Attended a day long Nature Photography workshop today...

[Quicklabs]

I learned so much! I loved using my new tripod to capture some macros.
This gentleman was the presenter. Very talented, very passionate about his work, very humble and a terrific teacher
http://jimcrotty.com/page3/aboutjimcrottyphotograper.html

I'll never look at a dark cloudy day and bemoan that I can't go out and shoot. It is actually terrific light.

Anyway, here's some of what I shot today. I'll be sending these off to Jim for critique later this weekend, since we never got around to that part. Nine hours just flew by! If anyone has CC, I'd love to hear it.

I was glad to finally get some good info on how to use the HDR technique. I may need to buy Photomatix (ignore the watermark if you can).

This river birch bark really caught my eye

Old wagon hitches look best in black and white, I think.

And finally-- Tah-dah!!--A drop of water! LOL

Anyway, he'll be doing these types of classes regularly, and I'm looking forward to the next one.

 

[annnewjerz]

So glad to see you enjoyed your workshop and gave your tripod a workout. Really like the shot of the bark and the amount of texture in the photo.

How did you find using photomatix? I haven't tried yet (although I have shot some bracketed series). I think it just scares me a little. I'm hoping that I can utilize bracketing more while we're in WDW and process my first HDRs when I get back.

 

[Quicklabs]

You definitely need to try it. Have you downloaded the free trial yet?

So glad to see you enjoyed your workshop and gave your tripod a workout.

How did you find using photomatix? I haven't tried yet (although I have shot some bracketed series). I think it just scares me a little. I'm hoping that I can utilize bracketing more while we're in WDW and process my first HDRs when I get back.

 

[annnewjerz]

You definitely need to try it. Have you downloaded the free trial yet?

Nope. Got a book on HDR that I read first and got so intimidated that I just put it on the back burner for the time being. What I did shoot bracketed is nothing that interesting---but maybe I'll use them just to get a feel for the program so processing pictures from The World is easier.

 

[VVFF]

Anyone know if Photomatix is color managed yet? Last time I used it it wasn't and that's a deal breaker for me.

 

[My2Girls66]

Great shots!

 

[boBQuincy]

Anyone know if Photomatix is color managed yet? Last time I used it it wasn't and that's a deal breaker for me.

From Photomatix Pro 3.2 FAQ:

How does your software handle color profiles?
Photomatix processes the RGB values of your source images directly, without converting them to another color space. This means that the resulting images produced by Photomatix will be in the same color space as the one specified by the ICC color profile of your source images.
When a color profile for the source images is available, Photomatix embeds it into the resulting tone mapped or combined image.
Please note, though, that in the case of a tone mapped image, the color profile can only be passed through if the Generate HDR and Tone Mapping steps are done in the same session. If you have first saved the HDR image file, then the ICC profile information will be lost and the Tone Mapping step won't know the color profile anymore. This means that you will have to assign the color profile of the original source images to the tone mapped image yourself.
However, since version 3.0, Photomatix Pro saves the name of the color profile in the header of the HDR image file when this is saved as Radiance (.hdr extension). This means you will not have to re-assign the color profile, provided the HDR image file has been saved as Radiance and the color profile is either sRGB, Adobe RGB or ProPhoto RGB.
Additionally, Photomatix Pro is color managed for the display as well. This means it will show the correct color values based on the ICC profile of the image and the color profile set as display profile for your monitor.
On Mac OS X, the display profile is set under System Preferences->Displays->Color.
On Windows, it is under Settings->Control Panel->Display->Settings->Advanced->Color Management.

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

Very nice photos! Were all of these taken using your Sigma 150mm lens? I really liked the photo with the tree bark and the water droplet.

 

[Quicklabs]

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Very nice photos! Were all of these taken using your Sigma 150mm lens? I really liked the photo with the tree bark and the water droplet.

 

[Evad]

Very nice Laura!! Really like the the wagon hitch pic. The b/w is perfect on that shot. And I agree I think some of my best shots have been on cloudy days.

 

[boBQuincy]

I really like the 2nd birch bark photo, it opens up like pages of a book and draws you in.

I was glad to finally get some good info on how to use the HDR technique. I may need to buy Photomatix (ignore the watermark if you can).

Once you try HDR for high range scenes like waterfalls and night photos it is very difficult to go back to just one exposure, without HDR so much seems to be (and is) missing! If you are a student Photomatix has a *very* good student discount.