Kasbah

Fortified villages with their magnificent views made me breathless. Of course there are many in Morocco, but Ait ben Haddou is the most beautiful and it is included in Unesco world heritage.
Many movies and other spots were made near this site.

That part of Morocco is like a movie studio outside as there are many places similar to some famous sites, but their only purpose is using to record movies. One such example is a Kasbah which is just 10 miles away from Ait ben Haddou. 

 Both images were shot during golden hour, first just after sunrise and second just after sunset. 

All in Passion for HDR!
Greetings from Slovenia!
Samo Trebižan  

More photos available for purchase in my galleries!

Again at alpine lake in northern Italy

Another shot from Predil lake, hour was still very early, but few steps in each direction opened new magnificent views of little lake!

Final results were worth of night without sleep, but there was still few hours of driving home, which were not the prettiest, as I was very tired. But at the end the final result counts.

All in Passion for HDR!
Greetings from Slovenia!
Samo Trebižan  

More photos available for purchase in my galleries!

Early spring morning on Predil lake

Cloudy sky over Predil lake in northern Italy. The night travel toward this small glacier lake was payed with some great early morning HDR photos of the lake. 

After four hours drive I was on lakes beach at 4:30am.

In tomorrows post I'll post some more photos of Predil lake and its beautiful little island.

All in Passion for HDR!
Greetings from Slovenia!
Samo Trebižan  

More photos available for purchase in my galleries!

Turn around

I was hoping to repeat the previous trip and to make some great HDRs, but shortly after start I realized that places I was headed to were in severe storms. I turned around and went to another location to mount Nanos where I had this spectacular view of st. Jerome church on the mountain and Vipava valley.

Some times it is good to give up first plans and use backup.

All in Passion for HDR!
Greetings from Slovenia!
Samo Trebižan  

More photos available for purchase in my galleries!

The trip

Sometimes the trip is the purpose.

Yesterday as weather was horrible I took the trip to a mountain plateau just to discover new spots worth of taking photos. 

I drove for about 4 hours and made a 100 miles lap, I wasn't very fast driver though. 

All the time there was a hard rain so I could not leave the car, but I spotted some great spots to photograph and I ll repeat the trip few times till the end of May, because those places were so beautiful you cant imagine. 

So scouting for places is also a part of photography, especially if you don't want to hang on some place waiting for golden hour or coming to a place too late. 

All in Passion for HDR!
Greetings from Slovenia!
Samo Trebižan  

More photos available for purchase in my galleries!

Ancient bridge in Vipava

I really like bridges... of course only old and beautiful ones. Yesterday as I had few minutes of time I went to one that I saw last weekend and It impressed me.

For shots like this fishing boots will be necessary as we must go to middle of the river. And check the depth of water before plunging in.

I had some doubts about quality of image as river flow was pretty strong and tripod was shaking a bit, but image turned out very good and sharp, even though exposure times were long.

As I was waiting for streetlights to turn on some clouds slided over sky and made the shot even more interesting.

All in Passion for HDR!
Greetings from Slovenia!
Samo Trebižan  

More photos available for purchase in my galleries!

Castle in spring

I went back to Rihemberk castle now as everything is green. All the environment is really beautiful and fresh, but trees growing from walls and windows of castle are anouncing further degradation of this beautiful and mighti building. 

I went out two days in a row and first day I had to run just before storm, the second day i didnt get a chance to run and I got preety wer :)

All in Passion for HDR!
Greetings from Slovenia!
Samo Trebižan  

More photos available for purchase in my gallerys!

Romantic ruins on ancient salt pans

Ancient Salt pans in Sečovlje (eastern part of Slovenian coast) are really great area for good photography. At golden hours they turn into magical area of sky colors and reflections in canals.

 All in Passion for HDR!
Greetings from Slovenia!
Samo Trebižan 

Miracles of underworld

This time I choose omages from cave sistem in Rakov Škocjan, where river Rak flows partly outside and it vaneshes in cave sistems of Slovenian Carst.

The Rak natural preserve is a great place for shooting stunning shots.

The place has direct sunlight only at mid day, so it is almost always great location for creating, but you can imagine dinamic range variation between open shadow and in cave area, so HDR is perfect for great shots.

 

All in Passion for HDR!
Greetings from Slovenia!
Samo Trebižan 

Sad story of ancient beauty...

This castle has a sad story... in fact nobody cares about it and it is slowly becoming a ruin. It is the most beautiful medieval castle in Slovenia and I hope somebody will take action to preserve it!

This three HDRS were taken just moments before storm... in fact I had to run with camera and tripod into my car as soon as I take the last shot...

This spring I plan to get a shot of this beautiful castle when trees will be green...

All in Passion for HDR!
Greetings from Slovenia!
Samo Trebižan 

Stone giant

A bridge near by, is very beautiful, but the fact that it has the longest stone arch on the world gives it a speciall dimension... I took this photo just minutes before I took a photo of electricity plant iluminated with lights in previous post...

