Daily Image - Jul 2012 Archive

02 Jul 12. While returning Mini to her family after having spent the weekend with us so her family could go to the shore, grand daughter Harper decided that she and papa should have a footrace to and from Mini's home. On the return leg, just as the finish - our house - was approaching, she turned around to see how the race was being run, and tripped on a rock resulting in a face first encounter with the rocky driveway. Oh tragedy of tragedies, three scratched areas that oozed a bit of red stuff that doctor grandma quickly fixed, and then it was a climb into papa's lap to rapidly fade away. Two legs seemingly just don't hack it for traversing rocky ground. But four legs seem to do just fine allowing for covering almost any type of terrain without difficulty. This guy wasn't having anything to do with traveling over the ground at all, in fact, he seemed mostly interested in getting approval from mom that he was safely hidden from all ongoing activity, but his cousins were having a grand time frolicking about and having an occasional snack courtesy of their moms. We've seen new born and older fawns of White Tail deer in Big Meadow, Shenandoah National Park, MD, week or older Black Tail deer here on the property, and now, after a late spring visit to the Olympic Game Farm, relatively young calves of Roosevelt Elk. They are all really cute, but of the three, I think I like the elk babies best. Perhaps because I really like the big beasts. Nikon D300s; Aperture Priority; 18 - 200; ISO 200; 1/200 sec @ f / 9. Hand held from the SUV.

03 Jul 12. In the early 50s my parents used to watch several programs on Saturday evening that included The Lawrence Welk Show, a variety show sponsored by Chevrolet with a theme song that went "See the USA in your Chevrolet, America is asking you . . . . .", tournament bowling, Perry Mason , and a top pop singles show that had the singers singing their songs. One of the few I remember is "How Much is that Doggie in the Window?" with lyrics that went on as "The one with the waggly tail." It reached a #1 position and was a great seller for Patti Page. There is a wonderful story making its way around the internet about a girl, her dad, and a dog. Part of that story reminds me of our daughter and her husband when they picked out their first dog. He first visited the pound and returned home telling her that any of the dogs there, save for one, would be fine. She went the next day and picked out one and brought it home; the ONLY one he thought unacceptable. Stormy was a very needed dog, but we all loved her very much. So far none of our dogs have been "previously owned", but if I were to go to the rescue center to pick one out, this is likely the one I'd want to bring home if I couldn't find any Minis. Nikon D300s; Aperture Priority;18 - 200; ISO 200; 1/400 sec @ f / 7.1.

4th of July. Awaking this a.m. to bright sunshine, which is highly unusual for our part of the country, which normally has rain for the 4th, I thought about the 17 years we spent on the East Coast and the hot and humid 4ths we experienced there. That further brought to mind what it must have been like 236 years ago when our forefathers brought forth this unique political experiment. The play, and subsequent movie, 1776, commented frequently on the environmental conditions of the time, and while none of those involved with either production obviously had any real experience with those times, my time back east suggests that they couldn't be far off. Both productions are among my all time favorites, depicting as they do, what is believed to have occurred that spring/summer, and I often wonder what the founding fathers would say about their efforts on this anniversary of their creation. Much I'm certain, and likely we wouldn't be surprised to hear that they just might not be pleased with what we have done to their creation. Susan Dunn has compiled a book of their developmental work titled "Something That Will Surprise the World: The Essential Writings of the Founding Fathers" in which she has selected 5 of them, Washington, Hamilton, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison, to illustrate their differing opinions with respect to how the new country should be governed. She does not dwell on the compromises required to create the infant nation, instead leaving that aspect to the reader. I highly recommend the book to you, but even if you don't add it to your reading list, I invite you to raise your hand with me on this 236th anniversary in affirmation of this daring new experiment with a strong aye in favor. Nikon D300s; Aperture Priority; 18 - 200; ISO 200; 1/125 sec @ f / 5.6 from inside the vehicle.

05 Jul 12. We began our 4th of July activities by attending the local community (Kingston) parade which, for those of you who have seen the Michael J Fox movie "Doc Hollywood," would immediately recognize. It lasted over an hour in wonderfully hot sunshine while the parade participants, one after another, threw candy at the children in the crowd. I didn't realize so many people lived in the Kingston area until that parade. It was pretty small townish but fun to do once! We returned home for a few chores, then left for my cousin's for a 4th of July food fest with a large group of folks, most of whom we didn't know, so we traveled up to the farm for a couple hours to shoot the 5 calves born as of that date, 6 now as there was one born today. That was a lot of fun and then we returned to the gathering to watch the fireworks shows that were occurring all along the eastern shoreline of Puget Sound. From our location we could see perhaps 80 miles of shoreline and roughly 20 different overlapping displays of fireworks. Most everyone was glued to those shows while the real display was taking place to the south of us and a bit above our heads, put on by the Master of all displays. Nikon D300s; Aperture Priority; 18 - 200; ISO 200; 2.5 sec & 1/10 sec @ f /11.

