not old wagons or other equipment, it’s old buildings.
This we ran into just before we left. Notice the train that passed in the background during the 91 sec exposure… Happy coincidence at a railway area

D200, ISO100, 91 sec @ f/27, Tamron 28-75mm