This is an exception and defenetly not a rule! Mostly when you will be outside at golden hour, you will have opportunity for only one good shot. Relocating lasts too long to get on another location on time to take another good shot!

All in Passion for HDR!
Greetings from Slovenia!
Samo Trebižan 

Value of timing...

As with any photography the timing is the most important aspect of outdoor HDR photography. With different times of day or even year the images get totally different feeling.

I am posting two photos of hydro electric power plant photographed from very similar location.

The first image is taken on a cloudy spring afternoon just after storm.

The second one is taken at dusk in late winter...

There is just a little difference... 

All in Passion for HDR!
Greetings from Slovenia!
Samo Trebižan 

Path to spring

Ok I cant wait warmer times, spring and summer. May this road lead strait to those warmer times and nature full of colors...

 
All in Passion for HDR!

Greetings from Slovenia!
Samo Trebižan 

Water and HDR

When I am shooting water, I want that silky mood and soft water. 

The best 00Ev time for HDRing water is 10 sec. 

I know it is only twice per day that there is low enough light to do that. 

In that case times in HDR components are between 2,5 sec and 30 sec.

And I don't use any filters...


All in Passion for HDR!
Greetings from Slovenia!
Samo Trebižan 

 

Reflection

At any time you have a chance to shoot a reflection on water, window, or any other reflective material, make a picture. This is one case when composing in center of image is good.

There is a lot of crowds infront of Porto city hall during a day, so I went back at night and take this photo. 

All in Passion for HDR!
Greetings from Slovenia!
Samo Trebižan 

 

Back to porto...

As there are some bridges in recent posts, lets continue in this manner.
I am back in my trip to Porto - Portugal.

It is very spectacular city built on steep banks of Douro river just before mouth of the river into Atlantic ocean. With its five bridges it offers many options for spectacular images. 

 
All in Passion for HDR!
Greetings from Slovenia!
Samo Trebižan 

 

Nikon D7100 announced

New Nikon D7100 is announced. It will be available in second half of March. As I had Nikon D7000 and it is really great tool I cant wait to test Nikon D7100. 

New features of new model are a 24mpi sensor and 51 poind focus. 

I will write more about new camera as soon as I get it in my hands!

Here is an HDR image created with D7000. 

We will compare it with a D7100 image!

More posts about Porto in future days.

All in Passion for HDR!
Greetings from Slovenia!
Samo Trebižan 

Porto at dusk...

Two years ago I visited Porto in Portugal. As always on travels I tried to make as much good photos as possible. For this particular image I arrived to a location just a bit too late and I had a bit too dark sky. A bit more detail would do better, but I was pleased with the Image anyway.

Porto is a very spectacular city for anyone who loves to make good images! This shot was taken from a fort just above Dom Luis Bridge and Douro river.

More posts about Porto in future days.

All in Passion for HDR!
Greetings from Slovenia!
Samo Trebižan 

What about books...

Actually I read only one book on HDR topics and it was very good. It covered all the topics that photographer needs to get started in HDR.

The book is Trey Ratcliffs  A World in HDR available for $30 at Amazon.

This book is definitly worth of the money. Author takes us through entire process of making great HDR photos! So for anybody who is getting started and wants to upgrade knowledge about HDR, I recommend this book.

All in Passion for HDR!
Greetings from Slovenia!
Samo Trebižan 

 

Almost no light...

In some extreme conditions when we are in very low light, we might have only option one shot HDR. If the correct exposure goes over 10 sec there won't be option to bracket +-2EV. We work on lowest ISO for lowest noise and record a RAW file.

I had such case when I was shooting entrance to Planinska cave. Only dim light came from entrance behind the corner. I took one 30sec exposure at ISO200 with Nikon D700 camera and in Lightroom I made 3 exposures. There was so dark in cave that I didn't see anything with my eyes and I had great troubles with focus.

This is the cave shot that came out.

All in Passion for HDR!  
Greetings from Slovenia!  
Samo Trebižan 

 

Ancient cave castle in Predjama...

Five images merged into one HDR of castle which stands on cave entrance and has an interesting story to tell.

The castle is great at any time of the year and in any weather. I was there two years ago at the end of winter.

All in Passion for HDR! Greetings from Slovenia! Samo Trebižan 
 

Carnival was not totaly successful

As the masks should banish the winter, I guess the carnival was not totaly successful!
Here is a winter story HDR!

All in Passion for HDR!
Greetings from Slovenia!
Samo Trebižan 

Invisible things will blow out

When making HDR it is very important to have really clean sensor and no dust or any other dirt on lens. Any dirt that is not really visible on normal image will pop out on HDR and you will need some additional work to get rid of it. 

All in Passion for HDR!
Greetings from Slovenia!
Samo Trebižan