06 Jul 12. Being one's own GC on a project such as our new house has as many negatives as positives, but taken together it can be a classroom far removed from and far more significant than anything coming out of an educational institution. One of the most significant aspects for me has been getting to know the various sub contractors and spending enough time with them to learn the ins and outs of their respective trades. Most have been more than willing to show me what they do, how to do it myself, and offering help when I try and fumble. Not all have been equal in this endeavor but all have helped me to understand what goes into the building of a structure. Along the way I have been documenting the process starting with the very first brush removal that allowed us to get a feel of the property and where we would place the structure to every single step that followed. Without exception those involved have patiently allowed me to get in the way with my camera and photograph everything I wanted. At this point I think I likely have enough to create a picture book on the process of building a house. Today's image is from that collection and as we are still in the celebratory week of the 4th, I thought I'd go with something distantly related to fireworks, and picked a photo of fire. Not just any fire, but that from a torch being used to solder together two pieces of copper pipe. Not as straight forward a process as I would have originally thought, and a lesson learned from one of the individuals working on the project. Clean pipe, properly fluxed, and then sufficiently heated allowing the solder to flow around the joint and seal it properly. Clearly a case of "sweating the small stuff." Thanks Rob. The setting was sufficiently dark requiring supplemental lighting to get the photo which meant that I had to balance the light from the flash with that of the torch such that the flame would be visible. I wasn't able to get the blue of the flame as well as I wanted, but it shows well enough to illustrate the process. Nikon D300s; Aperture Priority; 18 - 200; ISO 640; 1/60 sec with supplemental flash @ f / 5.6.

09 Jul 12 Back in grad school days - late 80s - Pascal was a commonly employed computer language. At that time the big player, and equally lousy program, was published by Micro$oft at $495 for a highly licensed copy. Along came Philippe Kahn who figured a fairly licensed program (treat it as a book) at minimal cost, $79 in this case, and one that worked, would be a better product, and he took the market away from Gates & company in less than a year with his Turbo Pascal! On soapbox. For the past several years I have been an invited beta tester for Adobe with the usual thanks being one free copy of the product being tested. This year it appears that providing such for the company is of no value and there was no thank you given. On top of that, the have instituted very restrictive new upgrade policies and a very steep price for the product. Seems they have been studying the M$ approach to computing. Off soapbox Down Texas way is a small company known as Topaz Labs. They have been building very capable filters for use with many products, including those from Adobe. Last month they announced a new program called photoFXlab that has the majority of the functions of Adobe's Photoshop, and priced it at $79, with an introductory offer, good through the end of this month, for $30. Somehow I see a potential repeat of the Turbo Pascal approach just around the corner, and, if so, I will be most pleased. To give you an idea as to its power, the image for today was produced using photoFXlab for all the important aspects. As it is still in its infancy, there are a few things it doesn't do yet, but the company has promised all of the important ones in the next release, something this company does with all its products for free. Nikon D300s; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 18 - 200; 1/400 sec @ f /11.

10 Jul 12 It being that time of year when young ungulates are born, I ventured out to my cousin's farm over the holiday weekend to see what I could capture calf wise and wasn't disappointed. So far there are 6 young'ns and perhaps as many more anytime soon. Of course this also means it's haying time, so there should be plenty of photo opportunity just down the block, so to speak, to keep me occupied for a while. While walking in the pasture I found this composition that was pleasing to my eye, and took several shots of it. After I got back home, and had worked with my favorite of the set for a short while, I got the idea of emphasizing certain aspects of the image and dropping out the rest. Nothing has been removed in this sense except for color, unless you are a purist, in which case I've added in all the colors, which is to say, I've rendered most of the image in white. The result of so doing is that your eye should be immediately directed to what I want you to see and it should stay there without much roaming. Even then, it should be pulled right back to the "important" stuff. Let's see if it works. D800; Aperture priority; 18 - 200; ISO 200; 1/320 sec @ f / 5.6.

