December 2013 - Page 3 of 11 - TimeLine Media Blog

December 25, 2013

Family, Personal, Photography | 0 comment

Merry Christmas!

Setting for Christmas dinner - ©TimeLine Media

The shopping, shipping, wrapping, and cooking is almost done! Merry Christmas to all of the supporters of our photography – blog readers, Facebook fans, Twitter followers, and everyone else that we have photographed this year. We are celebrating the season by giving gifts, spending time with family, making more photos, and enjoying the very COLD weather! We hope all of you are doing much the same.

Nikon Christmas gift - ©TimeLine Media — Nikon Christmas gift – ©TimeLine Media

This is a present from my mom to herself! Yes, I did help her pick it out. It has a nice snap to it’s shutter (like the all have) and lots of good upgrades over her old D40. My mom just wanted it because IT’S RED!! Plus, she wants to shoot video along with her photos. I guess I will be giving her the gift of photo lessons for the foreseeable future. I am sure that many of those will be future blog posts. The gears are already spinning as another year of blogging starts soon.

Just baked ginger snaps - ©TimeLine Media — Just baked ginger snaps – ©TimeLine Media

I have already eaten too much for this holiday, but I have been enjoying it! All the houses are full of the smells of the season. Too bad that cameras cannot capture that along with the pictures. I will do my best to capture some memories, but take a lot of time away from the camera to get more to eat! Merry Christmas to you and all of your loved ones!

Good timing! - ©TimeLine Media — Good timing by the photographer! – ©TimeLine Media

Santa Claus - ©TimeLine Media — Santa Claus – ©TimeLine Media

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December 24, 2013

Photography, Travel | 0 comment

Christmas at Arlington National Cemetery

Christmas wreaths at Arlington National Cemetery - ©TimeLine Media

It’s Christmas Eve! We will be heading out to spend the day visiting with family, have a nice meal, and exchange presents. We’ll repeat that with the other half of the family the next day. Needless to say, it is a great time of year! I enjoy the time off, and the freedom to make new family photos. So many families make new photos this time of year, and we will do the same. It is such a blessing to have our families close so that we do not have to travel far to see them. We hope that all of you have a safe holiday, and get to relax with some time off too.

There are many major roadways that pass the area of Arlington National Cemetery, just outside Washington, DC. The sprawling burial grounds for service men and women is decorated for the holidays at each marker. Wreaths are laid onto each grave site by donations and with the work of many volunteers.

The wreaths are nice remembrances for all those that have served, and passed. To honor them, I spent a quiet morning walking the grounds, and discreetly taking a few photos. I walked from the Visitors Center all the way to Section 8 which is across the highway from the Pentagon, and near the Air Force Memorial. No section was missing wreaths from the sections bordering the roadway, all the way to the top of the western hill.

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December 23, 2013

Personal, Photography, Technology, Travel | 0 comment

Lincoln Memorial – HDR photos

Lincoln Memorial - HDR Image - ©TimeLine Media

Extending Dynamic Range

Recently, a new version of Photomatix was released by HDR Soft. This program create high dynamic range (or HDR) images from bracketed exposures. I have posted a few times previously about HDR images which are a very controversial topic in photography forums. My previous HDR images were made using the Google Nik application named HDR Efex Pro. It has been a little while since this has been updated with new features, so I decided to download the trial for Photomatix.

Why is there so much controversy with HDR? It can take scenes with very dark tones, and light tones, and make both more viewable through tone mapping. I think the problem with a lot of HDR programs is that so many use the default settings, or they try a preset then do not do any additional work passed this point. This means that all pre-visualization has gone out the window. The images have just been plugged into a program, then you let the software decide how your final image will look.

Washington, DC

It is because of this that many think this is a form of cheating, and may be a different art form from photography all together! I think that this kind of processing is just new. It could not exist without the computing power that we have available to us today. But in the film darkroom, there have been tools available to selectively adjust dark and light tones in a frame. This is where the terms “dodge” and “burn” originate. As these techniques have had decades to mature, I think the same will be said about HDR in the future as the software improves and photographers take advantage of these tools.

Gettysburg Address in the Lincoln Memorial - HDR Image - ©TimeLine Media — Gettysburg Address in the Lincoln Memorial – HDR Image – ©TimeLine Media

These are just a few examples from my first try with the Photomatix software. There are a few new features that I am testing with these, but I am really happy with the results so far! Photos from the Memorial are made from 9 image brackets that are 1EV apart from a Nikon D800. I am doing more comparisons, and will post more when I have worked more with the program.

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December 2013 archive

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Extending Dynamic Range

Washington, DC

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