11 Jul 12. The weather guessers got together last week about this time and decided that we should have 3 weeks of nothing but sunshine. Other than predicting it to happen 4 days early, they hit it on the head for the 3 day weekend, then had it all far apart Sunday night with a fantastic storm that covered almost 3/4 of the state. Dark clouds with lots of thunder, sheet lightning - like being on the east or southern coasts - with the clouds looking more like light boxes than saturated cotton, and the occasional ground strike, one VERY near the house, and lots of rain. For the past two days it has been gloomy mornings breaking out into sunny afternoons. So I'm still waiting for that summer weather. Since the storm hit in the late night / early morning, I didn't get any pictures, but this is a close approximation to what I think it would have looked like had I been able to see it. The image is a composite of 5 "frames" stitched together to create the panorama and taken during an early morning crossing of Puget Sound from Edmonds to Kingston. ISO 200; 1/250 sec @ f / 7.1

12 Jul 12. With a bit of networking problems - trying to establish same in this house but finding many broken wires - plus a bit of haying help (c250 bales on Wed evening) I managed to not get an image out last night, so here it is a day late. My favorite part of the haying process is having an opportunity to try and get a few decent shots of the dust created by the stacking part as it is lit by the sunlight filtering through the slats in the barn. It is a somewhat tricky process in that the sun wants to get in the picture and blow everything out, so one must be constantly adjusting position to keep it out of the viewfinder unless a big flare is a desired part of the image, and in some cases it is and it worked well. Plus you have to work in extreme lighting conditions, thus my use of HDR for these scenes. In addition, it is considered polite to not get in the way of those doing the work. With that in mind, here is the first of what may be several images of this year's haying activities. Nikon D300s; Aperture Priority. 18 - 200; ISO 200; 1/10 sec (middle of 5) on a tripod @ f /10.

13 Jul 12. Being the new kid on the block with respect to helping with the haying, my main job is to walk along with the baler and position the bales for easy pick up by the hay wagon, now days pulled by a tractor and automated, unlike the old days - or those still in Lancaster County, PA - when the wagon was pulled by horses or bovine and the hay pitched manually into the wagon. On a cool temperature day it is just fun, but on a warmer day it is a good workout! Best part about it is that I don't have to do it, which adds to the enjoyment as opposed to it being a "job." We did another almost 400 bales today with likely that amount or possibly more on Sunday or Monday hence. With all the bales in order, I had some "free" time to walk around and take photos of the half cut and baled field, and the image for today will give you a "feel" for how that looks. With lots of blue clouds (what Alaskans call a blue sky) and some nice sunshine, the work was tiring but the photography rewarding to say nothing of the healthy exercise one gets walking an 11 A field. Maggie accompanies me as I do it so she get a good long walk out of it and more if Jasper, my cousin's dog, decides to join us at which point it is a full out game of run and chase each other for the two dogs. Both having black coats they get a real work out running in the sun! Note the red fence at the top of the image; across the roadway is a large field of grapes which constitutes the only vineyard of which I'm aware in the area. Nikon D300s; Aperture Priority; 18 - 200; ISO 200; 1/400 sec @ f /11.

16 Jul 12. Well the rain exploded with a might crash, beginning with booming thunder around 0200 on Friday morning and continuing throughout the entire day and on into Saturday. The weather guessers reported almost a thousand individual strikes of lightening in addition to the sheet lightening that made for a spectacular show if you could see it. But it was the thunder that was most impressive, booming in the background for more than a day. I've never experienced anything quite like it, and had it not been for the rain, it would have been a wonderful show. So the long range forecast of 15+ days of interrupted sunshine was at least half right with the theatrics having been totally missed. But there is always something to see either in between the rains or after, and in this case it was a startling blue lake that had formed in a small parking area in Hansville. The reality is that it was nothing more than a puddle on the surface of the lot, along side of which was a vehicle blue in color. By positioning oneself at the proper angle, the reflection of the car on the surface of the puddle made it appear to be a body of blue water. So here you have it, a real photo of something make believe. Nikon D300s; Aperture Priority; 18 - 200; ISO 200; 1/500 sec @ f / 9.

17 Jul 12. I mentioned a while back that my sister had paid us a visit and brought as a house warming gift this vibrant orange flower from Ecuador, one I had never seen before. It's been blooming in our kitchen green house window for almost two months now but is nearing the end of the pretty stage. As she is once again visiting I thought it appropriate to share the flower with you. I took a few shots of it about 3 weeks ago when it was pretty much in its prime and that is what you are seeing today. The original was a bit busy and had lots of hot spots due to how it was photographed, so I've cropped the original a fair amount and removed the hot spots by cloning them out with neighboring pixels. Plus I've added a bit of sharpening which made for a slightly noisier result. I've left the noise in the image as I like the "texture" it has added overall, although as a result it no longer accurately represent the blossoms. However, the colors you should see are a very accurate representation of the orange color of the plant and I guess the reason for its name, Orange Star. Apparently there are five different varieties of this plant, and they share the common name of Sun Star. Nikon D300s; Aperture Priority; 18 - 200; ISO 200; 1/500 sec @ f / 8.

18 Jul 12. I remember a couple years back someone at one of the camera clubs saying there was a nice park alongside the Bremerton ferry terminal featuring a set of water displays. We passed the park both times we rode the Bremerton ferry this year but could see only the top of the displays. Tuesday morning had us visiting Bremerton, just about two blocks away from the park, and while waiting for a seminar on health insurance providers since our govt has reneged on the 100% health care guarantee we were given as part of our service, we walked to the park and spent the better part of 30 minutes watching the water show. Called the Harborside Fountain Park, it features 5 copper ringed fountains that start to leak water from the ringed sides and then literally blow their tops. It is quite impressive and will hold your attention for a significant period of time. If you live anywhere near the area, it should be on your must see list! I found it hard to fully capture the show in stills; although I gave it my best, I know I will be returning to shoot it another time or two, depending on the weather, for providing different backgrounds. Today was mostly overcast with just a hint of sunshine while we were there, so the images were not as dynamic as I would have liked. To compensate, I've taken one of my favorites of the shoot, and using a software filter to enhance the structure, brought out a fair amount of detail, not unlike what might be perceived as an HDR image but isn't, then removed it from portions of the image where it wasn't helping. That process introduced what could be called noise, so I then removed all of it save from the water where I wanted the fine structure in the first place. The bolus of water leaves the top of the funnel as a ball, elongates as it rises into the sky, then expands at the apogee which is the point in time when this shot was taken, then falls back to the base of the funnel in a sheeting fashion. Next time I'll grab some video to share. Nikon D300s; Aperture Priority; 18 - 200; ISO 200; 1/800 sec @ f / 5.6.

19 Jul 12. As I was reviewing the shots from Tuesday's visit to the Harborside Fountain Park as well as some of the info on the web and comments from list members, it became obvious that I need to pay this spot several more visits, including one at night. A block away from the Fountain Park is the new Conference Center and it has a couple of water shows of its own. One is of chasing spurts of water that jump up a long staircase and the other is a circular pond with water being projected from the edges. I got a few good shots of the staircase art but not of the pond, so that is definitely on the roster of shots I need to capture. The staircase set is what I'm sharing today, and the part I want you to see will not be immediately obvious, so for starters, enlarge it to 100%. There are four rectangular boxes and three of them have nozzles on one end that pump out bursts of water. Moving from right to left, starting with lowest box, there are four spurts, two paired sets, traveling upward to the left and one box higher. Looking at the second box from the right, you will see that a couple of spurts have hit the right hand side of that box, and that there are two spurts leaving the left hand end, two are in mid arc, and two more have landed at the right hand end of box number three. I'll leave it to you to find the rest, since you now what it is you are trying to find. It is fun to watch, and even more fun to shoot, trying as you might, to get the arcing spurts positioned as desired. Not an exercise for those who can't deal with frustration; I really had fun doing it. The raw capture lacked the detail I desired, so I employed a filter to enhance the structure just enough to give it some depth and more of the feel you have when looking at it in person. I also cropped out a LOT of the original which didn't add anything to the shot. Otherwise, it is pretty much straight from the camera. I took this one from the courtyard of the Conference Center. You may note that not all the spurts hit their target(s). Nikon D300s; Aperture Priority; 18 - 200; ISO 200; 1/250 @ f /7.1.

20 Jul 12. If trying to capture just the right moment in the arc or burst of a stream of water is challenging, it's much easier then trying to describe it. So to make my life easier, today's submission is a series of 8 images taken within 6 seconds of one another to illustrate the changes in the bolus of water as it leaves the funnel and bursts into the air. The entire sequence from start to finish takes roughly 10 seconds by my estimation, I didn't actually time it with a stop watch, and has you wondering how best to capture it time and time again. Overall I'm fairly pleased with what I got on the first time out, know I want to do it again and at least once at night, as I understand there is color and music, to see if I can capture a single shot that will leave us all in awe. It is going to be an ongoing challenge, like shooting the full moon over the city of Seattle. Wish us luck. Nikon D300s; Aperture Priority; 18 - 200; ISO 200; 1/800 sec @ 5.6 for the series.

23 Jul 12. This past week, ending with ceremonies on Sunday, was the annual "Paddle", or Tribal Journey, in which the "local," meaning from the mid WA Pacific coast to British Columbia, Tribal Nations paddled their canoes - or longboats - from their national lands to a designated meeting point for ceremonial activities, this year being Suquamish, (note the original Indian spelling) WA, literally just down the road from us a few miles. I have the cherubs for a few days so my cousin's wife and I took them to observe the ceremonies being held on Saturday evening. We were fortunate in getting a parking spot a half block from the activities which made the whole thing a lot more enjoyable, and good seating in the Ceremonial Lodge. Most of the tribes were pretty tired from 6 days of pulling, so unfortunately we didn't get to see a large amount ceremonial activities, but we did get to listen to about an hour of song and drums, which was very enjoyable, plus the dances from three of the Nations. That was about all the cherubs could handle, so at that point we left the Ceremonial Lodge for other activities. Outside the Lodge there were all the canoes parked in parallel rows offering all the visitors a chance to see them up close so we took some tie to observe them while the cherubs played on the lawn. Earlier in the day I had driven to Point-No-Point to see them as they both stopped for a rest along the way and paddled past. A few of the canoes were beached and offered a opportunity to shoot them near the water. I've enhanced the structure of the canoe in this image to give you a much better idea of the work that goes into carving one from a singe log, although not all of them were carved from a single log, and a couple were even totally fiberglass. The fiberglass canoes are of course not the real McCoy, but are of the exact same dimensions and design. Nikon D300s; Aperture Priority; 18-200; ISO 200; 1/800 sec @ f / 7.1.

24 Jul 12. The cherubs having grown tired of sitting in one spot for an "extended" period of time, and one of them having fallen soundly asleep, we departed the Ceremonial Lodge for activities outside. The sleepy one awoke and decided it would be great fun to roll down an embankment, so while she did so I strolled over to a large pit area that was being used to cook a huge collection of clams and oysters. It's a bit of a long story but the short of it is that we were all invited to help ourselves to as much of the seafood as we desired. In the process I found out quickly that one of the cherubs really likes seafood while the other does not. But we all had a enjoyable time around the cooking pit eating and conversing with several of the folks there. I took a few shots of the mound of food as I don't believe I've ever seen so much food in one spot before, and today's submission is one of them. I've increased the fine detail of the mollusks to really show them off, but otherwise the shot has not been altered. Nikon D300s; Aperture Priority; 18 - 200; ISO 200; 1/125 sec @ f / 5.6.

25 Jul 12. A majority of the big name graphics manipulation software companies are now providing a tool for bringing out the fine detail in objects that possess it but which is generally lost in "normal" photography. The tool goes by various names such as "structure", "presence", or "clarity" to give just three examples, and works by increasing the contrast of the smallest detail in the object. Used properly, it can make a striking difference in what can be seen in the subject being photographed. Used to an extreme and you have the "grunge" look that characterized the HDR approach in its early years and which resulted in the HDR approach to photography getting a bad name. I've employed the technique in several of the last images, hopefully in a manner that made for realistic looking images. To illustrate, I've divided the image for today, a close up of the shellfish feast, into halves, with the left half being what the camera delivered and the right half having the technique applied. You may or may not like the results, but to give the technique its due, cover the image such that you can view only one half at a time. Switch between the two halves letting your eye rest on each half for 15 seconds or so before switching; then decide. Nikon D300s; Aperture Priority; 18 - 200; ISO 200; 1/100 sec @ f / 5.6.

26 Jul 12. Just as there are now available multiple pieces of software that allow for bringing out the fine detail in an image, as we observed yesterday, there are also several software programs dedicated to the creation of B&W images. These programs allow for the imitation of old B&W papers, B&W films including the associated grain structure of the individual films and papers, plus other additional tools that give those talented enough the kind of control as employed by Ansel Adams, except of course that he did it by hand in the dark room during the processing of the film and print. If Ansel was fond of saying "the negative is the score and the print the performance", then today's digital captures are the score the the digital software the instrument of performance. Let's return to the image I used yesterday and look at it in a B&W version of the enhanced (right) side. The original RAW image was first converted to grayscale in Camera Raw, then "adjusted" using a piece of software called Silver Efex Pro2 to get the final output. I first increased the overall contrast and fine detail, then did some small selective fine detail manipulation, added a thin black border, and completed the work by applying a slight vignette to force your eye to the shell in the middle. Nikon D300s; Aperture Priority; 18 - 200; ISO 200; 1/100 sec @ f / 5.6.

27 Jul 12. Back to another B&W white image for today. This time I was working to see if, by removing the distraction of color, I could place everything on an even keel so to speak, and draw your attention immediately to the stamen and pistol. To further control where your eye travels, I've added a very subtle vignette to keep your eyes from wandering at the edges. I've also attempted to bring out the very detailed surface of the leaves and petals of the plant while at the same time using a very fine grain paper simulation in order to not have the image appear noisy. And I've obviously put a couple pixel white border around the entire image. The one thing I don't like about how this all turned out is how the conversion handled the light fall off on top the large petal on the left side of the flower. I need to learn how to deal with this kind of stuff and when I do I'll share the technique; I have an approach in mind. Nikon D300s; Aperture Priority; 105 macro; ISO 200; 1/500 sec @ f/11.

28 Jul 12. Something fun for today. While preparing meals for the reptiles, Maggie, ever vigilant dog that she is, went to the sun room and began barking her fool head off. I decided I'd better have a look to see what all the commotion was about and it turned out to be a set of Black Tail fawns. They looked to be about a month old and still had a few of their spots. I shut Maggie out so she would stop barking, grabbed the camera, and quietly went through the bedroom out onto the deck to attempt a few portrait shots. Didn't get any portraits, but several full body shots of which a couple proved interesting. It being a very dark morning, the fawns constantly in movement, and me not quite as steady as I would have liked, the images didn't turn out as sharp as I wanted, but still good enough to share one of them. Here is the male and he is showing a rather bloated belly; looks like he swallowed a beach ball. I'm not sure if this is a normal thing or if there is something wrong with him, but either way, here he is. Bet he makes you smile. Nikon D300s; Aperture Priority; 18 - 200; ISO 400; 1/125 sec @ f/ 7.1.

30 Jul 12. While the cherubs were visiting last week we had an opportunity to take in a reasonably low tide and ventured out to Foulweather Bluff to see what might be easily visible. There wasn't a lot there save for a bunch of shells which they weren't all that interested in but we did see a couple of large circular jellyfish that had been stranded on the beach. The sun had already baked one but another was still "kicking" so we carefully scooped it up with a piece of driftwood and returned it to the water. That was about the peak of the adventure, although on the walk out a young couple passed us and, having a handful of Sand Dollars, gave each girl one which pleased them both. As we were leaving the beach and returning to the trail back to where we were parked I noticed a small grouping of Madrona leaves pleasantly arranged in the sand and I grabbed a couple of shots. I like the way this one turned out and share it as an example of Fall in the Summer. Nikon D300s; Aperture Priority; 18 - 200; ISO 200; 1/400 sec @ f / 9.

31 Jul 12. While "making hay" last Saturday evening - we finished around 2130 putting away about 360 bales - a neighbor was doing a bit of slash and burning rendering the skies full of lots of particulate matter more commonly referred to as smoke. But where photography is concerned, it is a lot of material that drastically affects the way light behaves. Pictures shot through stuff come out looking pretty drab, but, as I'll demonstrate today and tomorrow, you can actually put the stuff to use. For the resultant image today, I did the following in the order described. The goal here was to take a rather blah starting point and convert it to what the eye/brain was interpreting. So, starting with a grouping of five shots, one "properly" exposed and the other four over and under exposed by 1 stop each, two in each direction, I put them together into a HDR base image which was then exported out into a graphics editing piece of software. From within that piece of software I used a plug-in to increase the structure overall which has the effect of minimizing the softening caused by the smoke, then within the same plug-in did some localized color enhancement to return the blue of the sky that was originally there and remove some purple flair. Then I used another plug-in to remove the "apparent" noise, caused by the structure step earlier, from the sky. Finally I created a dodge/burn layer to selectively dodge and burn in individual area of the image, the most important of which was to place a dark band around the four sides to force your eyes into the image. Nightfall was beginning to creep up on us when I took this close to 2000. Nikon D300s; Aperture Priority; 18-200; ISO 200; 1/1250 sec (middle of 5 images) @ f/ 9.